The Jacksonville Jaguars shifted gears on Wednesday and fired GM Trent Baalke, despite announcing that he would remain with the team just a few weeks ago.
This news came a few hours after Buccaneers OC Liam Coen withdrew from the running for the team’s head coach job.
Jonathan Jones mentions that it “would not be shocking to see the Jaguars make another run at the Buccaneers offensive coordinator” and essentially “make him tell them no twice.”
Rick Stroud of The Tampa Bay Times mentioned earlier that his understanding is that Coen has not officially signed his extension with the Buccaneers and the situation “could literally change any second.”
Prior reports mentioned that top head coaching candidates around the league were concerned about the Jaguars’ keeping Baalke in place as their GM and it could ultimately impact a candidate’s willingness to take the job.
With Baalke out of the picture now, it’s possible that Jacksonville could sway a top candidate like Coen to reconsider the job.
Coen, 39, got his start in college coaching at Brown in 2010 working with quarterbacks. He had stints at Rhode Island, UMass, Maine, and Brown again before making the jump to the NFL as an assistant WR coach with the Rams in 2018.
He moved to assistant QB coach in 2020, then was hired away by Kentucky as their offensive coordinator in 2021. The Rams hired him as offensive coordinator for the 2023 season but he opted to return to Kentucky as their offensive coordinator/QBs coach.
He made his return to the NFL in 2024 when the Buccaneers hired him as their offensive coordinator.
In 2024, the Buccaneers’ offense ranked No. 3 in total yards per game, No. 4 in points scored per game, No. 4 in rushing yards per game, and No. 3 in passing yards per game.
We’ll have more on the Jaguars’ coaching search as the news is available.
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