Liam Coen found success being himself. Will it also work with the Jaguars?

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PALM BEACH, Fla. — Not even the palatial and highly exclusive Breakers resort, situated on 140 immaculate waterfront acres, offered Liam Coen refuge from his cringeworthy moment that went viral on his first day as Jacksonville Jaguars head coach.

Coen was among elite company at the recent NFL annual meeting. The event features deliberations among NFL officials, owners, team presidents and coaches about league policies and playing rules. But it also doubles as a reunion for coaches who rarely connect in person outside of competition.

So as they welcomed Coen, a rookie head coach, to the fraternity with handshakes and bro hugs, some also got their licks in.

“There may or may not have been a few ‘Duvals’ from a few of us coaches throughout the week,” Minnesota Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said with a sly grin.

O’Connell was referring to Coen’s awkward attempt to connect with Jaguars fans by uttering their signature “DUUUVAL!” chant during his introductory news conference. His goofy delivery gave social media content creators a field day.

New Jaguars Head Coach, Liam Coen, says Duuuvvvalll 😂

(via @Jaguars) pic.twitter.com/JInw07NNIh

— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 27, 2025

“He’s probably had just about enough of that, but that’s all part of it here,” said O’Connell, who worked with Coen on the Los Angeles Rams during the 2020 season. “But that’s the best and most fun we have here as coaches, spending time together the way we do.”

Coen took the ribbing in stride. The Warwick, R.I., native and former University of Massachusetts and Arena Football League quarterback is comfortable in his own skin. He carries himself with an authenticity that makes him easy with which to connect, and an earnestness and drive that has paved the way for a rapid ascension through the coaching ranks.

Coen’s offensive mind is no laughing matter, colleagues say. That’s why after just one season as play caller for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — a 2024 campaign in which his unit ranked among the top five in every major statistical category — he became a hot commodity.

The Las Vegas Raiders wanted to hire him.

The Bucs wanted to keep him.

The Jaguars landed him.

Jacksonville hit the reset button once again after finishing last season 4-13 and missing the playoffs for the second straight year. It has made the playoffs just once, in 2022, since advancing to the AFC Championship Game in the 2017 season.

But this time, after whiffing badly on Urban Meyer in 2021 and Doug Pederson the last three seasons, Jaguars owner Shad Khan has gone young and unproven. Khan has entrusted his franchise to a pair of 30-somethings in Coen (39) and new general manager James Gladstone (34), who were both rising stars with the Rams.

The Jaguars hope the Sean McVay and Les Snead disciples can orchestrate a turnaround similar to the Rams’ revival that began in 2017.

While Gladstone works largely behind the scenes to retool a roster that features a mix of studs and duds, Coen is the front man. He is tasked with ensuring quarterback Trevor Lawrence, the No. 1 pick in 2021, lives up to his $275 million contract extension and helps Jacksonville contend with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert and their AFC front-runner squads.

There’s no question Coen can X and O it with the best of them. But there’s a whole graveyard full of once-promising NFL offensive coordinators who failed to translate play-calling expertise into head coaching success.

Whether Coen can turn the Jaguars around hinges largely on his ability to remain true to himself, provide guidance to an equally unproven coaching staff and connect with and inspire an entire roster to catch his vision.

Those familiar with Coen say his strengths suit him well for this undertaking.

“He’s an elite communicator, and I think that bridges a lot of gaps,” Gladstone said at the NFL Scouting Combine.

O’Connell was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2020, when Coen was assistant quarterbacks coach. O’Connell described Coen as a “really smart guy, knows how to communicate, has a great way about himself with the players, and I think that’s just going to transition to him in this role.”

Those endorsements matched what Jaguars chief strategic officer Tony Khan (Shad Khan’s son) heard about Coen as he made calls around the league to vet him before his hiring.

“In talking with a lot of people, I learned that Liam connects with people of all experience levels,” Tony Khan said during a break in sessions at the league meeting. “He brings a great energy and even though he’s a young man, he’s got a lot of experience. He’s a great leader and has a very powerful energy. I think he’s going to be a tremendous head coach.”

The Khans viewed Coen’s energy and fresh approach as the perfect remedy for their languishing franchise. Since his hiring, the coach has worked to shape the football side of the organization in his own image.

Rather than fill out his coaching staff with a host of older assistants whose experiences could have helped his transition as a first-time head coach on any level, Coen sought lieutenants like himself. He tabbed a pair of rookies — 29-year-old Grant Udinski and 42-year-old Anthony Campanile — as his offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.

Coen said he was looking for “hunger” in deciding who was best for those roles.

“I wanted guys that are trying to prove it, guys that want to continue to ascend throughout the profession,” Coen said. “I think that we have plenty of experience to get this thing done. I believe in the staff that we built. … I’ve got a lot of guys that we can go and call in times of crisis that are going to be more than welcome to (offer advice in) some of those conversations. … We have a lot of guys that have been in the trenches in some really productive organizations. There’s not one coach that we hired that didn’t have another opportunity.”

