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Perfect Bears Head Coach Option Suddenly Available After Surprise Firing

By Joseph Grassano

Mar 16, 2023; Lake Forest, IL, USA; Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles speaks during a press conference at Halas Hall. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
Mar 16, 2023; Lake Forest, IL, USA; Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles speaks during a press conference at Halas Hall. Mandatory Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images / Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images
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Since Matt Eberflus was fired last Friday, a long list of potential candidates for the opening has been discussed. This list includes Ben Johnson, Mike Vrabel, Thomas Brown, Kyle Shanahan, and many more. While some names like Shanahan are less likely to become Bears head coach than others, there is one person everyone has seemed to forget about.

Former Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Bieniemy spent this past season as the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at UCLA. However, according to Tom Pelissero, Bieniemy and UCLA mutually parted ways on Thursday, leaving him open to interview for NFL head coach positions.

Is Eric Bieniemy a viable option for the Bears next head coach?

During the 2023 offseason, Bieniemy was one of the hot names to become a head coach. Despite that, Bieniemy ended up landing in Washington as assistant head coach and the offensive coordinator of the Commanders.

As the offensive coordinator for the Commanders, Bieniemy had a very pass-happy offense. In 2023, Commanders quarterback Sam Howell dropped back 612 times. Of those 612 dropbacks, Howell completed 388 of them (63.4%).

Conversely, the Commanders only had 359 rushing attempts. Although the pass-to-run ratio wasn't exactly 2:1, it is still way more pass attempts than run attempts, which is not exactly what Bears fans want at this point in Caleb Williams's career.

Thankfully, Bieniemy seems to have learned from this, as his splits at UCLA were more even. This season, UCLA had 398 pass attempts to 338 rushing attempts. This change might mainly have to do with the fact that NFL and college football are different games. Hopefully, though, Bieniemy did learn the importance of having a run-pass balance.

Another main concern for Bears fans is that if they hire Bieniemy, he has a Chiefs connection. The last time the Bears hired a Chiefs offensive coordinator, Matt Nagy, it didn't go well. While it's totally fair to have concerns, both guys have had completely different paths.

Before coming to Chicago, Nagy never had a position higher than offensive coordinator. As mentioned above, Bieniemy has been the assistant head coach for two separate teams over the past two seasons. That gives him an immediate leg up over Nagy when he came.

In the end, the likelihood of Bieniemy becoming the Bears' next head coach may be small, but it might not be the worst option.

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