When it came to the Jacksonville Jaguars search for their next head coach, how did Liam Coen separate himself from the others?
Overall, the Jaguars interviewed 10 candidates throughout the search process and as owner Shad Khan put it, the “fundamental question” asked to each interviewee was, how do they plan to get Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars’ offense back on track?
“I think with the lack of success we’ve had here,” said Khan on Monday, “certainly over the last year and a half, it’s a chance for reflection from me: what was the fundamental thing that we need to address?
“And the No. 1 thing obviously is the quarterback position. Our commitment to Trevor, I think it’s well known, and I believe in him, so it started with that. And that was the fundamental question to all of the candidates: how would they do it? And after we got done with that, it was very evident to me that Liam was the guy.”
Given how the Tampa Bay offense performed in Coen’s first season as the offensive coordinator, it’s not surprising that his response to Khan’s question impressed the Jaguars’ owner.
In one year, the Bucs’ went from having the worst rushing offense in football in terms of yards per rush to ranking top five in that category. Meanwhile, through the air, the Bucs’ also ranked top five in passing yards per game while Baker Mayfield had a career year in many respects.
Overall, the Tampa Bay offense was the only unit in football to rank top five in scoring, passing yards per game, and rushing yards per game in 2024.
As Coen described on Monday, he plans to build the Jaguars’ offense around Lawrence. Accomplishing that will also be a collaborative venture, with Lawrence having a say in what that looks like.
“How do we make Trevor Lawrence and this offense as dynamic and explosive as we can be? We’ve got to build it around him, we’ve got to make every part of this about improvement, and he will be a part of that process,” Coen said during Monday’s introductory press conference.
“He’s earned that right. I cannot respect his toughness and mentality and work ethic more than I do already from afar. This will all be about Trevor.”
While there is a lot that went into the success that the Bucs’ offense had under Coen, one of the key elements to that equation was having a steady running game to lean on.
That ability helps keep the offense ahead of the sticks and out of predictable passing situations. Regularly operating from manageable down-and-distances also opens up the playbook for the play-caller and opportunities in the passing game for the quarterback to exploit.
We can also glean from Coen’s time in Tampa that the heavy usage of motion is a factor as well, which can keep defenses off-balanced and at times tip their hand to what coverage they might be in.
Coen also allows his quarterbacks to have the autonomy at the line of scrimmage to run multiple plays depending on what alignment the defense is in.
Regardless of who the Jaguars went with as their head coach, maximizing Lawrence’s abilities was always going to be a top priority. And Coen has shown that he can not only do that with the quarterback position, but do so in a very short timeframe.
