Report: Panthers scheduled to meet with Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy on Thursday

The Panthers will meet with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Thursday, according to a report by Josina Anderson at ESPN.

The Panthers will meet with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Thursday, according to a report by Josina Anderson at ESPN.

Bieniemy’s team secured a first-round bye in the playoffs thanks to their locking up the No. 2 seed, so he’s free to interview for jobs this week. Kansas City head coach Andy Reid has been publicly supportive of him and encouraged any team that’s interested to reach out.

What the Chiefs have done offensively over the last couple of seasons has been nothing less than spectacular. The question with Bieniemy is how much of it is the genius of Andy Reid and the ridiculous amount of talent they have at the skill positions.

Bieniemy is one of four leading candidates to land the job right now. The others are former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who has interviewed twice already. The Panthers have also requested an interview with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. Baylor head coach Matt Rhule is also expected to be a leading candidate, according to Adam Schefter at ESPN.

Whether it’s with the Panthers or another team, Bieniemy should definitely get an NFL head coaching job next season.

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Panthers 2020 head coach search: Reviewing the candidates

The Panthers’ coaching search hit high gear yesterday. Here’s a review of the candidates we know about so far.

The Panthers’ coaching search hit high gear yesterday. Here’s a review of the candidates we know about so far.

Former Packers coach Mike McCarthy

Status: Two interviews

Pros: McCarthy has the most NFL experience of these candidates and it’s not close. After six seasons as an offensive coordinator with the Saints and 49ers, he landed in Green Bay and spent 13 years as the head coach of the Packers, posted a respectable 125-77-2 record and won a Super Bowl. Since getting fired, McCarthy has apparently been spending his time self-scouting and studying up on the latest trends and analytics. If that’s true, he may have legitimately improved as a coach.

Cons: Considering the talent McCarthy had to work with, Green Bay fell short of its potential during the McCarthy era. Most notably he had Aaron Rodgers – and when Aaron Rodgers was peaking (roughly from 2009-2016) nobody has ever played quarterback at a higher level. Hard as it is to believe, having won just one ring in that time is a bit of an indictment of McCarthy, whose fallout with Rodgers may have played a huge role in his exit. Managing difficult personalities like Rodgers is part of the job though, and it sounds like McCarthy couldn’t handle it. More importantly, McCarthy’s conservative tendencies and stale play-calling eventually ruined what was once a tremendous passing offense.

Report: Giants request interview with Chiefs’ Eric Bieniemy

The New York Giants have submitted a request to interview Kansas City Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy for their vacant head coaching position.

The New York Giants have wasted no time in seeking interviews for their next head coach, already putting in a request to interview New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

They have also put in a request to interview Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

Bieniemy got his start in the NFL as a second-round pick of the then-San Diego Chargers in the 1991 NFL Draft. In addition to the Chargers, he also played for the Cincinnati Bengals and Philadelphia Eagles before retiring following the 1999 season.

In 2001, Bieniemy entered the coaching ranks, joining Colorado as their running backs coach. He later moved onto UCLA before getting back into the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings as their running backs coach in 2006.

After returning to Colorado for a brief stint in 2011-2012, Bieniemy was hired as the Chiefs’ running backs coach in 2013 and took over as their offensive coordinator in 2018. He is considered Andy Reid’s top assistant coach.

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Report: Panthers also request interview with Patriots OC Josh McDaniels

McDaniels will be a hot ticket once the season is over.

The Panthers are hoping to interview two of the top offensive coordinators among this year’s playoff teams. They have requested an interview with Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy as well as Patriots OC Josh McDaniels, according to a report by Adam Schefter at ESPN.

McDaniels will be a hot ticket once the season is over. The Giants just fired Pat Shurmur and have also requested an interview with McDaniels. The Browns are in the same boat after firing Freddie Kitchens.

There’s no doubt McDaniels has had a lot of success as a play-caller in the NFL. He was the head coach of the Broncos from 2009-2010 and got some surprising production out of Kyle Orton during that time. Since 2012, he’s been in New England working with Tom Brady as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

Thanks to Kansas City’s first-round bye, Bieniemy should be available to interview this week. The timeline for McDaniels is cloudier, though. The Patriots’ loss to the Dolphins yesterday will have them playing in the wild card round this weekend against the Titans.

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Report: Panthers request interview with Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy

Report: Panthers request interview with Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy

With the season over, the Panthers’ search for their next head coach is heating up. According to a report by Ian Rapoport at NFL Network, the team has requested an interview with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

David Tepper has stated publicly that he wants an offensive-minded candidate and seems to prefer those with pro experience. Bieniemy fits that description.

If you’re unfamiliar with Bieniemy’s background, he played running back for the Chargers and the Bengals in the 1990s. He is now 50 years old. Bieniemy’s first coaching job in the league was as the Vikings’ running backs coach. He held that position five seasons before becoming the offensive coordinator for Colorado. In 2013, the Chiefs hired him to be their running backs coach and he was promoted last year to offensive coordinator.

Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes deserve a fair share of the credit, but Kansas City’s offense has been spectacular these last two seasons with Bieniemy calling the shots. They rank sixth in total yards and fifth in points per game this season after leading the NFL in scoring by a wide margin last year.

The Chiefs finished the regular season 12-4, earning themselves the AFC’s No. 2 seed. That gives them a first-round bye in the playoffs, which will allow Bieniemy time to interview this week.

Other candidates the team has been linked with include former Packers coach Mike McCarthy, who has met with the team twice. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Baylor coach Matt Rhule are also reported to be on the team’s list.

In related news, it sounds like former Carolina head coach Ron Rivera might land his next job very soon. He’s reported to be meeting with the Redskins today.

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There’s one serious issue with the rumors surrounding the Washington Redskins

Rumors in Washington are aplenty when it comes to GM’s and coaching candidates, but many of the floated possibilities contradict each other.

Many rumors have swirled around the Washington Redskins organization in the past couple of weeks, a majority of which have to do with a major upheaval in the team and its ownership group.

Team President Bruce Allen is rumored to be out of a job soon, and multiple candidates have been “floated” for the head coaching position in Washington, like Kansas City Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy, Stanford’s David Shaw, or most recently, Urban Meyer, the former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

While it is nice to daydream about future coaching or managerial changes for many Redskins who are experiencing yet another disappointing year from their favorite team, The Athletic‘s Ben Standig points out that there’s one major problem with all of these rumors that are everpresent in Redskins’ circles: They can’t both be true at the same time.

If the organization is eyeing certain individuals, then Allen is part of the evaluation process since his role involves making such hires. Therefore he’s either staying, or none of these rumors hold weight considering Allen’s replacement, if given freedom of thought, would offer suggestions.

As the president and GM of the team, obviously, Allen’s words would carry some weight with the organization when it comes to major coaching decisions. So the rumors around the team give us two options that we can believe: these candidates that have been floated are actually true, and the Redskins are pursuing them, but that means Allen is likely staying on. Or Allen is on his way out, but the rumored coaches that he is interested in hold no weight.

Standig brings up a scenario where it’s possible that team owner Dan Snyder is the one floating these potential coaching interests, but that seems highly unlikely, as if he were to believe that Allen is on his way out, it would make very little sense to target a coach before hiring a general manager.

So which rumors, in particular, are true if any? That’s impossible to say at this point because it is all based on who you believe. Until something concrete happens with the program, it’s going to be more ‘he said, she said’ in Washington, which is usually fun for water cooler talk, but not typically a great way to run an NFL franchise.

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Adrian Peterson and Paul Richardson say Eric Bieniemy will be a great head coach

Both Peterson and Richardson have had Bieniemy as a head coach before, and they know that he has the traits to lead a team to success.

While the Washington Redskins look to begin their coaching search as the season winds to a close, with just three games left on the schedule, a name that keeps coming up is Eric Bieniemy, the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Not only has Bieniemy surged to the top of the list of candidates for any open head coaching job in the NFL, but he also has a number of ties to the Redskins and their current personnel. Once upon a time, he acted as the OC for wide receiver Paul Richardson Jr. at the University of Colorado, but he was also the running backs coach for Adrian Peterson with the Minnesota Vikings, and he held the position of OC for Alex Smith with the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s safe to say that if he has questions about the Washington organization, there are a few people he can ask.

On the flip side, these players in Washington can also reach out to him and potentially sway him in the direction of taking over the Redskins job. Both Richardson and Peterson were asked about Bieniemy earlier this week, and while they didn’t publically lobby for him to come to Washington, they did make sure to point out how deserving he is of a top job in the NFL.

“I think he’s a great coach,” said Richardson, via The Athletic. “I think he’s a great leader. He’s really intense. He prides himself on details and execution. He’s old-school, man. He played running back, back in the day. So, of course, he’s one of those guys that is all for the run-first mentality, but he definitely one of those people that wants to get the most out of his players. I felt that a lot when I was in Colorado.”

For Peterson, he recalls the times in Minnesota where Bieniemy would constantly require the RBs to take diligent notes during film sessions, and he often wouldn’t let a detail slip by.

“He was big on taking notes,” Peterson said, via The Athletic. “You have your pen out and writing notes down, and we didn’t have an excuse. He had everything we need for that week written on the board, on both sides, and we used to go over it, and you were able to see it in intensive detail. It’s like, man; he is really like making sure that we are dialed in, and we know exactly what’s going on. So the running back group, and the fullback group we are in sync. We have no excuse to eff up.”

So while they may not have publically endorsed him for the Redskins job, both Richardson and Peterson will be the first people to tell you that Bieniemy is a sure-fire head coach that deserves a chance somewhere in the league. If it happens to be in Washington, you’d surely hear no complaints from them.

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