How the Jaguars hired Liam Coen away from the Bucs

ON JAN. 7, a day after the Jacksonville Jaguars fired Doug Pederson as head coach, they began their search for his successor. Eight interview requests went out to eight other teams, one being the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Jaguars wanted to talk to offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who called plays for a Bucs offense that was among the highest scoring in the NFL in 2024.

The Bucs supported Coen doing the virtual interview, which he completed on Jan. 15. Tampa Bay believed it would be a good experience for Coen, who impressed Jaguars owner Shad Khan in the process, according to a source familiar with the team's coaching search. Khan wanted to interview Coen in person.

Khan and the Jaguars' pursuit of Coen kicked off a chain of events that culminated in Coen landing the job -- but not without a trail of chaos. The Bucs were determined to keep their offensive coordinator, even agreeing to make him the highest-paid coordinator in the league earlier this week. The raise was contingent upon him forgoing the second interview with the Jags, so Coen agreed and dropped out of the Jacksonville interview pool Wednesday morning.

But hours later, the Jaguars parted ways with general manager Trent Baalke and Khan reached out directly to Coen. Would he throw his name back in the ring?

By Thursday afternoon, Coen was on his way to Jacksonville for an in-person interview with the Jaguars. And by midnight, the sides had a deal in place for Coen to become their head coach. The Jaguars went from being embarrassed when Coen withdrew to thrilled at landing an offensive guru they hope will solve the puzzle for quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Meanwhile, the Bucs went from believing they had their transformative offensive coordinator secured for several more years to searching for his replacement.

IN HIS FIRST and only season in Tampa, Coen was brought in to replace Dave Canales, who the Carolina Panthers hired as head coach after the 2023 season. Coen had previously spent several seasons on the Los Angeles Rams' staff under Sean McVay, including the 2022 season -- when Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield had a brief stint with L.A. -- as offensive coordinator.

Coen quickly formed a strong rapport with Bucs head coach Todd Bowles and gained approval from team ownership.

He helped lead Mayfield to a career-best 41-touchdown passes, crushing his previous high of 28 from 2023. It was also the third most in franchise history. The fact that Mayfield did this without receiver Chris Godwin for more than half the season and Mike Evans for three games spoke to Coen's ability to adjust his scheme based on the personnel available.

The Bucs racked up 28.6 offensive points per game -- third most in team history, behind only the 2020 Super Bowl-winning Bucs and the 2021 Bucs, which both had Tom Brady at quarterback. Coen also transformed the Bucs' ground game, from a league-worst 88.8 rushing yards per game in 2023 to 149.2 yards per game in 2024 -- fourth most in the league and the best in franchise history.

Given all that success, the Bucs were not surprised the Jaguars wanted to speak to Coen. Bowles even gave him some pointers ahead of the virtual interview.

"Me and Liam are very close -- we have these types of conversations [as far as] what to expect from an interview and everything else," Bowles said Jan. 13 at his season-ending news conference. "At least you know you're picking the right guy. We'll see what happens going forward from there. If they're not talking about your guys for interviews, then you're probably not doing it right."

But encouraging Coen to take the interview didn't mean the Bucs were willing to let their OC walk away.

When the Bucs received the interview request, general manager Jason Licht asked Coen, "What's your number?" meaning how much would it take to keep him, a team source told ESPN's Dan Graziano.

Coen came back with a number: between $4 million to $5 million per year, which would have made him the highest-paid coordinator in the league, according to multiple sources. Bucs ownership agreed to the number -- contingent upon him not taking the in-person interview in Jacksonville. But a Bucs source told ESPN that even if Coen had signed the contract, they couldn't have technically prevented him from going to the interview.

Ownership wanted Licht to get a decision from Coen by Tuesday night, team sources told ESPN.

And on Tuesday night, Coen texted Licht, Bowles, Mayfield and other players to say that he was staying with Tampa.

THE JAGUARS CAME into the week with interviews lined up with Coen, former Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh.

According to a source familiar with the coaching search, Coen's interview was scheduled for Thursday morning and Graham was scheduled to meet with the Jaguars after Coen. Saleh was scheduled for Friday.

But by 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Coen had informed the Jaguars he was pulling himself from consideration to stay with Tampa Bay. The Bucs had his new contract drawn up for him to come in and sign that afternoon.

Shortly after 3 p.m. ET, Khan announced the Jaguars had parted ways with Baalke in their "mutual best interests." Baalke had served as the Jaguars' general manager since 2021.

The move came as somewhat shocking since Khan retained Baalke when he fired Pederson on Jan. 6, saying at a news conference that a complete organizational overhaul would be "suicide." But Khan left the door open that day, saying if any coaching candidate expressed reservations about the organizational structure or working with Baalke, he would be willing to address the topic.

