The Jacksonville Jaguars are hiring former Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as their new head coach, capping off a wild 48hr saga in the state of Florida.
Coen originally interviewed for the Jaguars head coaching position, but opted to return to Tampa Bay after it was announced that GM Trent Baalke would be returning to the Jags. The Bucs then put together a contract which would have made Coen the highest paid OC in the league, but it was never signed.
In a last ditch effort to secure Coen, Jacksonville subsequently fired Baalke, and asked the 39 year old coordinator to reconsider his decision. Talks resumed from there, with Coen travelling back to Jacksonville on Thursday to meet with owner Shad Khan and interim GM Ethan Waugh. This resulted in a verbal agreement being put into place, as the newest AFC South head coach began to reach out to his Bucs counterparts to inform them of his decision.
The UMass alum was one of 10 candidates that Jacksonville interviewed in their search for a new head coach. The club also was deep in talks with Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh.
He will now become the 8th head coach in franchise history, taking over for Doug Pederson who was relieved of his duties on January 6th following 3 seasons in the Sunshine State. Only Mike Macdonald (SEA), Ben Johnson (CHI), and Sean McVay (LAR) are younger than Coen in the NFL head coaching ranks, as Jacksonville hopes to have found “their guy” for the foreseeable future.
The Jaguars are fresh off a 4-13 campaign and currently hold the 5th overall pick in the upcoming 2025 NFL Draft. According to several reports, Coen will also have a hand in helping to select the team’s new GM in the coming weeks as well.
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