Kansas City Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy has completed an interview with the Indianapolis Colts for their vacant head coaching position.
The Colts fired Frank Reich back in November before hiring Jeff Saturday as interim head coach. They completed the 2022 NFL regular season with a second-to-last finish in the AFC South and a 4-12-1 overall record. Astonishingly, one of the teams they managed to beat this season was Kansas City.
Bieniemy, 53, is in his fifth season as Chiefs’ offensive coordinator and his tenth season with the franchise altogether. He got his start as the team’s running backs coach (2013-2017) before he was promoted to offensive coordinator after Matt Nagy’s departure to Chicago in 2018.
Bieniemy has interviewed with over a dozen different teams across the past four head-coaching cycles, yet he has inexplicably been passed over for other candidates. Some of those coaches who were hired instead of Bieniemy have already been fired from their positions. Bieniemy has continued to chop wood in Kansas City, with his offenses ranking in the top 6 in scoring in each of the last five seasons.
This marks Bieniemy’s first reported head-coaching interview in this hiring cycle despite several vacancies and considerable levels of buzz. That buzz is derived from the fact that the Chiefs boast one of the league’s most efficient offenses in the NFL despite trading away a future Hall of Fame receiver in Tyreek Hill during the offseason. Then there’s the NFL’s accelerator program, which Bieniemy participated in last summer, allowing him some facetime with NFL owners and executives in a different setting.
Bieniemy’s case to be hired in Indianapolis may be aided by familiarity with Colts GM Chris Ballard, who spent several years in the Kansas City front office as John Dorsey’s right hand. He won’t be without competition for the job. He’s the third candidate to interview with Indy so far alongside Broncos DC Ejiro Evero and Colts ST coordinator Bubba Ventrone. They also have interviews scheduled with Rams DC Raheem Morris, Eagles OC Shane Steichen and Lions OC Ben Johnson.
