The Eagles hired Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni as head coach after spending about two weeks on their search.
They apparently hired the 39-year-old without even bothering to take the necessary steps to speak to a candidate who, by all measures, should have been the most sought-after candidate on the market: Eric Bieniemy.
Bieniemy is the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, who are in a position to win their second Lombardi in a row on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Beiniemy coaches the league’s best offense and has played a pivotal role in developing Patrick Mahomes, the 10th-overall pick in the 2016 draft who has emerged as one of the best to ever play his position even though he is still just 25 years old.
Mahomes has publicly advocated for Bieniemy to get a head coaching job.
Sounds like a no-brainer interview, right? Well, apparently not. At least in the case of the Eagles, anyway.
Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid told reporters on Wednesday that the Eagles, his former team, didn’t even reach out to the Chiefs to schedule a formal interview for Bieniemy, per Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
While it was reported that the #Eagles had wanted to interview Chiefs OC Eric Bienemy, Chiefs HC Andy Reid said that a formal request was never made by the team.
— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) February 3, 2021
This was after it was reported that the Eagles did reach out to the Chiefs to get permission to interview their offensive coordinator a couple of weeks ago.
Just mentioned on @nflnetwork the #Eagles have requested permission to interview Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy for their vacant head-coaching job, sources say. TBD when the interview will occur because KC is alive.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) January 16, 2021
Apparently, that never happened! At least, according to Reid’s side of the story.
Obviously, there would’ve been a waiting period for the interview because the Chiefs were still playing in the postseason. But it’s not out of the ordinary for teams to wait to interview head-coaching candidates on playoff teams.
Beyond that, many of the supposed slights against Bieniemy — that he doesn’t call plays and works for a head coach who is an offensive mastermind — apply to Sirianni, too.
We have no idea what happened here. There seems to have been some sort of miscommunication along the way in this process.
Either way, though, it’s not a great look. Not for the Eagles nor the NFL. Bieniemy is long overdue for his shot at a head coaching gig. Things like this just shouldn’t happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V09dfjIiM6g