With a strange hiring process and the obligatory introductory news conference behind him, Liam Coen officially begins his job Tuesday as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars with clear missions in mind: creating a winning culture built on aggressive play and designing a top-flight offense around quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
“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 told reporters Monday in his news 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.”
And Jaguars fans must hope Coen and Lawrence can build a coach-quarterback relationship that the latter has been lacking since Jacksonville made him the No. 1 overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.
He’s played under three head coaches — Urban Meyer, interim Darrell Bevell and Doug Pederson — in four campaigns in which the Jaguars have gone 25-43 in the regular season.
Pederson was fired following a 4-13 season in which injuries limited Lawrence to 10 games.
But to Coen, success starts with the offense, and he said Monday he’ll call the plays for Jacksonville.
Coen, 39, comes to the head coach role with one season as an NFL offensive coordinator under his belt with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2024) and another with the Los Angeles Rams (2022).
He is credited with turning the Baker Mayfield-led offense into a juggernaut last season with the Bucs, who finished third in the NFL in yards per game (399.5) and fourth in points (29.5). The previous season, the Buccaneers were 23rd and 20th in the league, respectively.
After the news conference, Coen huddled with local reporters and told them he intends to install a new mindset in his players on both sides of the ball.
“I want savages. We want to be savages,” Coen said, per The Florida Times-Union. “That physical mindset. When our opponents turn on the tape, what are they looking at? Are they seeing guys playing through the echo of the whistle?”
Off the field, he wants to create a united group.
“I heard guys that are yearning for more,” he said. “More culture, more unity, more communication, just everybody being on the same page. A true, aligned vision, and for everybody to be able to tell each other some hard truths in ways and see each other’s blind spots and communicate those because that’s where the growth occurs.”
He told reporters he also plans to create individual goals for each player, identifying areas on which to build.
“They want more responsibility on both sides of the balls, but with a clear vision,” Coen said. “They want to be able to be coached hard, but understand that it’s coming from the right place, and there’s a trust and an honesty there. Because that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Jaguars hired Coen on Friday, two days after he reportedly withdrew his name from consideration for the job.
Coen initially was set to remain with the Buccaneers on a new contract that the Tampa Bay Times said would have made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL at $4.5 million per year.
The Jaguars parted ways with general manager Trent Baalke on Wednesday, and several hours later, Coen left the Buccaneers for the Jaguars for a five-year deal the Times said is worth nearly $60 million.
He addressed his rather awkward departure on Monday after the news conference.
“At the end of the day? It came down to business,” Coen told the Times. “It did. It came down to family and business and a dream that was right in front of you.”
–Field Level Media
