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 night time 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 seemed to be returning again to Tampa Bay on a deal that was alleged to make him one of many highest-paid offensive coordinators within the historical past of the league.
However then every little thing bought 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 whole lot of layers to this, however a very powerful 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 resolution to maintain the identical GM in cost. However with the best way 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 adjustments they in all probability ought to have made initially 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 when it comes to success, and the way this head-coaching search performed out with Coen, it’s exhausting to think about Baalke getting one other likelihood 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 in the course of the 2024 season. He takes over a Jaguars workforce that has an enormous funding in quarterback Trevor Lawrence and desires to determine a manner to assist him grow to be the franchise participant they’re paying him to be.
