We Almost Hired Eric Bieniemy in 2019!

[BFritz21]

We almost hired Eric "Sleeping With Bieniemy" in 2019 instead of Taylor!

I LOVED watching this dude play in the NCAA and the NFL and I LOVED Chris Berman describing his plays!

Taylor has turned out ok and I'm glad we have him, but I would have LOVED to see what Bieniemy could have done with this team! His mind just seems more creative and more football-sound than Taylor's. He also was offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in one Super Bowl win and another appearance.

Who knows if we'd have the a similar roster, though, and who knows if we would have gotten Chase or Burrow.

Quote:The Cincinnati Bengals hooked their horse to the Zac Taylor wagon prior to the 2019 season. It was a pretty drawn out process due to him being on the Los Angeles Rams team that went to the Super Bowl.

It appears that there seemed like a good chance that job could have gone to Chiefs offensive coordinator and former-Bengal running back Eric Bieniemy, according to NFL Network’s Maurice Jones-Drew.

“I think he wants the opportunity anywhere. I know he wants to be in the NFL,” Jones-Drew told the Pat McAfee Show. “He was going to take the Cincinnati job. He thought he had it when Zac Taylor got it. Obviously the way that panned out, it seems like Zac Taylor’s doing a better job than what he did the first couple years.”

The initial national reaction was not great when Taylor took the Bengals job. Many attributed his credentials to being nothing more than knowing Rams’ head coach Sean McVay. His first two seasons did little to turn that perception around. His first two seasons were a combined 6-25-1 as head coach with the common theme of constantly losing close games.

During those two seasons, Bieniemy helped lead the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes to a Super Bowl win and appearance.

Why Bieniemy has not managed to get a head-coaching job over his great run as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator under Andy Reid is really anyone’s guess. We can all speculate, but no one outside those interviews could give you a solid reason as to why. All we know is that we have seen less-qualified coaches land these head coaching jobs. Although, this season probably won’t help his cause.

Either way, the “what if” here has to be whether Bieniemy could have possibly brought this team along quicker than Taylor did. It seemed like regardless of the coach, the plan for the 2019 season was to see if there was any salvaging what remained of the Andy Dalton era roster. This was a task the Taylor clearly was not capable of doing. Bieniemy may have been able to bring in more of an offensive explosion quicker.

The problem with the Bengals having any sort of initial success in 2019 means we would’ve been watching a bad roster try and scrap for even a glimmer of a hope for a playoff spot. It also would’ve meant we wouldn’t see Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. Who knows, maybe Dalton would still be around with a mid-round quarterback developing under him.

The thing to sometimes remember when you go back to try and change something up in NFL history is to think about how quickly that could change the current makeup of the team. One that looks like it could be headed in the right direction after a bye week.

I'm glad how things have turned out with Burrow and Chase but it would have been great to have Eric in Cincy!

[kevin]

I don't want to quote all of that. I'll just say that Eric Bieniemy should be a Head Coach somewhere. Besides Offense, he was tough on Special Teams with Bengals, so I would expect him to have good Special Teams and Good Offense. He would need a Top Defense Coach and a Top Quarterback Coach.

The Detroit Lions have long been in dire need of something. That is a franchise in dire need of a major Rebuild, and they should have the #1 draft pick or close to it. The Lions quarterbacks stink, so get Bieniemy and draft the best QB and go from there. No reason Lions should be that bad.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

That's who I wanted back before they decided on Taylor.

He knows Mike Brown.
He knows Cincinnati.
He has former player cred in the locker room.

I think he would have attracted a better staff, also.

[TecmoBengals]

Bienemy is an interesting case study since he doesn't seem to have an opportunity to be a head coach. If Zac goes buh bye sooner than later, I'd be more interested in them going after someone like Byron Leftwich.

[jj22]

Well he's still available if the season continues to spiral.

[*ochocincos*]

We'll see how Taylor ends this season, but it's really hard to look past just 6.5 wins in 32 games his first two seasons.
For a fan base that was frustrated with seeing 6-7 wins a season before Taylor, it was downright embarrassing Taylor's first two years.

I don't know if Bieniemy will be better than Taylor, as he's never been a HC anywhere.
And if he ends up also calling an offense somewhere while being HC, we don't fully know how that will go since we expect that Andy Reid still has a big influence in playcalling in KC.

What I will say is that at the time in the 2019 offseason, Bieniemy had the better resume and deserved to get a HC gig over Taylor.

[Bengalitis]

(11-16-2021, 02:58 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: We almost hired Eric "Sleeping With Bieniemy" in 2019 instead of Taylor!

I LOVED watching this dude play in the NCAA and the NFL and I LOVED Chris Berman describing his plays!

Taylor has turned out ok and I'm glad we have him, but I would have LOVED to see what Bieniemy could have done with this team! His mind just seems more creative and more football-sound than Taylor's. He also was offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in one Super Bowl win and another appearance.

Who knows if we'd have the a similar roster, though, and who knows if we would have gotten Chase or Burrow.


I'm glad how things have turned out with Burrow and Chase but it would have been great to have Eric in Cincy!

Having Chase AND Burrow don't = a SUPER BOWL.

