Kliff Kingsbury’s hiring Sunday was an unofficial confirmation that Eric Bieniemy would not be back in DC, and we got the all but official one Monday when Dan Quinn wished EB well and said, ‘we won’t be working together here.’
So then, after one year in DC and no head coaching interviews this cycle…what’s next for EB?
“I don’t think he’s going to be an OC in the NFL – all those jobs are getting plucked pretty quick,” Bish said, as the guys posited maybe another AHC gig, or an offensive consultant/analyst passing or running game coordinator deal.
“I think there's a good chance he ends up back in Kansas City next season,” JP replied. “They’ll give him a title. He was with Kansas City before and he'll come back just like Matt Nagy did. It's what happens – these guys, they get a shot and then they go back to their strong head coach.”
As Cakes noted, though, it seemed like a lot of Commanders weren’t upset when the Kingsbury news broke.
“I believe Brian Robinson and Johan Dotson both posted about it, and there was no ‘wow, we're really gonna miss Eric Bieniemy,” Cakes said. “There was no mention of Bieniemy whatsoever. I think a lot of the players frankly are happy to see him go. Now, are, are those guys soft, and did they contribute to a four-win campaign? I'm not gonna call them soft, but they were on a team that won four games, so maybe they needed some toughening up, some tough love, which is what Bieniemy was bringing to them, so maybe they bristled at that.”
“Think about the collegiate cultures some of those players came from, though - Brian Robinson was Saban and Terry McLaurin was Ohio State,” Bish replied. “Some of these guys grew up in that tough environment, and it’s not like every single player disliked him. We heard that from some of the players, but it just didn’t work for whatever reason. I’m sure he's a very good coach, but he needs somewhere else to go.”
JP isn’t sure about a KC return, pointing to Tampa Bay as an example of one team that just hired on OC out of college and has a staff to fill out, and could use a vet like Bieniemy if he’s willing to take a positional assistant role – and did note he talked to the Raiders, who hired Luke Getsy as their OC, but maybe a positional assistant there?
EB thinks ‘he'd be a home run in college,’ and maybe a return to his alma mater to work under Deion is in the works? Time will tell, but you can listen to the Junks’ entire discussion above!