Kansas City Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy has his first interview request of the 2022 hiring cycle and it’s within the AFC West division.

According to a report from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Denver Broncos have formally requested an interview with Bieniemy for their head-coaching vacancy. Denver fired HC Vic Fangio following their loss to  Kansas City in Week 18.

Bieniemy has long been a hot head-coaching candidate, but for whatever reason, he hasn’t made any traction. In total over the past three coaching cycles, Bieniemy interviewed with 13 teams for head-coaching jobs and was passed over each time for other candidates. Perhaps this time things will be different.

The #Broncos are requesting permission to speak with CU legend and #Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy for their vacant HC job, source said.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 10, 2022

Bieniemy, of course, played college football at CU-Boulder, but that’s not the only connection to the Broncos’ head-coaching job. Denver GM George Paton was with the Vikings when Bieniemy was the RBs coach in Minnesota. The two have familiarity with each other from back then and could be reunited as an HC-GM combination with the Broncos in 2022.

The Chiefs have been one of the biggest problems standing in the way of Denver having success. The Week 18 loss marked their 13th consecutive loss to Kansas City. Who would be a better option when it comes to finding a way to thwart their biggest AFC West foe than Bieniemy? We’ll see if the Broncos executives agree with that line of thinking soon enough.