Uh…maybe? Probably…but not really. With Eric Bieniemy heading to UCLA and the collegiate level, there’s A LOT of people widely claiming that he deserves an NFL head coaching job no matter what!
He’s been a really good coordinator…but does he really deserve a head coaching job?
Despite having one of the worst offenses in the NFL last season and losing the bet on himself, Eric Bieniemy is getting the yearly calls for him being anointed with all the NFL heading coaching jobs in the league. And, to be honest, I really don’t see why Bieniemy keeps being given these endless, obnoxious outcries.
Now, I don’t want to this article to make it seem like I don’t like Bieniemy or that I don’t think he deserves a head coaching job as that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only do I think that Bieniemy is a great coordinator under the correct circumstances, but I know that he has the capabilities of calling Super Bowl-caliber offenses. Why? It’s because he’s done so twice in the past.
So, my issue is not with Bieniemy or anything like that, but rather with the crazy media hype around him. I truly believe that one of the biggest reasons why Bieniemy hasn’t been given a head coaching job or a big-time offensive coordinator gig is due to the media’s incessant and borderline crazy obsession with the poor guy. I get there’s real sentiment of goodwill for Bieniemy to be given a head coaching job for his track record (which is perfectly fine), but I fear a sizeable portion of the attention around him is coming from ulterior motives that don’t truly give a damn about the man.
Regardless, the question about “Does Eric Bieniemy ACTUALLY Deserve A Head Coaching Job?” is actually far more interesting of a discussion than people may have you believe.
First off, Bieniemy as the Chiefs coordinator was one of the best in all of football as he not only had Top-5 offenses in points scored and yards gained in each of his 5 seasons as the coordinator (and he had Top-5 offenses in both of these categories in three seasons), but also helped develop Patrick Mahomes into a regular season and Super Bowl MVP-caliber quarterback (and a future 1st ballot HOFer), Tyreek Hill into a future Hall of Fame quarterback, and Travis Kelce into a Hall of Fame-caliber tight end.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that the Chiefs won 5 straight division titles, made 5 straight AFC championship games, reached 3 Super Bowls, and won 2 of them. Pretty good, right?
Well…he didn’t have the same success in Washington.
If Bieniemy just waited out his time in Kansas City as the OC or even took a year off from coaching, then I’d guarantee you he’d have a head coaching position at either the NFL or collegiate level.
But he didn’t. He took a huge gamble on himself by accepting the Washington Commanders offensive coordinator job this past season, which has pretty much turned into his career death sentence in the NFL.
The Commanders had a terrible season last year with EB as their OC as they finished 4-13 (their worst record in 5 season), dead last in their division, had the 25th ranked total points scored offense, the 24th ranked total yards gained offense, and Sam Howell had a less than impressive season with 3,946 passing yards, 21 touchdowns, and 21 interceptions.
But what makes this past season look really bad for EB is not that the Commanders regressed offensively under him, but rather that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl without him.
Sure, they had their worst offensive season since 2016 (they had the 15th ranked total points scored offense and 9th ranked passing yards offense), but the Chiefs had a far worse receiving core that just couldn’t catch the ball even if their lives depended on it for the entire regular season. But when they could catch the ball, they won four straight games as underdogs, beat the three hottest teams in the NFL in the postseason, and saw Patrick Mahomes put up an MVP-worthy performance in a thrilling 25-22 Super Bowl win.
And this all happened under Matt Nagy as he OC.
So, yeah, it’s very much in question whether or not Eric Bieniemy had such a massive role in the success of the Chiefs dynasty that he deserves his own head coaching gig. It’s clear that Bieniemy had a big role, but was so great that he singlehandedly turned the Chiefs into a dynasty as many of his fanatics in the media would suggest?
I would think so, but it’s not so clear cut.
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