The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have blocked another of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ interview requests as they look to build out their coaching staff under new head coach Liam Coen.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Jaguars requested to interview Bucs’ assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci, who left Kentucky with Coen to join him in Tampa Bay. But the Buccaneers weren’t going to let that happen.
This comes just a few days after the Jaguars requested to interview Tampa Bay offensive line coach Kevin Carberry–another request that was denied by the Bucs.
In both pass protection and in run game production, Tampa Bay had one of the best offensive line units in football last season. So, I’m sure part of the equation is that they don’t want to lose key members of that coaching staff.
But one could also guess, given how things played out with Coen and how he ended up with the Jaguars coaching job, that is a factor in this as well.
One important distinction with all of this is that if Coen wanted to interview a Bucs’ coaching candidate for a role that is a step up from that coach’s current position, Tampa Bay isn’t able to block that. For example, making Picucci the Jaguars’ offensive line coach would be a promotion.
