Eric Bieniemy makes decision on future with Kansas City Chiefs

Eric Bieniemy is returning to Kansas City of at least one more season, according to a report from NFL Network’s Jeffri Chadiha.

After getting passed over for head coaching opportunities for yet another season, Bieniemy had the choice of either returning to Kansas City for another season, or to become a hot free-agent offensive coordinator target elsewhere. His dreams of becoming a head coach in the NFL are off the table in 2022.

Coming off a 2021 campaign where he led the Kansas City Chiefs to finish with the No. 2 ranked offense in the NFL, Bieniemy’s name still had not emerged as multiple teams went through the process to fill their head coaching vacancies.

Sam McDowell of The Kansas City Star tweeted that Bieniemy signed a single-season deal after last year’s Super Bowl to keep him with the Chiefs for at least the 2021 season. A little over two weeks ago, Field Yates tweeted shortly after that Bieniemy “will now officially return to the Chiefs for his fifth season as their offensive coordinator.”

Despite this report, there were some conflicting reports as well that kept the public uncertain of Bieniemy’s status with the team moving forward.

“There are no assurances that Bieniemy will return,” Adam Schefter said. “He has considered coaching in college, listening to other offers or even taking off a year after a physically and mentally draining season in which the Chiefs fell one game short of the Super Bowl and Bieniemy was bypassed in the head-coach hiring cycle.”

Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints were the two NFL franchises that expressed interest and followed through with an interview with the Chiefs offensive coordinator. He would not be called back for a second interview and both teams would go different directions in their coaching search.

Since 2019, Bieniemy has interview and been turned down by 14 of the 32 NFL teams during each season’s coaching cycle. He was interviewed by the Buccaneers, Jets, Dolphins and Bengals in 2019, the Browns, Giants and Panthers in 2020 and the Chargers, Jaguars, Jets, Texans and the Eagles sent in an interview request, but never came into fruition before getting turned down by the Broncos and Saints this offseason.

If reports are true and Bieniemy is returning to Kansas City for at least one more season, expect the Chiefs to pick right back up where they left off as a perennial Super Bowl contender with his Patrick Mahomes-led offense under head coach Andy Reid.