Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen reversed course on Friday, leaving an offer on the table to stay in Tampa and become the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL to accept the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job.
Coen’s 180 ended a wild 48-hour saga in which he initially turned down the Jaguars only to covertly resume conversations following the dismissal of general manager Trent Baalke.
And by taking the job, he may have just saved the franchise’s skin.
After Ben Johnson, the highly-coveted offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions, accepted the Chicago Bears head coaching job, Jacksonville’s next move seemed pretty obvious.
While Johnson was reportedly viewed as a top option to replace fired head coach Doug Pederson, the team was also quite impressed with Coen, who apparently wowed the Jags’ brass in his initial interview. According to Jaguar Report’s John Shipley, Johnson and Coen were viewed within the building as candidates 1a and 1b.
However, Coen, who was scheduled to return for a second, in-person interview stunned everyone — including Jags owner Shad Khan and Baalke — when he removed his name from consideration on Wednesday afternoon. As was the case with Johnson, Baalke’s presence played a factor in Coen’s lack of interest in the job, though it wasn’t the primary reason, according to ESPN’s Michael DiRocco.
Still, it was enough for Khan to do what many expected he would do when he fired Pederson and oust Baalke, too. Within hours of Coen’s initial decision to stick with the Buccaneers, Baalke was unemployed.
Ahead of the coaching carousel cycle, NFL insiders indicated that by not firing Baalke along with Pederson, as Khan was widely expected to do in league circles, the Jaguars could potentially be limiting their pool of interested candidates. That turned out to be the case.
Khan’s decision to wait to fire Baalke until his top two options told him no was horrific from a process perspective, but regardless, a franchise that hasn’t strung together back-to-back playoff runs since 1998-99 lucked into some hope.
It remains to be seen if Coen’s run as a head coach will be a successful one. The 39-year-old has limited NFL play-calling experience, but his 2024 Tampa Bay team was a historically efficient offensive unit.
Why the fuss over Liam Coen?
He’s the only coordinator since at least 2000 to hit all of these marks in a single season.
28+ points per game
6.0+ yards per play
65+ percent red zone touchdown rate
50+ percent third-down conversion rate
— Conor Orr (@ConorOrr) January 24, 2025
But even if Coen’s coaching tenure in Jacksonville never amounts to sustained postseason success as the fans so desperately long for, he’s already achieved borderline cult hero status among the Duval faithful.
By getting Baalke — who lost a lot of fan support since the Urban Meyer debacle in his first season as GM — fired only to come back and accept the job, Coen has saved the Jaguars — and Khan, specifically — from themselves.