While Coen’s NFL resume consists of only five seasons, his career in full spans 15 seasons. His first coaching job was at Brown in 2010, followed by stops at Rhode Island, UMass and Maine before cracking the NFL ranks as assistant wide receivers coach with the Rams. Coen left the Rams to serve as Kentucky’s offensive coordinator in 2021, landing his first job as a play caller. He returned to L.A. in 2022 to replace O’Connell after the latter left for the Vikings. He then rejoined Kentucky for the 2023 season before becoming the Bucs’ offensive coordinator last year.

And Coen has coaching in his blood.

His father, Tim, coached high school football for years. As his father’s quarterback, running the Wing-T offense at La Salle Academy in Providence, R.I., Liam Coen learned about the intricacies of play designs and the importance of finding players with versatility.

“He had a lot of different skill players right on the field at once. It might not be just a wideout or just a tight end or just a running back. It was three different skill players that ultimately could do different things,” Coen said. “And so, when you watch that growing up, and you see the usage of it, I was always impressed by the misdirection of the Wing-T and how everything looked the same but ended up different. … Then I get to the Rams, and you hear about the complexity and illusion and the way sometimes we’re running the same plays, but make them look different.”

Coen describes his time with the Rams as “getting my Ph.D. in coaching” because of all he learned from McVay about offensive architecture, game strategy and culture/relationship building. Coen still recalls the evening in 2018 during his first offseason with the Rams when he found himself in his office, drawing up plays and digesting all that he was learning as a rookie NFL assistant.

“I’m drawing and just trying to not feel like I’m getting in the way, and it’s like 6 p.m., and (McVay) walks by my office, comes in and is like, ‘Hey, man. Just wanted to say you’re doing a great job, and I appreciate you being here. I’m really happy you’re here.’

“I was like, ‘Wow. You can be told you’re doing a good job in this field?’ Because all the other places I’ve been and how I’ve grown up, it’s like, hey, you just do what you’re told, when you’re told, and you don’t do it because somebody said ‘good job.’ … (It was) a little bit more of a soldier mentality. … But this was a different feeling that, OK, it’s OK to tell guys, ‘Hey, man, I love you.’ It’s OK to open up and be actually a human being, too. And so that was always the culture where you felt like, all right, I have to be at a high level while I’m here, but man, I can be myself.”

McVay noted Coen’s loyalty and dedication during the Rams’ grueling 5-12 2022 season, when Coen was offensive coordinator.

“Liam and I went through what was — and I’ve talked about it before — the most challenging year that I’ve ever had in coaching,” McVay said in Palm Beach. “At the time, it was not fun. But I think we would both say so much growth occurred for us both, having to go through some really hard stuff and challenge a lot of the things that you are built on, that you’re about, and it revealed some things in me. I know that was really hard on (Coen), and I could have done a much better job of being the leader that really our team and that he deserved as the offensive coordinator.

“But I know this: We’re a lot closer for having gone through it. It made us both stronger.”

Last season, Coen drew on those lessons of adaptability as he and the Buccaneers offense weathered rampant injuries, including the loss of top wide receivers Chris Godwin and Mike Evans for extended stretches. Coen found other ways to better utilize tight ends and running backs in the passing game to compensate. The Buccaneers endured a four-game losing streak immediately following those injuries. But they regrouped to win six of their last seven games to finish the regular season 10-7, win the NFC South and reach the postseason once again.

Coen’s adaptability and resilience likely stood out to prospective employers, but his work with quarterback Baker Mayfield, who passed for a career-best 4,500 yards and 41 touchdowns, also turned heads.

The Jaguars are hoping Coen can similarly help Lawrence revive his career. Lawrence earned 2022 Pro Bowl honors after helping the Jaguars reach the playoffs in his second NFL season. Then came a 2023 mired by regression and a 2024 campaign cut short by a shoulder injury.

Jacksonville only just began its offseason workout program this week, but in talks with Lawrence while laying the foundation for his relationship with the quarterback, Coen said he senses Lawrence has a strong hunger and sense of urgency. And the thirst for improvement extends well beyond the quarterback.

“Guys want to get better,” Coen said. “We have felt that for us this offseason, guys are as eager to get in the building as we are as coaches.”

The early stages of offseason workouts don’t involve much beyond conditioning and classroom sessions. However, Coen wants to instill a culture in which players immediately recognize a new energy and intentionalism.

When he was recruiting coaches for his staff, Coen told his targets: “Hey, come just be bold, man. Come do something different. Come be a part of something that may not be what you’re used to. … Be a part of something new and build it the way you want to be able to build it, do things that you know are hard. It’s gonna be hard, but that’s the fun part.”

Coen has offered his new players a similar sales pitch, determined to stoke their competitive fires while also fueling a sense of unity and appreciation for the opportunity at hand.

That’s how the coach has approached every leg of his short yet remarkable NFL journey. Now that he finds himself in the leading role, he doesn’t plan to change.

“I learned that working with (McVay). … I felt like he stepped into that building and was truly himself every single day,” Coen said. “And that was something I really focused on last year (in Tampa). I wasn’t trying to be somebody else. I was really just trying to be myself, and if everybody does that, good things typically happen.”

(Top photo: James Gilbert / Getty Images)

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