After Dan Quinn was named the new head coach for the Washington Commanders, Eric Bieniemy was not retained. Many thought that he would be a hot commodity for the offensive coordinator openings in the NFL, but by the time he had become available all of them were filled. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Pete Thamel, Bieniemy will now head to UCLA as their new associate head coach/offensive coordinator.
“This is a great opportunity for me to help support DeShaun as a new head coach, to work with him and for him as well,” Bieniemy told CBS Sports Senior NFL Insider Josina Anderson and NFL writer Garrett Podell via text message. “I chose to fly under the radar during this hiring process, and my experience generated a lot of interest from a number of NFL teams prior to coming to this decision.”
Before becoming the OC at Washington, Bieniemy won two Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs, in 2019 and 2022. In his playing days, he was a running back who starred as a running back at Colorado, he then played in the NFL from 1991-1999. Bieniemy had left the Chiefs to join the Commanders under Ron Rivera. In just two seasons, things didn’t go as planned. The team got worse, though not entirely Bieniemy’s fault, and Rivera eventually got fired, leaving Bieniemy looking for new opportunities.
Early on, teams had shown interest in Bieniemy as both an OC and a head coach. However, none had moved forward with him allowing Bieniemy the opportunity to return to the college ranks where he had coached from 2001-2005 and again in 2011-2012.
This will be the second stint for Bieniemy at UCLA, the same place where he served as a running backs coach from 2003-05.
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