Liam Coen appears to have had a change of heart.
On Wednesday, Coen, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator, pulled himself out of contention for the Jacksonville Jaguars head-coaching job to stay with the NFC South champions. CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported that the Buccaneers agreed to terms on Wednesday to make Coen one of the NFL’s highest-paid offensive coordinators.
But things seem to have changed after the Jaguars fired general manager Trent Baalke after. According to The Athletic and the Tampa Bay Times, Coen informed the Bucs that he is headed to Jacksonville to become the head coach of the Jaguars.
Jones reported Thursday that Jacksonville circled back with a new offer to Coen after the dismissal of Baalke. Additionally, Tampa Bay’s attempts to reach Coen went unanswered much of the day until later on Thursday evening after reports leaked out that he was back in as the Jaguars’ top head-coaching candidate.
Coen, who will turn 40 on Nov. 8, succeeded Dave Canales as Tampa Bay’s offensive play-caller, and the Buccaneers didn’t skip a beat. They won the division for a fourth consecutive season while producing the NFL’s No. 4 scoring offense (29.5 points per game) and the league’s No. 3 total offense (399.6 yards per game).
Quarterback Baker Mayfield registered career bests in completion percentage (71.4%), passing yards (4,500), passing yards per attempt (7.9), passing touchdowns (41) and passer rating (106.8) while running Coen’s attack in 2024.
Coen is a branch off Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay’s coaching tree. After eight seasons as a collegiate assistant coach, he made his entrance into the NFL as McVay’s assistant wide receivers coach with the Rams in 2018 and 2019. McVay promoted Coen to assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020, and then Coen departed to become the University of Kentucky’s offensive coordinator in 2021, where he coached an attack led by quarterback Will Levis.
Jaguars coaching search: Buccaneers OC Liam Coen speaking with Jacksonville about head coach opening again
Garrett Podell
Once the Minnesota Vikings hired Kevin O’Connell to be their head coach after working as the Rams’ OC, McVay brought Coen back to Los Angeles in that role in 2022. That was the first time Coen had a chance to work with Mayfield following his midseason arrival from the Carolina Panthers. Coen then returned to Kentucky as their offensive coordinator in 2023 before Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles hired him to be his OC and play-caller, a responsibility Coen hadn’t had at the NFL level while working for the Rams.
Coen will have a decent core of young talent to work with in Jacksonville, headlined by quarterback Trevor Lawrence, wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr., two offensive tackles who were drafted in the first two rounds, Pro Bowl edge rusher Josh Hines-Allen, edge rusher Travon Walker and cornerback Tyson Campbell. Now, Coen can see his vision for the Jaguars carried out his way by having a hand in picking the front office he will work with in Jacksonville.
That’s a nice recovery for a Jaguars franchise that appeared to be in disarray just 24 hours ago. Sometimes the solution is as simple as completely starting over in order to have franchise-wide alignment between a team’s desired head coach and the front office.
