Andy Reid has said that he was prepared to lose Matt Nagy to a head coaching job and he knew that was coming as early as last season. The Chiefs head coach has been around for a while so he has a good eye for future head coaches — a really good eye considering nearly a quarter of the league’s head coaches come from the Andy Reid coaching tree.
The latest name to watch out for on Reid’s staff is Eric Bieniemy, who is moving from the running backs coach to offensive coordinator.
“I knew Eric Bieniemy was continuing to develop and I told him a year ago to make sure that his pass game stuff was evolving towards quarterbacks and not just staying in that box with the running backs and the o-line, which I had been told as an assistant with Mike Holmgren,” Reid said at the NFL owners meetings this week.
So he saw Beiniemy’s rise coming last year because Nagy was on his way out. Bieniemy’s lack of experience with quarterbacks is exactly what I noticed when he was promoted. The offensive coordinator positions have often come from the quarterback side of things.
One former Reid pupil who came from the quarterback side of things is Doug Pederson, the Eagles head coach who played and coached for Reid.
“I am proud of Doug,” Reid said of Pederson’s Super Bowl title. “You know as well as I do that that is not the easiest place to win, and in particular, win a Super Bowl. It hasn’t been done. And so, for the city, for the organization, for Doug Pederson, my hats off to him. For his coaches, they did a great job. Doug led the charge there. It is good to see Howie Roseman rebound back in there. He had kind of been pushed aside and for him to resurrect himself and spend the time to do all that self-evaluation, there are a lot of good stories in there.”