Why lateral step may be best for Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy

Stop us if you’ve heard this one: For at least the 15th time in the last four years, Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Sunday interviewed for an NFL head coaching job.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that this particular meeting, with the New Orleans Saints, lasted eight hours. That certainly suggested it was a substantial conversation and that Bieniemy was a true contender for the ninth and last such job to be filled in this year’s coaching tilt-a-whirl.

On Monday, though, the Saints announced they’d hired Dennis Allen, whose resume includes having been the team’s incumbent defensive coordinator and … an 8-28 record as an NFL head coach in two-plus seasons with the Raiders.

Going with a retread or not, like 14 or more teams before, the Saints surely have plausible reasons for bypassing Bieniemy that have nothing to do with him being a Black man. In this case, that decision in part seems to include seeking a certain level of continuity in the wake of Sean Payton stepping away from his job.

Moreover, it should be noted that the Houston Texans hired Lovie Smith, a Black man who like Allen has been an NFL head coach and was promoted from defensive coordinator. And the Miami Dolphins hired Mike McDaniel, the 38-year-old (now former) San Francisco49ers offensive coordinator who identifies as multi-racial.

Yet that still leaves the NFL with five men of color and just two Black men among its 32 head-coaching positions in a league in which 70% of the players are Black.

That’s fundamentally a disgrace, one amplified by the appalling allegations in the recent lawsuit brought by former Dolphins coach Brian Flores.

But in the case of Bieniemy, it seems more complicated and nuanced than might be reflexively presumed.

Because even if the cumulative picture of Bieniemy’s status is absurd and distressing, you can no more dismiss racism in each decision, even on a subconscious level, than assume it in each.

Perhaps underscoring the complexity of his candidacy, new Chicago Bears general manager and former Chiefs executive Ryan Poles, who is Black, didn’t interview Bieniemy for the vacancy he recently inherited and filled with Matt Eberflus.

(In his new job in Chicago, Poles was handed a list of three coaching finalists submitted by a five-person committee, but was given the “latitude” to expand the search, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.)

There are any number of valid reasons Poles wanted Eberflus, of course. And perhaps Bieniemy would have been an awkward sell in the aftermath of the fired Matt Nagy — who was hired by the Bears after being Andy Reid’s offensive coordinator in Kansas City.

But it still makes for another point of curiosity about why a man publicly endorsed by current and former players has not been selected to lead a team of his own.

No, the matter of race can’t be sifted away from this. But logic would dictate that it’s not purely as simple as just that when other Black men, albeit few, have been hired in this span.

As for what else could be at play with Bieniemy, we’d only be guessing. But we have a hunch about something he could address that we’ll come back to shortly.

Because what’s the 52-year-old Bieniemy to do about it now?

Particularly since the one-year contract he signed with the Chiefs after Super Bowl LV expires this month.

Our possible solution is not fair, you could say. Not in a perfect world. But it’s not a perfect world, and this is about how to try to break up a logjam.

At this point of having done the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results — a definition of insanity — this could be the best way for Bieniemy to proceed:

Be willing and ready to leave the Chiefs and go perform the same job for another NFL team.

And the Chiefs should help him do that.

Mostly because a lateral step now could reconfigure his chances of a giant leap later.

This is why: It’s a widely held perception that this offense is blueprinted and animated by Reid, not Bieniemy, whose role gets murky in the collaborative nature of play design and vagueness over who calls what plays when.

Any potential employer has to wonder how much of what we’ve seen is Bieniemy’s craft and how much is carrying out the vision of Reid, long understood to be an innovator.

Moreover, when you consider that Bieniemy’s four seasons as offensive coordinator have coincided with Patrick Mahomes’ four sensational seasons as QB1, it’s reasonable to wonder what begins and ends where.

It’s also true that this sort of burden of proof is something few, if any, with Bieniemy’s credentials have had to bear.

For instance, we might well speculate as to why those same questions didn’t prevent Doug Pederson and Nagy from getting head-coaching jobs from out of the same role.

Just the same, that doesn’t seem to be a path that will hold for Bieniemy.

Out from Reid’s considerable shadow in another OC job, though, he could erase any doubts about his own imprint and have more opportunity to distinguish himself.

Maybe that would be win-win for the Chiefs, too.

Because we’ve certainly wondered if Reid could benefit from some new voices and ideas after this uneven season. We’ve even wondered if there was some disconnect between Reid and Bieniemy that factored into the Chiefs’ offensive collapse against the Cincinnati Bengals after halftime of the AFC Championship Game.

In any organization, after all, there’s a fine line between a groove and a rut. In fact, the Chiefs arguably could benefit from coordinator changes on both sides of the ball. Fresh energy and perspective might be vital.

Bieniemy would be missed. But there would be no shortage of prime candidates for the job under Reid, even with quarterbacks coach Mike Kafka having left to become the New York Giants’ offensive coordinator.

Lest we understated this point, something looks and feels broken when it comes to this notion as the most viable option forward for Bieniemy. And we’ll reiterate the undercurrent bubbling beneath all of this:

Whatever the reasons for franchises hiring others over Bieniemy each and every time, it’s impossible to reject race as a lurking factor in the lack of opportunity for a Black man who has been central in engineering one of the most dynamic offenses in the NFL the last four years.

Especially considering Pederson and Nagy went on to head-coaching jobs after three and two years, respectively.

Especially when framed against the assertions of Flores in his class-action lawsuit against the NFL and three teams alleging racial discrimination, allegations that include saying he was offered bonuses to “tank” games for the Dolphins for better draft position, and that the New York Giants and Denver conducted “sham” interviews with him.

For that matter, pages 45 and 46 of the 58-page document are about Bieniemy in a section subtitled, “Eric Bieniemy Cannot Get A Head Coach Job,” and summed up thusly:

“Without question, Mr. Bieniemy has the pedigree, track record and reputation to make him a sought-after Head Coach. However, despite being interviewed for approximately 20 vacant positions over the last five years, no team has extended Mr. Bieniemy an offer.”

When will that change?

At this stage, it’s hard to envision it happening even if he returns to the Chiefs and they win the Super Bowl next year with the best offense in NFL history.

For Bieniemy’s sake, here’s hoping he gets offered and takes another offensive coordinator job.

Because this annual exercise has become entirely too predictable, and it’s time for a new approach for all concerned … distasteful as it might seem that it has come to this.