Eric Bieniemy seems destined to stay with Chiefs another season

At this point, it feels safe to say that Eric BIeniemy is going to be back for another season.

Fair or not, it has become an annual tradition for the rest of the league to overlook Bieniemy as a head coaching candidate, a sort of Cinderella waiting for the ball scenario in which a qualified candidate—in this case, the Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator—gets passed over time and again.

This is the fourth year in which Bieniemy is clearly available and interested in taking over his own team and yet every other NFL franchise has shaken their collective heads. Other offseasons have at least featured several more interviews, but this year was particularly insulting because only one team came calling despite the number of head coach openings in 2021-22.

The Denver Broncos were the only team this time around to officially show an interest in Bieniemy, which in itself is a telling sign. Either other teams have already taken a close look at him in past interviews (which shows their failed attempts to find a head coach circling back around in some sort of karmic activity) or word has gotten out in some way against hiring Bieniemy.

Eric Bieniemy seems destined to stay with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022.

Either way, the Broncos surveyed 10 total head coaching candidates and brought it down to three finalists: Dan Quinn, Kevin O’Connell, and Nathaniel Hackett. The latter, a former offensive coordinator with the Green Bay Packers, won the job.

From there, other teams didn’t even give Bieniemy a second look, which has to sting coming from a couple of places in particular.

First, the Chicago Bears hired former Chiefs executive Ryan Poles to be their new general manager. Despite his familiarity with Bieniemy (or perhaps because of it?), Poles went on to interview 11 names with Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus winning the job. That said, it’s possible Poles wasn’t in charge here given the timing involved and didn’t have full say or ultimate authority in the process of whom he’d be working with.

We should also note that the Bears deserve a free pass for having just fired a former Chiefs offensive assistant in Matt Nagy. No matter what Bieniemy’s resume says, the optics in Chicago for Bears fans would be horrible if they went back to that well. We get it.

Second, the Minnesota Vikings were the first NFL home in terms of Bieniemy’s coaching career, and he was even an assistant head coach for the team back in 2010. They were coming off of a run with Mike Zimmer as head coach, a strong defensive mind, and it made sense for Bieniemy to go back there. In fact, oddsmakers in Vegas made him the favorite shortly after they let Zimmer walk.

Unfortunately, the Vikings have gone on to interview 10 men not named Eric Bieniemy with rumors of Jim Harbaugh flying in as well. Beyond the Michigan head coach, the Vikes have already moved on to second interviews with Dan Quinn and O’Connell. Bieniemy is clearly not in view here.

The same can be said for openings with the New York Giants, who have already concluded that Brian Daboll is their man, and still-available head coach openings for the Miami Dolphins, Jacksonville Jaguars, Houston Texans, New Orleans Saints, and Las Vegas Raiders. Each of those has favorites attached to them and/or has yet to reach out to Bieniemy despite being well into their interview process.