The Jacksonville Jaguars have a new head coach. Liam Coen, offensive coordinator of the Buccaneers, is leaving Tampa Bay to become the 10th coach in Jags’ history. It should have been a relatively easy hire, a simple step up for one of the NFL’s most promising coordinators. Instead we’re left with one of the most dramatic, twisting and turning stories in years — full of hurt feelings, drama, and an incredible 48-span that saw Coen go from pulling his name out of consideration in Jacksonville, to now taking over the franchise.
It’s left one fanbase shouting for joy at landing a new head coach and another cursing his name after losing offensive coordinators to head coaching jobs in back-to-back seasons (along with Dave Canales taking over the Panthers), while wondering if they’ll have the worst coach of the three teams when the dust settles.
There’s information we know, details we don’t, and some elements only privy to the parties involved. So, let’s cut through the drama, separate what we know from what we don’t and dive into how all this went down.
Liam Coen interviews with the Jaguars
This is the simplest element of this story. Jacksonville was interested in Coen at the beginning of their coaching search, but had to wait with the Buccaneers making the playoffs. When Tampa Bay was eliminated they brought Coen in, where he met with ownership, and (at the time) GM Trent Baalke.
Coen left without a deal, though was widely considered as the front-runner for the job. Consider this the calm before the storm.
Coen removes his name from consideration
On Wednesday morning reports emerged that Coen had informed the Jaguars he was removing his name from consideration for the head coaching job, and was not interested in taking a second interview with the team.
Speculation (correctly) was that a blocker for Coen taking the job was Baalke. One of the least-talented, most-reviled general managers in the NFL, Baalke had somehow been retained after the firing of Doug Pederson, much to the chagrin of Jaguars’ fans, and to the shock of the NFL world.
Known for his strong (often incorrect) opinions about football, Baalke was a blocker to any promising coach taking the job. Taking Travon Walker over Aidan Hutchinson in the 2022 NFL Draft is just one of Baalke’s numerous missteps, and behind the scenes he has a reputation for being difficult to work with.
Jaguars fire Trent Baalke
Coen rejecting a second interview was seemingly the straw that broke the camel’s back for Jaguars’ owner Shad Khan. Seeing the damage retaining Baalke as GM was having on his head coaching search, the Jaguars softened his leaving of the team, referring to it as a “mutual separation” in a statement by Khan.
“Following several discussions with Trent Baalke this week, we both arrived at the conclusion that it is in our mutual best interests to respectfully separate, effective immediately.”
This was the move Jaguars fans had wanted, but it was seemingly too little, too late — as it was widely accepted Coen was now out of their grasp.
Meanwhile in Tampa Bay …
It’s here the drama gets taken up a dozen notches. When the Jaguars’ fired Baalke it prompted the Buccaneers to react. Knowing this was in response to Coen withdrawing his name, the team reportedly offered their offensive coordinator a new contract, one that would make him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL.
It came with a caveat: If he agreed to the contract Coen would not be allowed to take a second interview with the Jaguars.
Coen reportedly agreed to the deal that would keep him in Tampa Bay, but crucially never signed the new contract.
Jags make an offer Liam Coen can’t refuse
With the biggest stumbling block out of the way, the Jaguars made another pitch to Liam Coen. With Baalke gone the job became 1000 times more appealing, with a solid roster and weapons opening things up for an offensive coach.
In addition, the Jaguars reportedly offered Coen serious power to shape the franchise as he saw fit.
So what changed for Liam Coen? He got on the plane to Jacksonville after Jags’ ownership called him directly and explained they will let him pick the general manager and would pay him “Ben Johnson” level money along with multiple years, per sources.
— Dianna Russini (@DMRussini) January 24, 2025
Essentially it was too good an offer to pass up. Coen agreed to meet with the Jaguars again, this time with the expectation he would agree to become the team’s new head coach. The twists aren’t done yet.
Meanwhile in Tampa Bay … (again)
The Buccaneers were left in the cold. Their prized offensive coordinator had agreed to stay with the team, but rumors were swirling that the Jaguars’ firing Baalke opened up a door for Coen to take the job.
Tampa Bay tried to reach Coen throughout the day on Thursday, desperate to get assurance he was staying with the organization. That never came, with Coen seemingly ghosting the Buccaneers throughout the day.
The Buccaneers’s attempts to reach Liam Coen went unreturned until about an hour ago, a source tells @NFLonCBS. Yesterday the Bucs agreed to terms to make Coen among the top-paid OCs in the league. Now he’s nearing a deal with Jacksonville
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) January 23, 2025
The reality was that Coen was with his family for much of Thursday. In fact, he was in the hospital with his son who has an auto-immune disease. This is being mentioned because Buccaneers fans have claimed this was fake, and an excuse used by Coen to dodge Tampa Bay.
Ashley Coen, Liam’s wife, cleared this up on Friday morning.
I hate that I even have to say this, but when people are negative about my kids, I will not be silent. Our son is sick, we were at the hospital yesterday seeing a specialist for his autoimmune disease. Please don’t spread misinformation and assume because you heard one side.
— Ashley Coen (@ashleyfordcoen) January 24, 2025
Coen goes to Jacksonville, agrees to become the next head coach
No announcement has been made official at this time, and we likely know why. Albert Breer reports that Jacksonville had asked Coen to keep everything under wraps because they were not yet compliant with the “Rooney Rule,” having only interviewed one minority candidate.
“The secrecy over the visit did serve two theoretical purposes. One, obviously, it would preserve the Tampa offer for Coen, which, again, was contingent on the OC not visiting Jacksonville. Two, it allowed the Jaguars to satisfy the Rooney Rule. Going into Thursday, the Jags only had one minority candidate in for an in-person interview—Saleh’s first was in-person. They needed two to comply, so Graham was slated to come Thursday for the other. But the Jags didn’t want word of their plans getting out, which could cause Graham to cancel.”
Nevertheless, the cat is out of the bag now. There were too many moving pieces to keep this under wraps, and the Jaguars will likely face a fine or some other form of punishment from the NFL for breaching the Rooney Rule.
As for Coen, you absolutely cannot fault the man. NFL head coaching jobs are few and far between, and it was likely a tough decision to reject one in the first place because he didn’t see a working relationship with Trent Baalke. The nature of the Jaguars’ offer changed, so did Coen’s response.
If the Buccaneers are mad they lost their assumed coach in waiting, they shouldn’t have left him being a coach in waiting. Anything else is just sour grapes.
