Eric Bieniemy mentioned among initial Broncos head coaching candidates

Kansas City Chiefs’ offensive coordinator is once again front and center when it comes to NFL head coaching rumors for another year.

Just in case you thought Eric Bieniemy’s time had run its course as a prime head coaching candidate (somehow without ever having gotten a job), you can rest assured his name will be bandied about once again. That’s at least what we’re seeing in the early rumor cycles of names associated with the Denver Broncos.

On Monday, the Broncos made official what rumors have been provoking for weeks and fired first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett. The Hackett era was a complete disaster from the first weeks of the regular season, and after the defense allowed the Rams to put up 50 points on them over the weekend, enough was enough.

Now the Broncos move forward with a head coach opening and a serious question mark as to who might even want the job. After all, the Broncos are down significant draft assets to rebuild, owe exorbitant amounts of money to Russell Wilson for years to come, and still have the questionable work of George Paton leading the front office.

Still, some familiar names were immediately “being discussed” for the role of Broncos head coach, per NFL reporter Josina Anderson, and Bieniemy was among them.

Bieniemy is wrapping up his 10th year with the Chiefs this season, and he’s served as an offensive coordinator for one half of that decade—an eternity in the coordinator realms.

At this point, Bieniemy has interviewed with half of all NFL franchises for a head coaching role at least once and some teams have had him in for two separate hiring sessions (e.g. the New York Jets). At this point it’s far too early to know if the Broncos are serious about Bieniemy or whether this is just insider talk spurting out the most obvious names, but it’s good for EB to still be included in this lot.