Khan reached out to Coen after firing Baalke and asked Coen to come to Jacksonville the next day to interview for the job, according to multiple team sources. Baalke's presence wasn't the primary reason Coen had declined an in-person interview initially, but it played a role, according to multiple Jaguars sources, as family stability also was important. Coen had coached at five different spots over the past five years: Rams (2018-20), University of Kentucky (2021), Rams (2022), Kentucky (2023), and the Buccaneers (2024).

Meanwhile, Coen asked the Buccaneers if he could sign his new contract Thursday morning. The Bucs obliged, a source told Graziano. At that point, the Bucs were not aware Jacksonville was back in the running, team sources told ESPN.

KHAN AND JAGUARS interim GM Ethan Waugh met with Graham on Thursday morning. Among the others in the room, per a source familiar with the coaching search, was former Jaguars player and Hall of Famer Tony Boselli, who had been acting as an adviser to Khan throughout the search.

Back in Tampa, the Bucs were expecting to see Coen at the AdventHealth Training Center to sign the contract Thursday morning. They started to worry when they couldn't get a hold of Coen or his agent.

A Bucs source told ESPN that Coen's agent, Jacques McClendon, texted the front office at 11 a.m. ET to let them know Coen was at an appointment. McClendon did not respond to requests for comment from ESPN.

One source said the moment Coen and his agent were unreachable, they knew what was going on -- he was interviewing with the Jaguars.

Coen's interview began in the afternoon and a source familiar with the coaching search said Coen was more impressive in the second interview than he was in his first. It became clear as the afternoon progressed that Khan believed he had found Pederson's replacement and the team canceled Saleh's scheduled meeting, per a league source.

But Coen did not reach out to the Bucs to let them know of his whereabouts until approximately 5:50 p.m., a Bucs front office source told ESPN. Coen called Bowles and said, "I might have to think about Jacksonville." At that point, Bowles and the Bucs had been tipped off by someone in the Jaguars' facility that Coen was there interviewing. Coen became stressed that word had gotten out, a Jacksonville front office source told ESPN's Jeremy Fowler.

The source told Fowler part of the Jaguars' urgency stemmed from viewing the Bucs as a threat -- the Jags thought the Bucs 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 coach Bruce Arians. They also saw what happened with Dirk Koetter being elevated to head coach after the dismissal of Lovie Smith after the 2015 season. They were worried about the Bucs making promises.

Bowles has taken the Bucs to the playoffs three straight seasons but had yet to be rewarded with a new contract, so the feeling has been that he has never been on completely solid ground in Tampa, a league source said.

Jacksonville and Coen talked into the evening and started working on the framework of a deal, which a league source told Fowler ended up being a five-year deal. It's believed his deal with Jacksonville will pay him in the $12 million range per year, a source told Graziano.

Coen will also have a heavy influence on the Jaguars search for a new GM, according to a source with direct knowledge of the team's GM search.

Coen left the Jaguars' facility shortly after 9 p.m. ET to head back to Tampa. Not long after, he texted the Bucs to let them know he was taking the Jaguars' job, a team source said.

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This wasn't the first time Coen had changed course. In December 2017, he accepted the offensive coordinator position at Holy Cross before then taking the job as the assistant wide receivers coach with the Rams. On Jan. 23, 2024, Kentucky quarterback commit Stone Saunders told Kentucky Sports Radio that Coen said he was staying at the University of Kentucky as its offensive coordinator.

Coen was then hired by the Bucs on Feb. 3, 2024.

This also wasn't the first time the Bucs have felt stood up at the altar either. It happened twice with Bill Parcells when he was offered the head coaching job in 1991 and in 2002, and it happened with Chip Kelly in 2012.

Coen was the Bucs' third offensive coordinator in three seasons, after Byron Leftwich was fired following the 2022 season and Canales left for Carolina. Mayfield will be playing under his ninth offensive coordinator in eight seasons.

Coen confided in a Bucs assistant that he felt badly about the way it played out, per a Tampa Bay coaching source. The assistant told him there are 32 NFL coaching jobs and Coen needed to take the opportunities when offered, a source told Fowler. A source close to Coen also said he "felt like he owed it to himself" to explore the opportunity. Coen, 39, is a third-generation football coach whose father, Tim, caught him drawing a wishbone offensive formation on a chalkboard at age 4.

Khan and the Jaguars made the hire official Friday, releasing a statement from Coen.

"As head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, I will hire a first-class coaching staff, establish a distinctive and effective brand of football on both sides of the ball, and our players will live for the black and teal," he said. " ... We are ready to get to work."

The Bucs understood Coen wanted to become a head coach but were frustrated by not having better communication when things changed, team sources told ESPN.

But they will figure out what's next because they've "been here before," according to one source.

"The manner in which it unfolded is still a little tough to comprehend," a team source said. "Life goes on."