At the start of this week, it wouldn’t have been a surprise if Liam Coen became the next head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The situation seemed to be moving that way after his first interview on January 15, with a second interview planned for January 22.
However, how the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Jaguars got to this point turned into something unusual.
On Thursday night in Jacksonville, the Jaguars and Coen came to a verbal agreement for him to be the team’s new head coach. Although the formal contract still needs to be signed, it seems like just a formality, and this will likely close a very strange coaching search.
It all started even before Coen did his first interview with the Jaguars. Knowing the interview was coming and thinking Coen had a real chance, Tampa Bay’s GM Jason Licht reached out to Coen to ask what it would take for him to stay with the Buccaneers. Coen responded with a salary demand that would make him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history by a large amount.
Licht then took this request to the Glazer family, who own the Buccaneers, and got their approval. Licht went back to Coen, telling him the team wanted him to stay, but they didn’t want to negotiate any further. Coen then met with the Glazers, who suggested he should at least take the first interview with the Jaguars to get the experience of doing so.
Coen took the interview and did well enough to be one of the three finalists invited to Jacksonville for a second, in-person interview. The other two were Patrick Graham, the defensive coordinator of the Las Vegas Raiders, and Robert Saleh, the former head coach of the New York Jets.
The problem for Coen was that his offer from the Buccaneers depended on him not attending the second interview with the Jaguars.
Coen asked for time to think, then came back asking for a higher salary. The Buccaneers told him the offer was final and that they needed an answer by Monday. He asked for more time until Tuesday, and then on Tuesday evening, he said he’d give an answer Wednesday morning, just before his second interview with the Jaguars.
On Wednesday morning, Coen verbally agreed to the Buccaneers’ three-year deal, making him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history. He spoke with ownership, called head coach Todd Bowles and some players, and sent a group text to the staff with the news. Coen told some people that he thought staying with the Bucs was the right decision in the long term.
News of firing
Then, news broke that the Jaguars had fired GM Trent Baalke, which changed everything about their pursuit of Coen.
That afternoon, as Coen was expected to be at the Buccaneers’ facility to sign his contract, efforts to reach him failed. Around 5 p.m., Coen called Licht, asking if it would be okay to come in Thursday morning to sign, instead of that night. Licht said that was fine.
By 10 a.m. Thursday, the Buccaneers still hadn’t heard from Coen. Assistant GM Mike Greenberg tried to reach him about another coach’s contract being finalized, but Coen didn’t respond to that call either. More attempts by Licht and Bowles to contact him also went unanswered.
Finally, at 11 a.m., Coen’s agent got in touch with the Bucs, saying Coen was dealing with a personal matter. Tampa waited a few hours, and then Licht, Bowles, and others tried again to reach Coen.
Around 5 p.m., Coen called Bowles and told him he was still handling his personal matter, but also said that things had changed in Jacksonville and he was going there to explore the job. Less than an hour after that, someone at the Jaguars’ facility let a Bucs staff member know that Coen had already arrived in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars had emphasized to Coen’s camp how important it was to keep the visit quiet, which may be why Coen didn’t inform the Buccaneers. After firing Baalke, and with a solid financial offer, the Jaguars offered Coen the rare chance to pick his own general manager—a big opportunity for a first-time head coach.
In fact, one of Coen’s colleagues said that Kyle Shanahan’s hiring in San Francisco was the only similar offer he could remember.
The secrecy about the visit served two main purposes. One, it kept the Buccaneers’ offer in play, since it was dependent on Coen not visiting Jacksonville. Two, it allowed the Jaguars to follow the Rooney Rule. By Thursday, the Jaguars had only one minority candidate, Saleh, who had done an in-person interview. They needed two, so Graham was scheduled for a second interview on Thursday. The Jaguars didn’t want news of their plans to get out, which could have caused Graham to cancel his visit.
So, on Thursday morning, with Graham already in Jacksonville, the Jaguars canceled Saleh’s second interview scheduled for Friday.
In the end, both the Jaguars and Coen reached the outcome they wanted, despite how complicated the situation was.
