NFC Notes: Liam Coen Meeting With Jaguars, Falcons, Mike Kafka, Saints

Buccaneers

• Dan Graziano of ESPN reports that when the Buccaneers received the interview request from the Jaguars for OC Liam Coen, GM Jason Licht asked Coen, “What’s your number?” meaning how much would it take to keep him.
• Coen came back with a number between $4-5 million per year, which would have made him the highest-paid coordinator in the league and the number was contingent upon him not taking the in-person interview in Jacksonville.
• One source told ESPN that even if Coen had signed the contract, they couldn’t have technically prevented him from going to the interview with the Jaguars.
• Bucs ownership wanted Licht to get a decision from Coen by Tuesday night, while Coen asked the Buccaneers if he could sign his new contract Thursday morning. The team agreed but was not aware Jacksonville was back in the running for Coen’s services after he texted Licht, HC Todd Bowles, and QB Baker Mayfield on Tuesday night saying he was staying with the team.
• Coen’s agent, Jacques McClendon, then texted the front office on Thursday morning to let them know Coen was at an appointment, with the Buccaneers likely being aware this meant he was still interviewing with the Jags.
• Buccaneers sources say that Coen did not reach out to the team until later that evening when he called Bowles and said: “I might have to think about Jacksonville.”
• At that point, Bowles and the Buccaneers had been tipped off by someone in the Jaguars’ facility that Coen was there interviewing, with Coen then becoming stressed that word had gotten out, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.
• A source told Fowler that part of the Jaguars’ urgency was that they feared the Buccaneers could seek to make Coen a head coach in waiting, similar to how they positioned Bowles as the league’s highest-paid defensive coordinator under previous HC Bruce Arians.
• A league source also told Fowler that Coen ended up signing a five-year deal, with Graziano reporting the deal is in the $12 million per year range. Coen will also have a heavy influence on the Jaguars’ search for a new manager, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation.
• Coen left the Jaguars’ later that evening and texted the Bucs to let them know he was taking the Jaguars’ job, with one Tampa Bay source saying the following on the frustrating communications: “We’ve been here before. The manner in which it unfolded is still a little tough to comprehend…Life goes on.”

Falcons

Falcons HC Raheem Morris and GM Terry Fontenot weighed in on the team’s miscues on special teams including the missed kicks from K Younghoe Koo.

“Obviously, we missed entirely too many kicks this year,” Morris said, via the team website. “The brutally honest truth, that can’t happen. We have to find ways to make those kicks. That certainly plays into the part of not winning the amount of games you want to win. From an overall standpoint, of us playing special teams, we had a lot of plays. We did. We scored touchdowns on special teams. We blocked kicks. We’ve done a lot of really good things.”

“With Koo, I know him personally,” Fontenot added. “He feels the same frustration that we all feel, and he’s going to work hard to get himself back to the standard that he’s been at for the majority of his career. And us as a staff, we have to make sure, No. 1, we’re supporting him, but also we’re bringing in, at every position, competition to make sure that we’re continuing to enhance those things.”

Saints

• Jordan Raanan mentions that if Mike Kafka gets the Saints’ head coaching job multiple league sources expect him to bring in Wink Martindale as his defensive coordinator.