Texans fire Bill O’Brien: 5 Head coach replacements Houston should hire

1. Eric Bieniemy, Chiefs offensive coordinator

This one is obvious. It’s frankly baffling that Eric Bieniemy doesn’t have a head coaching job in the NFL right now. But if the Houston Texans are smart, they shouldn’t let that be the case for long once they have the opportunity to hire him for 2021.

Bieniemy has been a model citizen as he’s been passed over by less qualified and promising candidates for jobs over the years. Just this past offseason, he preached patience and said he’d get a job when the timing was right, despite the fact that many teams searching for new head coaches could’ve used someone with his pedigree.

Andy Reid deserves plenty of credit for what he’s done with Patrick Mahomes, a fellow first-round pick in Watson’s draft class, and the Chiefs offense but Bieniemy has had a heavy hand in the proceedings as well. He’s worked with Mahomes to develop the $500 million-man and shares some of the play-calling duty with Reid.

The coaching tree for Reid has seen plenty of successful branches in recent years and Bieniemy might be one of the best candidates of that bunch. He should be No. 1 on the Texans priority list as they look to find a replacement at head coach for Bill O’Brien.