Eric Bieniemy had dinner with Commanders brass last night, interviews for their OC job today

Update: The interview goes to Day 2

Eric Bieniemy became the 8th, and likely final, candidate to interview for the Washington Commanders’ open offensive coordinator job. He had dinner with HC Ron Rivera, GM Martin Mayhew and others last night, and will have his official interview at team headquarters today. Washington is expected to make a strong push to convince Bieniemy to leave Andy Reid and the Chiefs, and take over the Commanders offense that had been run by former OC Scott Turner for all of Rivera’s three seasons here.

Eric Bieniemy has been the Kansas City Chiefs OC for the last 5 seasons, and helped them win their second Super Bowl in four years on Sunday against the Eagles. He has had future Hall of Fame QB Patrick Mahomes during his entire run as Reid’s right hand man, something every OC in the NFL would love. Bieniemy’s history has been working with running backs, and he was the Chiefs RBs coach before Matt Nagy left to take the Bears head coaching job in 2018. Bieniemy signed a 1 year deal to return to the Chiefs last year, and, if he does take a job elsewhere, would likely be replaced by Nagy, who’s already back on the Chiefs staff.

Ron Rivera wants the search for his next OC to be wrapped up by this weekend, and with Bieniemy’s interview finally taking place, there’s a good chance that will happen. Washington also interviewed former Ravens OC Greg Roman this week. They had requested an interview after he resigned, but it’s not known why it took so long to arrange. Roman has not interviewed with any other teams.

Eric Bieniemy would be the highest profile hire for Rivera, and would join a team that has a lot of question marks going into the new league year next month. Washington’s ownership situation casts a massive shadow over next season, and has been brought up by potential OC candidates. If the team is sold this year, Ron Rivera’s seat likely gets very hot, and there has already been a story from Broncos HC Sean Payton that potential buyers of the team had approached him about replacing Rivera.

There are also major questions at QB and on offensive line. Rivera has said that the team intends to have Sam Howell go into the offseason as QB1, but there will be competition and he has to earn that position going into the season. Rivera doesn’t seem interested in going the expensive veteran QB via free agency or trade route again after the Ryan Fitzpatrick and Carson Wentz experiments failed. Sam Howell started one game last season, a Week 18 win over the Dallas Cowboys that saw him go 11 for 19 for 169 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT through the air, and 35 yards and TD on the ground.