There’s quite a bit of smoke coming from the Washington Redskins camp these days indicating serious interest in Eric Bieniemy of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Eric Bieniemy was likely going to be a hot commodity on the coaching search, but it might not take him long for a new opportunity to emerge if the smoke out of the nation’s capital is linked to a very real fire. For the second time since the team fired Jay Gruden in October, Bieniemy’s name has been linked with the Washington Redskins—this time by NFL reporter Benjamin Allbright.
Bieniemy, the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, is the likeliest coach from the team’s staff to take flight to a new head coaching position this offseason. Other teams have raided the Chiefs offensive staff quite often—most recently Doug Pedersen to the Philadelphia Eagles and Matt Nagy to the Chicago Bears—and Bieniemy should be next in line.
While he’s never been a head coach on any level, Bieniey has several years of experience alongside Andy Reid with the Chiefs—six to be exact. He spent the first four years as the team’s running backs coach before being promoted to offensive coordinator (replacing Nagy) in 2018. He was interviewed by the New York Jets last offseason and received interest from as many as four teams, but nothing materialized.
Washington, who is also linked with Stanford head coach David Shaw, installed Bill Callahan as interim head coach and will be looking for someone who can help the offense turn the corner. Bieniemy might be able to do just that, but he will also need to be wary of the toxic leadership culture at work under (and including) Dan Snyder. Can that be ignored or corrected? Is it worth it for the sake of a head coaching opportunity? Both sides have questions to answer, but it sounds as if there’s interest coming from some source to promote a potential link.