The Philadelphia Eagles caught a lot of flack when Kansas City Chiefs HC Andy Reid denied the report that the Eagles had requested a formal interview with OC Eric Bieniemy. Philadelphia eventually hired former Colts OC Nick Sirianni.
“Well, no, there was no formal interview for him sent in,” Reid told reporters ahead of Super Bowl LV. “They had talked early about it, but there was nothing formally sent in.”
Now some new information shows that the Eagles did in fact notify the league and the Chiefs of a formal interview request for Bieniemy. According to an NFL demographics report shared by Eagles beat writer Robert Maaddi, Bieniemy was the only minority coach to receive requests from each of the seven teams with head-coaching vacancies.
According to the NFL’s 61-page coaching demographics report, the #Eagles requested an interview with Eric Bieniemy. pic.twitter.com/8mIR98GYcK
— Rob Maaddi (@RobMaaddi) February 26, 2021
Chiefs fans already knew that had interviewed with the Falcons, Lions, Jets, Chargers, Jaguars and Texans. The only team where there was really any doubt was with Philadelphia.
So what exactly happened here that prompted Reid to say that Bieniemy didn’t receive a formal request? Was Reid mistaken? Was he possibly covering for the fact that Bieneimy wasn’t interested in interviewing with the Eagles? Did Bieniemy deny the Eagles’ request as he did with the Cardinals in the 2019 cycle? There’s plenty of room for speculation here, but this is really just another footnote on the strange situation surrounding Bieniemy’s candidacy to become an NFL head coach.
