The Jacksonville Jaguars have reportedly landed their new head coach, getting former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen following a busy and chaotic week within the league’s teaching cycle.
Coen knowledgeable the Buccaneers late Thursday evening that he was taking the Jaguars job after assembly with them for a lot of the day, in keeping with a report from ESPN’s Jenna Laine.
Coen had emerged as a candidate for the Jaguars’ job earlier this week, however he gave the impression to be returning again to Tampa Bay on a deal that was presupposed to make him one of many highest-paid offensive coordinators within the historical past of the league.
However then the whole lot obtained turned the other way up on Wednesday when the Jaguars fired basic supervisor Trent Baalke, re-opening the door for Coen.
He reportedly met with the Jaguars all day on Thursday — with minimal contact with the Buccaneers — earlier than lastly accepting the job.
There are a number of layers to this, however an important one is the obvious poisonous nature of Baalke’s presence in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars initially refused to make a front-office change after one other disappointing season, making the controversial choice to maintain the identical GM in cost. However with the way in which the head-coaching search was going — and failing — with candidates not desirous to take the job, and Coen seemingly being ready to stay as an assistant in Tampa Bay, the Jaguars lastly made the modifications they in all probability ought to have made firstly of the offseason.
That change was apparently sufficient to get Coen to rethink the Jaguars job.
Given how poorly Baalke’s tenure went in Jacksonville by way of success, and the way this head-coaching search performed out with Coen, it’s laborious to think about Baalke getting one other probability as a basic supervisor anytime quickly.
Now Tampa Bay is out there for a brand new offensive coordinator, and the Jaguars get the coach they wished.
Coen spent one season because the Buccaneers offensive coordinator and helped construct a top-five offense through the 2024 season. He takes over a Jaguars staff that has an enormous funding in quarterback Trevor Lawrence and wishes to determine a approach to assist him become the franchise participant they’re paying him to be.
