Eric Bieniemy lost his bet on himself

Since the 2019 offseason, 26 head coaches have been hired (27 if you count Josh McDaniels’ 4 hours with the Colts), some of them more than once. None of them were former Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. There are a few reasons why. One may be that he is black, of those 26 head coaching hires only seven were a minority.

One may be that Bieniemy has a troubled past. As a player at the University of Colorado and then early in his career as an NFL player, Bieniemy was ticketed, issued a warrant for, or arrested multiple times for speeding, fighting, assaulting a firefighter, and assaulting a parking attendant. As a coach at Colorado he was arrested for a DUI and part of a recruiting staff that enticed recruits with booze and strippers at parties, at which multiple women say they were raped.

One may be his coaching, or lack there of. Up until this season, his entire NFL offensive coordinator resume was “occasionally called plays for Patrick Mahomes.” That’s not a very compelling argument, but then neither is “went 12-13 with Patrick Mahomes in college” yet Kliff Kingsbury got a head coaching job.

After five seasons the Chiefs offensive coordinator, Bieniemy realized that in order to move up in the world, he was going to have to move out of Kansas City. In the offseason six teams hired play calling offensive coordinators who weren’t promoted from within or had previously worked for the head coach, the best that it seemed Bieniemy could do was get a job under Ron Rivera, who enters the season on the hot seat for both merit reasons and due to new ownership; and coaching a first year starter who was a 5th round draft pick the year before in Sam Howell. That probably says a lot about what the rest of the league thought of Bieniemy. But he had no choice, he had to bet on himself.

He’s already lost that bet.

The Commanders offense is not just bad, it is a mess. The “highlight” is that Sam Howell is on pace to shatter the sack record. A good or bad sack rate is inherent in a QB, but to have a historically bad one you need some help. The Commanders offensive line is not helping things, but Bieniemy seems unwilling or unable to help his young QB who is not Patrick Mahomes with his coaching.