Eric Bieniemy is now back in the NFL, but likely not at the level that anyone would have believed, especially a couple of years ago.
Jonathan Jones broke the news on Saturday that Bieniemy has decided to return to the league with Ben Johnson's staff as one of the assistants for the new Chicago Bears head coach. The move comes after Bieniemy earned interviews with other NFL teams, including a potential coordinator role with the New England Patriots.
Bieniemy is set to be Johnson's running backs coach, a return to a position he held in Kansas City for five seasons from 2013 to 2017 while mentoring and training the Chiefs' backfield—including names like Jamaal Charles, Spencer Ware, Charcandrick Ward and Kareem Hunt.
Johnson is a very exciting addition for Bears fans and Bieniemy should be joining a rising ship. Johnson is a celebrated offensive mind and Caleb Williams is a franchise quarterback in the making, so the chemistry could be ripe for something great in the AFC North. That said, Bieniemy's decision to take an assistant's role at this point is odd.
Bieniemy was the offensive coordinator for the Chiefs from 2018-2022, and he was a key part of Andy Reid's staff while claiming the team's first Super Bowl win in 50 seasons. After earning looks to be a potential head coach with interviews for half of all NFL teams, Bieniemy then took an OC role with Ron Rivera and Washington for a season in 2023.
After that one year stint, UCLA came calling with an OC role and a chance to return to the college ranks. Again, it felt like a bit of a step back for a coach who never seemed to get a fair shake at a step up the ladder—leading to speculation that maybe interview processes yielded something wrong. However, from the outside looking in, Bieniemy's case has always looked unfair.
Now Bieniemy is not even stepping back into the league at the coordinator level—where he left off—but is instead taking an assistant's role where he was at when he first joined Reid over a decade ago. Soemtimes teams will even add "assistant head coach" to a coach's role to show at least some seniority but no details of that sort have emerged here.
We're glad to see Bieniemy back in the league, but the turn here is definitely unexpected. Hopefully he enjoys success with Johnson and finds a way to fulfill his coaching hopes down the road.