We've had Carson AND Ocho Sinko & Andy AND AJ Green and no SUPER BOWL.  

I see how Mike Brown has the city under the QB+WR "hooked like heroin" formula going. 

I'd prefer Bieniemy and a chance to the Super Bowl, than not having had the aforemention sexy formulas.

PS. Bieniemy will be with us in 2022.

[CJD]

I think the natural response to this news is "Damn it! Why did we hire Taylor if we actually could have gotten Bieniemy?" This response is understandable, but if we hired Bieniemy, there's a decent chance we don't have the #1OA pick in 2020, which means we wouldn't have Joe Burrow and this offense probably isn't anywhere close to what it is today. If we had the #3 or #4 overall pick, we may even have drafted...Tua...*shudder*.

Some may call that response "Zac Taylor bad" but it's just how I feel, so I'm grateful that we hired ZT because he really helped us secure Burrow.

Now, if we could just shake him loose this off season and hire Bieniemy (or another qualified coach), that'd be the best case scenario.

[SunsetBengal]

The Bengals passed up on the opportunity to ruin Eric Bienemy's coaching career?

[GreenCornBengal]

(11-16-2021, 11:29 AM)SunsetBengal Wrote: The Bengals passed up on the opportunity to ruin Eric Bienemy's coaching career?

Nobody considers he may have taken the wise path and avoided the Bengals.. people believe the hiring process is the Bengals calling a guy and saying “you’re our new coach”, hang up and laugh because the guy they chose has no power to deny the position. “Damnit, the sorting hat has sent me to Cincinnati, I guess I have to comply!”…

[Frank Booth]

The chiefs offense makes no adjustments. Glad we didn’t hire Bienemy

[fredtoast]

Bienemy has not proven anything about his head coaching ability. He was considered a good RB coach with the Vikings when he was coaching Adrian Peterson. And now he is considered a good CO running Andy Reid offense.

He also had some behavior problems when he was Playing at Colorado and in the NFL.

He might be a very good head coach or he could be a complete bust.

[Au165]

Honestly, I think this year has damaged any hope of EB getting a head coaching job. You can't say he is a massive part of the offense then expect people to give him a pass because it took them 10 weeks to figure out how to attack a 2 high safety look. Like it is beyond excusable they wouldn't commit to the run for so long and put their entire season in jeopardy. Great they design really fun plays, but if they can't handle the single adjustment literally EVERY TEAM YOU PLAY is making then you are not fit to run a team.

[*PhilHos*]

(11-16-2021, 02:58 AM)BFritz21 Wrote: We almost hired Eric "Sleeping With Bieniemy" in 2019 instead of Taylor!

I LOVED watching this dude play in the NCAA and the NFL and I LOVED Chris Berman describing his plays!

Taylor has turned out ok and I'm glad we have him, but I would have LOVED to see what Bieniemy could have done with this team! His mind just seems more creative and more football-sound than Taylor's. He also was offensive coordinator for the Chiefs in one Super Bowl win and another appearance.

Who knows if we'd have the a similar roster, though, and who knows if we would have gotten Chase or Burrow.


I'm glad how things have turned out with Burrow and Chase but it would have been great to have Eric in Cincy!

I think it's quite obvious why he's not been considered for a HC. Despite having the title of offensive coordinator and depsite Reid giving Bienemy a lot of credit for how the offense runs, most are still giving Reid the credit for the offense being so good. 

Do any of us give Callahan any credit/blame for our offense? Or do we give it all to Taylor?

[Bengalholic]

So, if I interview for a position and they choose someone else...it means I was 'almost hired'? 

[TecmoBengals]

(11-16-2021, 11:40 AM)Frank Booth Wrote: The chiefs offense makes no adjustments. Glad we didn’t hire Bienemy

Just this past week Mahomes was talking about how he's going to continue to sling it down field. I only read about this, so I wonder about the context of Mahomes saying it. Was he just being confident or coming off as a QB doing what he wants and coaching be damned? 

Edit: Does the Mahomes' quote reflect coaching that doesn't adjust?

Mahomes' quote: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/11/11/patrick-mahomes-im-going-to-continue-to-take-shots-downfield/

It's probably not an actual statement about Reid and Bienemy as coaches. Move along, nothing to read in this post.

[Sled21]

Classic case of the grass is always greener..... even when it's not.

[impactplaya]

Bienemeys resume was 100x better
Than Zac Taylors. He had evidence of knowing his X and Os
Translating to taking the passing game to another level.
If EB didnt have it upstairs then Reid would have shown him
The door by now.
But Zac Taylor had the right skin color and the saying all
The right things in the interview. Im.sure he counseled
Young Sheldon before sitting down

[*jason*]

(11-16-2021, 02:02 PM)impactplaya Wrote: Bienemeys resume was 100x better
Than Zac Taylors. He had evidence of knowing his X and Os
Translating to taking the passing game to another level.
If EB didnt have it upstairs then Reid would have shown him
The door by now.
But Zac Taylor had the right skin color and the saying all
The right things in the interview. Im.sure he counseled
Young Sheldon before sitting down

The right skin color huh?

[Essex Johnson]

The bigger surprise is he has yet to be hired since 2019