By Jeff Moeller, Florida Sports Wire
When the dust settled Thursday evening, the Jaguars had a new coach.
Before that, there was plenty of dust kicked up.
Former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who just pulled out of the Jags’ job, pulled himself back into it when Jags. owner Shad Khan and him reportedly agreed to a deal. He becomes the eighth head coach in Jags’ history.
Coen also reportedly had signed an extension to stay with the Bucs and Todd Bowles, but he traveled to Jacksonville Thursday afternoon to meet with Khan and interim GM Ethan Waugh.
After new Bears’ head coach Ben Johnson and other candidates saw former GM Trent Baalke as a roadblock to their taking over the Jags, Coen finally is the solution.
According to reports and sources, Khan offered Coen a bump in pay to raise him near Johnson’s reportedly $13 million annual salary to quickly seal the deal.
Coen was seen as one of the young, hot commodities on the market, and at top of the list for the initial seven head coaching vacancies. He became the fourth hire as an offensive coordinator to Jags’ head coach following Mike Mularkey, Doug Marrone, and Doug Pederson.
He’s 39, and is credited for revitalizing Baker Mayfield to finally reach his potential as top draft pick, as
Mayfield threw for a career-high 41 touchdowns and led an offense that averaged over 28 points a game last season. Coen and Mayfield worked briefly when they were both with the Rams, where Coen was the offensive coordinator in 2022.
Khan and crew’s top priority was hiring a head coach who could help quarterback Trevor Lawrence reach the state of the anticipated generational player (see- Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen) they expected when the Jags drafted him as the top overall pick.
(Lawrence has had his share of injuries, and has thrown for 13,815 yards in his first four seasons. Mahomes had 18,707 and Allen had 14,114 over their first four full seasons)
Coen also has the Herculean task of bolstering the Jags’ running game that did average 4.2 yards per carry, but only 101.7 per game. Tampa went from 88.3 yards in 2023 to 149.2 last season.
The other major task will be to find a defensive coordinator, whose prime focus will be to solve their secondary woes.
At 39, Coen is the fourth-youngest active head coach, and former mentor Sean McVay ironically turned 39 today.
Maybe that’s a good sign.
On the negative side, Coen does have a thin resume with plenty on his plate ahead. He could be in an awkward situation with the hiring of a new GM, and how much say he will have in it.
If Kahn follows suit, former NFL executive and ESPN personality Louis Riddick and Lions’ assistant GM Ray Agnew are at the top of GM hires for current team openings.
However, Khan apparently has one of his top picks to coach his team. And Jags’ fans have a clean slate ahead to once again hang their hopes.
The dust has settled on one issue, and now it’s time to create another slate for another crucial choice as their new GM.