Early on in the process, the Tennessee Titans were reportedly interested in three outside candidates for their offensive coordinator vacancy before the trail went cold, with one of them being Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.
However, while Tennessee did reportedly put in the request to interview the Chiefs offensive coordinator, they have apparently not actually done the interview.
This is according Bieniemy himself, via Nicki Jhabvala of the Washington Post. He did not mention the Titans specifically, but says he has not taken “any interviews for any offensive coordinator positions.”
“I have not taken any interviews for any offensive coordinator positions,” Bieniemy said. “I’ve only taken one interview, for a head-coaching position. Right now, I’ve interviewed with the Indianapolis Colts. I thought it went great. We’ll see where that goes. Now, as far as the offensive coordinator stuff, right now I am where my feet are. And right now I’m focused on helping us to win games.”
While Bieniemy says he hasn’t taken any interviews for offensive coordinator jobs, he didn’t explicitly say he wouldn’t do so after the Super Bowl is over, so perhaps he’s still on the table for Tennessee.
Bieniemy’s name has been a hot topic of conversation for multiple head-coach hiring cycles now.
On the surface, it doesn’t make too much sense for a coach to make a lateral move like this, but perhaps Bieniemy is looking to get out of the shadow of Andy Reid and call his own offense to bolster his resume.
I tend to believe that at least part of the reason the offensive coordinator search is taking this long is because the Titans have major interest in either Bieniemy or Chiefs senior assistant and quarterbacks coach, Matt Nagy, who Tennessee also reportedly put in an interview request for.
Going with either one would signal a shift in offensive philosophy, as they both come from a pass-first offense in Kansas City.
