Another coaching cycle has come and gone, and Eric Bieniemy remains with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Those within the building in K.C. are just as stupefied as most of the public about why Andy Reid's right-hand man for years isn't steering his own ship.
"It amazes me, honestly," Patrick Mahomes said Thursday on the Dan Patrick Show, via the New York Post. "The first year, you kind of were like, 'All right, it's just his first cycle through.' Then last year, the interviews, you're like, 'For sure he's gonna get a job.' Then this year."
The excuses for why Bieniemy isn't a head coach are thin, hollow, and easily refuted.
"If you look at his track record and the way he's able to coach us, the way he's able to lead men -- people say that, but to be able to lead a locker room of people from every different background, every different race and everything like that, and be able to be the lead of the locker room is a special talent. It's a talent, and he's able to do that," Mahomes noted.
The idea that not calling plays hinders the Chiefs OC from getting hired is worn and proven to be ridiculous. Nearly half the coaches who did get jobs this cycle didn't call plays -- Dan Campbell (Lions), David Culley (Texans), Nick Sirianni (Eagles).
"The way he's able to go about calling plays throughout the game -- I understand we have coach Reid, and coach Reid calls plays, but there's a ton of input from coach Bieniemy and he calls a ton of plays in our game plan," Mahomes said. "It just gets overlooked. I mean, who knows what it is? It's a loss for everybody else in the NFL and a gain for us. Hopefully he gets his chance, because he'll succeed at wherever he is. But if he doesn't, we're glad enough to have him back again."
Bieniemy making back-to-back Super Bowls with the Chiefs could have been an excuse for teams who didn't want to wait to make a hire. That rationale has been disproven in the past -- Matt Patricia, for one, got hired by Detroit after a Super Bowl loss in 2018.
While others get hired, Bieniemy will just keep helping the Chiefs compete for Super Bowls.
"I'm glad I have him, but I'm not so glad I have him," Reid noted. "I was really hoping he would have an opportunity to take one of these jobs."
Maybe next year. Again.