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Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy “remains a prime candidate” for the same position with the Baltimore Ravens, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Per Bieniemy himself, the only interview he has taken was for the head coaching position with the Indianapolis Colts, and he said, “I thought it went great,” according to The Washington Post’s Nicki Jhabvala. However, as far as any interest from other teams in him making a lateral move to fill their offensive coordinator positions, he said that he was completely focused on game planning to beat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl. Schefter also listed the Washington Commanders as one of the teams where Bieniemy is a “prime candidate.”
The Baltimore Ravens is looking for Greg Roman’s replacement following his January 19 resignation. The Ravens requested to interview Bieniemy on January 29, Schefter tweeted.
Bieniemy was the Chiefs’ offensive coordinator for the five seasons, during which the unit has evolved and Patrick Mahomes has developed into an All-Pro quarterback. In Baltimore, he’d work for John Harbaugh, a member of Chiefs head coach Andy Reid’s distinguished coaching tree, and help elevate the game of quarterback Lamar Jackson.
Ravens Advised to Give Jackson Full Guaranteed Contract
While the team’s most pressing priority is finding its next offensive play-caller, NFL.com’s Gregg Rosenthal wrote on February 7 that its top offseason priority should be giving into their star quarterback’s contract demands “or close to it.”
If a new contract cannot be reached by the start of the new league year, which is March 15, the belief, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, is that the team will use the exclusive franchise tag on Jackson, which would keep him on the roster for at least one more season.
However, it would also make surrounding him with more talent on offense and retaining the services of some of their other starters and key role players more difficult because his cap hit under the franchise would be “just north of $45 million,” according to Rosenthal.
He also mentioned that the lucrative extensions given to Deshaun Watson by the Cleveland Browns and to Kyler Murray by the Arizona Cardinals last year drove up Jackson’s asking price and complicated negotiations. Watson, in particular, was given the first fully guaranteed long-term deal in NFL history worth $230 million in March and Murray was given $160 million in guarantees in July.
“Jackson is obviously a superior player to both and should expect nothing less,” Rosenthal wrote. “If certain NFL franchises don’t want to guarantee contracts for their best players, maybe it’s time they let those superstars go to teams that will.”
He went on to bring up how every other major American sports league dishes out fully guaranteed contracts to stars and role players alike and believes that Jackson is “absolutely right to stand his ground”.
“The Ravens are poised to use the exclusive tag on Jackson because they know other teams would give up first-round picks and a guaranteed contract to get the 2019 MVP,” Rosenthal wrote.
Former NFL GM Doesn’t Believe a New Deal Will Get Done
Count retired league executive Randy Mueller among those that don’t foresee the two sides agreeing to terms this offseason. In a recent appearance on the Athletic’s Football GM podcast, he does echo the belief that the Ravens will apply the exclusive franchise tag on Jackson but he doesn’t anticipate him being willing to play on it this fall.
“I think he will then disappear somewhere and say he’s not going to play,” Mueller said. “How far he wants to push that is totally up to him. I think the team would say hey if at some point if he wants to get paid, he’s going to have to come play for us.”
He believes the team might “entertain a trade down the road” but he doesn’t think that Jackson is going to budge on his contract ‘fully guaranteed’ demands nor the Ravens on their “organizational philosophy” and practices
“I could easily see him being somewhere else,” Mueller said.
While he didn’t attempt to proclaim or predict where the two-time Pro Bowler would end up, he named the Atlanta Falcons, as an intriguing land spot.
“With Arthur Smith and his offense, that could be a possibility,” Mueller said.
Whoever the Ravens hire to eventually replace Roman is a factor that he also believes will play a factor in whether Jackson decides that Baltimore is the best place for his career and team in terms of what direction they want to head on that side of the ball after constructing their last offensive system solely with highlighting their quarterback’s strengths in mind.
“Once that offensive philosophy has been defined, I think that could go a long way towards what happens with Lamar,” Mueller said. “I don’t think they’re going to let Lamar walk (in free agency).”
As former general manager himself, he believes that it would be “malpractice” if Ravens head front office executive, Eric DeCosta, didn’t have a contingency plan in place by the start of the 2023 season in the event that Jackson hasn’t been locked up or sign to play on the tag.
“They can’t be held hostage,” Mueller said. “I think options are what this is all about. If the Ravens have no options, they’re going to make a bad deal so I think they’ve got to give themselves options.”
The team has proven that they can still win albeit not as comfortably or as often without Jackson when he missed the final five games of the 2022 regular season. That was with former undrafted free agent turned Pro Bowl alternate Tyler Huntley at the helm of Roman’s offense. He is slated to be a restricted free agent but is expected to get tendered so he’ll be around for another year at the most.
There is also the free agent market where solid stop-gap options like Jacoby Brissett and Teddy Bridgewater are slated to be available and would provide the team with a quality insurance policy depending on which direction they head under their new offensive coordinator.
A handful of draft analysts have already begun predicting that the team will attempt to find Jackson’s successor in the first round of this year’s draft in Florida’s Anthony Richardson. Either way, having a backup plan aside from just turning to last year’s backup makes sense as Mueller suggested because, without one, the Ravens have even less leverage.
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