On Friday, the Jacksonville Jaguars officially announced that Liam Coen would be the new head coach of the team. However, the path to get there was far from linear: Coen agreed to become a member of the Jaguars on Thursday during a secret second interview, after he has already verbally agreed to an extension such as the offensive coordinator of Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In a messy Saga, Coen and the Buccaneers came to an agreement on a new extension that Coen would have made one of the best -paid coordinators in the competition. But the next day Coen secretly traveled to Jacksonville to meet the team for a second, personal interview.
The Jaguars that preserved the second interview by Coen under Wraps may have served several purposes, according to Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated. The confidentiality allowed Coen to keep the range of Tampa Bay alive while he went to Jacksonville. But according to Breer, keeping the meeting also kept Jacksonville in accordance with the Rooney Rule, an often controversial rule that teams requires to interview at least two minority candidates for every open position.
Prior to the Coen meeting on Thursday, the Jaguars had only interviewed one candidate who would be eligible: former New York Jet’s head coach Robert Saleh, who had personally interviewed earlier this month. According to the rule, Jacksonville needed a second personal interview to meet the requirement. The other minority candidate of the team, Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, would arrive for a second interview on Thursday.
The Jaguars did not want a word of their meeting with Coen to get out per Breer because they did not want Graham to cancel his interview. After interviewing Graham, the team canceled the second interview of Saleh, which had to take place on Friday.
Coen’s side of things was just as messy. After he had agreed orally to the deal with the Buccaneers, Coen reportedly continued to postpone his final decision with several days and postponed the contract to sign until Thursday morning. From there, Tampa Bay reportedly had difficulty contacting him, with light, assistant GM Mike Greenberg and head coach Todd Bowles all trying to reach Coen.
Coen finally contacted the team and said he was dealing with a personal business and then called Bowles on Thursday in the evening. During the call, by Breer, Coen said that things had changed in Jacksonville and that he was going to speak about the opening with the team personally. However, a Buccaneers employee was tipped by someone in the Jaguars’ facility that Coen was already there, less than an hour after that phone call.
Coen’s renewed interest in the team came one day after team owner Shad Khan managed Trent Baalke General Director. According to multiple reports, Coen gets the chance to effectively choose his GM as part of taking the position-bijna unheard of for a first head coach.
But the way to get there has taken many turns and can lead to further problems on the road. Brian Flores, now the Vikings defensive coordinator, sued the competition for racial discrimination in 2022 under similar circumstances. In the court case, Flores claimed that the New York Giants only interviewed him to satisfy the Rooney rule, despite the fact that he already had a candidate – Brian Daboll – in mind. That lawsuit is underway.
