Jets Coaching Candidate of the Day: Eric Bieniemy

With Todd Bowles likely on the way out at the end of the season, we are going to take a look at some of the potential candidates to replace him. Whenever we do something like this, there are some typical criticisms that always pop up like, “Why profile this guy? He stinks!” and “He won’t be interested.” We aren’t just profiling the good candidates or suggesting these people are all likely to take the job. We are simply looking at people the Jets could reasonably expected to call.

Today’s candidate: Eric Bieniemy

Category: NFL Assistant

Current Job: Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Coordinator

Years of NFL Coaching Experience: 11

Head Coaching Experience: None

Pros:

• Offensive coordinator of the league’s most explosive offense with the best design.
• Has learned under Andy Reid.
• Recent Chiefs offensive coordinators have been successful moving into head coaching positions, even though the sample size is limited.
• Pat Mahomes has had a great year under his tutelage.

Cons:

• Is he experienced enough? In spite of success, he will have exactly one year of experience coordinating an NFL offense at the time this season ends.
• No head coaching experience.
• Difficult to see where Reid’s influence ends, and Bieniemy’s begins.
• Unclear how well he’d do outside of the Kansas City cocoon.

The Bottom Line:

As teams look to emulate the Kansas City offense, their offensive coaching staff figures to be in demand. With the way the league is trending, it wouldn’t be shocking to see a first year coordinator from a hot offense like Bieniemy end up with a head coaching job next year.

Would he be an effective head coach? Nobody can really say. Given his inexperience and Reid’s fingerprints on the Chiefs offense, Bieniemy is a total projection. You might have noticed that this profile seems less comprehensive than some of the others. That is because it is difficult for me to draw many conclusions on how effective Bieniemy would be as a head coach.

Working in his favor are the success Doug Pederson has had with the Eagles and the early returns from Matt Nagy with the Bears. These are examples of proteges Reid has trained to successful run their own teams. Is Bieniemy next?