Sam McDowell: Eric Bieniemy is a talk of the NFL Combine. How the KC Chiefs could help solve this

INDIANAPOLIS — Chiefs head coach Andy Reid stepped onto a small stage at the NFL Scouting Combine, and before he got settled, out came a question.

"Andy!" a reporter began.

Reid interrupted. He wasn't yet prepared for questions.

He first wanted to swat a fly.

"This whole thing with Eric Bieniemy has gotten kind of fabricated," Reid said, and you could sense the frustration in his voice as he refuted a since-deleted report by an unnamed author depicting friction between Bieniemy, Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. "I came back (from vacation) and all of a sudden it was that I didn't like Eric, and Eric didn't like me and Pat Mahomes and everybody else.

"That's not the case. We all get along good."

The truth is the Chiefs are exhausted with this topic. Reid is tired of talking about Bieniemy's inability to land a head coaching job. (But he has to.)

I'm tired of asking about it. (But I have to.)

Frankly, I've worn out my keyboard in writing about it. (But I most certainly have to do that.)

Because that's what those in charge are hoping — that you stop thinking about this and just let their institutional problem quietly fade into the background. That you ignore the embarrassing lack of diversity in the men they pick to lead their franchises and just focus on the wins and losses.

But few are obliging. For media, the combine is like a family reunion of sorts — a mass collection of your peers from every section of the country all crammed into one convention center in downtown Indianapolis. At some point in almost every catch-up conversation I've had in the initial couple of days this week, Bieniemy's name pops up.

What's it going to take for someone to hire him?

This column initially planned to provide an exact answer to that question: Although it is not the Chiefs' responsibility to get their offensive coordinator a different job, the rest of the league has failed there, so, yeah, why don't the Chiefs do more to make it happen, both publicly and behind the scenes?

And we'll still get to the former, because I have one suggestion there.

But as for the latter, those plans were scratched after I talked to a few people around the league here in Indianapolis. Like one executive from another AFC team who said Reid personally called to vouch for Bieniemy. Or another who mentioned that Reid has spent considerable time digging into the very question he receives so often:

Why can't Bieniemy get hired?

After learning that part, I asked him what he'd discovered.

"Nobody has said anything," Reid said. "I feel how you feel. He should be a head coach in this league. Nobody is telling me why he's not."

The Chiefs, and Reid specifically, have done more than due diligence behind the scenes. So back to the public piece of this. The Chiefs have a head coach consistently urging other teams to pluck a member of his staff. Owner Clark Hunt has publicly stated Bieniemy's qualification to run his own show, too.

The Chiefs haven't done nothing. Done more than most would.

But there is one thing they can do better, if they want to throw their very best hand on the table. They could be more specific in detailing Bieniemy's duties at One Arrowhead Drive.

With Reid having such an impact on the offensive side of the ball, we're left to wonder exactly what Bieniemy does. Reid insists Bieniemy has an influence on every facet of the offense, but that's a vague response to an appeal for a specific explanation.

A general manager and owner would certainly like to know. It doesn't need to be a mystery. The first request for Bieniemy in an interview should not be to provide his current job description.

I offered a version of that theory to Reid.

"I've had that ever since I've been here," he replied, knowing that has not prevented his previous two offensive coordinators from receiving head-coaching opportunities. "I always go back to myself — I was the third guy in Green Bay.

"I don't know exactly why that's taking place. I don't know that. Nobody has told me, 'This is the reason.' I'm with him every day. So I have a pretty good idea (of his qualifications)."

There are theories about this whole ordeal, ones passed along in NFL circles, that skip over the color of his skin, some quite conveniently. Bieniemy has never been a quarterbacks coach, nor did he play the position, and it's a quarterback-driven league. He doesn't interview particularly well, or his presentation is poorly organized in comparison to his peers. He has an arrest record from his college days at Colorado. And he doesn't call the plays in Kansas City, at least not the final say.

The Chiefs cannot change any of those reasons as their priorities lie with winning football games, but they could more specifically describe what makes Bieniemy such an attractive head coaching candidate.

Because other teams aren't seeing it. Those teams are here this week. On Tuesday, Broncos general manager George Paton spoke, weeks after interviewing Bieniemy but ultimately hiring Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett for his vacancy instead.

"I go way back with Eric," Paton said. "I consider him a good friend. Worked with him before. I think he's a great coach. He's got a lot of energy, a lot of passion. Eric should be a head coach in this league — that's for sure."

Well, the Broncos had the opportunity to make him one, and they passed. Like the 14 others before them.

Thus, this storyline is about to stretch into a fourth season, which prompts one clear commonality in the confusion of the Bieniemy conversation: His time on the market is working against him, like the house with a for sale sign in the front yard for months. You begin to wonder what red flag everyone else spotted that you might be missing.

It's why Bieniemy might have been better off taking another job this offseason, even if not a promotion, to remove himself from the shadow of Reid and Mahomes. The Chiefs allowed him the time to do that this offseason — telling him his old job would be waiting for him should he decide to return. (That whole business about an end-all, be-all meeting was overblown.)

But he's back.

Just like the preceding three offseasons.

And so is the conversation.

This story was originally published March 2, 2022 5:00 AM.