It has been a week since the Eagles fired Doug Pederson and began their search for the next head coach.
In 2016, when the Eagles hired Pederson, it was a highly criticized move, as he was far from the top of the Eagles’ list of candidates to hire. Names like Ben McAdoo and Adam Gase were considered to be the hot candidates at the time. According to many “experts”, Pederson was ranked as the worst head coaching hire in the NFL.
Pederson surpassed everyone’s predictions by a mile. He was by far the most successful hire from 2016, the only one to win a Super Bowl, and had the longest tenure of all the hires. The main thing that was overlooked in him was his ability to be a leader of men. Since his first season, back in 2016, he had a swagger to him that other coaches had not shown before. He showed guts by regularly going for it on 4th down. The rest of the league has since picked up on this and more teams around the league are regularly going for it on 4th down.
On paper, Pederson was not the best coaching hire at the time, but his intangibles were impossible to measure. This is something to consider when searching for a head coach.
Some of these coaching candidates have never been a head coach at any level, only coordinators and assistants. We do not know how they will be able to command a locker room or connect with a group of players. These intangibles may be more important than the past successes, schemes, or X’s and O’s the coaches bring to the table. It is unknown how some will handle the Philadelphia media.
The Eagles will have to hire one of them. Based off of the information we know, here is my clear-cut choice to be the next Eagles head coach.
Eric Bieniemy, Offensive Coordinator, Kansas City Chiefs: Another branch off the Andy Reid coaching tree. Just like Doug Pederson, Bieniemy is an offensive coordinator under Andy Reid, and a former Eagle from the 1999 team. Bieniemy has been on Reid’s coaching staff since 2013, when he was hired as the running backs coach. Reid promoted him to offensive coordinator in 2018.
Since 2018, the Chiefs offense has been among the league’s best units. Leading the NFL in total offense in 2018 and 2020. The Chiefs are the defending Super Bowl champions.
Bieniemy has been instrumental in the development of 2018 NFL MVP and Super Bowl LIV MVP, Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes, arguably the best quarterback in the league, became the second quarterback in league history to pass for 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns, in the same season, in 2018.
Bieniemy has a great set of qualities to be a head coach in Philadelphia --- a great offensive mind, a willingness to fix Carson Wentz, a past history with the city of Philadelphia, and an incredible coaching pedigree, spending the past 8 seasons under Andy Reid. He seems to be the safest coaching hire the Eagles could make. The Eagles have requested to interview Eric Bieniemy and a date is TBD while Kansas City is still alive in the playoffs.