Liam Coen is reportedly back in the running to be the head coach of the Jags

One day after agreeing to a deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that would make him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL, Liam Coen visited with the Jacksonville Jaguars on Thursday to discuss their head coaching position, according to ESPN. This is an interesting development.

After choosing to speak with Jacksonville, Coen, who just concluded his first season as the Bucs’ offensive coordinator, contacted Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles, according to the source.

Hours before the Jaguars fired general manager Trent Baalke on Wednesday, the 39-year-old Coen had withdrawn from consideration as a head coach candidate.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan retained Baalke in a press conference on January 6 following the dismissal of head coach Doug Pederson after a 4–13 campaign. However, Khan said that day that if a head coaching candidate had concerns about the front office’s structure or working with Baalke, he would be amenable to a conversation.

Tampa Bay finished fourth in the league in 2024 with an average of 29.5 points per game during Coen’s second term as an NFL offensive coordinator. Third place went to the Buccaneers with an average of 399.5 yards per game, followed by third place with 250.4 passing yards and fourth place with 149.2 running yards. With 110 of 216 third-down tries, they made 50.9 percent of them, which put them first in the league. With 395 first downs, they ranked second in the league.

Under Coen’s direction, Baker Mayfield, the leader of that offense, reached career highs with 41 touchdown passes, 4,500 passing yards, and a 71.4 percent completion rate.

Coen has alternated between the NFL and the University of Kentucky in recent years. In 2021 and 2023, he served as offensive coordinator there. Prior to serving as the Los Angeles Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2022, he was head coach Sean McVay’s assistant wide receivers coach from 2018 to 2019 and assistant quarterbacks coach from 2020.