On Thursday evening, the Jacksonville Jaguars held a live panel event at EverBank Stadium for fans to attend and hear from new head coach Liam Coen and Hall of Famer Tony Boselli.
At the end, Coen took some fan questions and was asked what he envisions for the Jaguars offense:
“There’s a core foundational belief that we want to play with, we want to be fast, and what does that mean? Fundamentally sound, attacking, situational masters, and tough–both mentally and physically,” said Coen.
While here, Coen is describing what he wants the offense–and team–to look like on the field, accomplishing that starts off the field with the culture and standards he establishes as the head coach.
Rewinding to this past Monday during his introductory press conference, Coen said that Step 1 was establishing the culture. Once that standard is set, then you get into the fundamentals and technique, followed by the scheme. But he reiterated that it all starts with culture.
That culture element was also something that quarterback Trevor Lawrence brought up during his end of season press conference when asked what he wanted in a next head coach.
Lawrence specified that he wanted a leader who can help build a “tough team,” both mentally and physically that can withstand the ups and downs of a season. He added that two seasons ago, the Jaguars did a great job of that, but lost that edge over the last year-plus.
Now circling back to that original fan question Coen was asked, he would go on to say this as well:
“What does that look like? I can’t tell you,” Coen said. “We will be in 11 personnel, 12 personnel, 21 pony personnel and be able to mix this thing up so defenses aren’t getting a beat. We’ve got to be able to do those things to give our players the best chance.”
As any coach does, Coen has core fundamentals and principles that his scheme is built around. But the reason he couldn’t specify what the offense might look like Xs and Os-wise, well that’s all dependent upon the opponent and who is on the roster.
The weekly game-plan is going to be tailored to who the Jaguars are facing and overall offensive structure will be based upon the skill sets on the roster.
What we do know, and Coen has said this, is that the offense will be built around Lawrence. We also saw from Coen’s time in Tampa Bay, and he described this as well, that the running game is going to be a really important factor to the overall offensive success.
Beyond the talent on the offensive side of the ball, the multiplicity of Coen’s scheme should help with some of the heavy lifting when it comes to making this Jaguars’ unit difficult to defend.
