Jaguars hire Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as new head coach

With Baalke out of the image, it appears Coen regained curiosity within the opening. Jacksonville’s fascination with Coen was definitely comprehensible. Coen directed the Buccaneers to a top-four end in whole yards, passing yards and dashing yards per recreation in his first season as Tampa Bay’s play-caller, serving to Baker Mayfield reset his career-high marks in passing yards (4,500) and passing touchdowns (41) alongside the way in which.

Maybe much more exceptional was the revival of Tampa Bay’s dashing assault, which completed useless final in yards per recreation in 2023 and loved an unimaginable turnaround in 2024, driving a three-man backfield headlined by rookie Bucky Irving to a fourth-place end in dashing yards per recreation in 2024.

Though they’re coached by a defensive-minded particular person in Bowles, the Buccaneers turned an offensive group in 2024 due to Coen’s means to extract probably the most from his gamers.

Irving’s success (207 carries, 1,122 yards, eight dashing touchdowns) propelled him to the highest of the depth chart within the second half of the season whereas returning again Rachaad White and beforehand unheralded bruiser Sean Tucker mixed to chip in one other 921 yards and 5 touchdowns. Mayfield even discovered success by means of the air with out his high two targets — Mike Evans and Chris Godwin — leaning on the likes of tight finish Cade Otton and budding star rookie Jalen McMillan to maintain their offensive machine firing. As soon as Evans returned, he teamed up with Mayfield to steer the Buccaneers to a different NFC South title, clearing the 1,000-yard receiving mark on the ultimate play of the common season.

Coen comes from the Sean McVay teaching tree, having frolicked beneath McVay in Los Angeles earlier than bouncing between the Rams and the College of Kentucky for just a few seasons. When Dave Canales left Tampa to take the Panthers’ high job in 2024, the Buccaneers turned to Coen to orchestrate the offense and loved the fruits of his labor all through 2024, watching Mayfield surpass his personal ceiling beforehand set beneath Canales.

These fast outcomes have been robust sufficient to persuade the Jaguars that Coen was who they wanted to pair with quarterback Trevor Lawrence in an effort to get the previous No. 1 choose again on monitor, and thus, the whole Jaguars franchise. Jacksonville has been reeling since its second-half collapse to finish the 2023 season, lacking the playoffs in spectacular trend and watching these unfavorable outcomes spill over right into a 4-13 end in 2024.

These outcomes left proprietor Shad Khan dissatisfied sufficient to fireplace Pederson, initially backing Baalke earlier than reversing course and firing the GM in what now appears to have been an try and land Coen. Ultimately, it labored out for Khan’s membership, which now should rent a normal supervisor able to working in tandem with Coen to form the Jaguars’ future in his imaginative and prescient.

After signing Lawrence to an extension final offseason, that imaginative and prescient will embrace the Clemson product. The remainder stays to be decided for the Jaguars, who will try to copy the Buccaneers’ success beneath the course of their meteoric play-caller.