Getty Images
If the NFL were to hand out an award for the most dysfunctional coaching search of 2025, that award would almost certainly go to the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s been a bizarre week for the Jags, who are hiring Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen as their new head coach. And yes, that’s the same Liam Coen who decided he didn’t want the job on Wednesday, but ended up taking it anyway.
So how did that happen? Let’s take a look at the timeline of dysfunction in Jacksonville.
JAN. 6
- Jaguars fire Doug Pederson, but keep general manager Trent Baalke. On Jan. 6, the Jags made the decision to fire Pederson, which wasn’t a huge surprise, but in a shocking move, they did decide to keep Baalke in place. At the time, there were multiple reports that suggested the Jags would have a tough time finding a new coach if they decided to keep Baalke, but they ignored those warnings and kept him anyway.
JAN. 11
- Jaguars interview Ben Johnson. At the time of the interview, it felt like Johnson would be a good fit, especially since the Jaguars already had a franchise quarterback in place, which is something Johnson definitely wanted from his future team.
JAN. 15
- Jaguars interview Liam Coen. Four days after interviewing Johnson, the Jags brought in Coen for his first interview. The Jaguars interviewed a wide ranged of candidates, but it seemed like they were going to go with an offensive guy and at this point, Coen or Johnson made the most sense.
Liam Coen set to become Jaguars coach after informing Buccaneers he is departing team
JAN. 21
- Ben Johnson passes on the Jaguars job. The Lions offensive coordinator ended up getting hired by the Bears on Jan. 20. On that same day, The Athletic reported that Johnson had no interest in the Jaguars job, because he didn’t like their “setup.” That’s the polite way of saying that there was no way he was going to work with Baalke.
JAN. 22
- Coen decides not to show up for second interview with Jaguars. Coen was scheduled to have his second interview for the Jaguars coaching job on Wednesday, but in a stunner, he backed out of the interview and decided to stay with the Buccaneers.
- Why Coen snubbed the Jaguars. It’s pretty clear that Coen didn’t want to work with Baalke, so that was one reason he snubbed the Jags. Another reason is because he got a huge offer from the Bucs: According to Sports Illustrated, the Buccaneers offered him a three-year deal on Monday that was going to make him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history. The new contract came with one catch: If Coen wanted to sign it, then he wouldn’t be allowed to go to Jacksonville for a second interview, so that combined with the fact he didn’t want to work with Baalke is likely why he called off the Wednesday meeting with the Jaguars.
- Baalke gets fired. Just hours after Coen snubbed the Jaguars, team owner Shad Khan finally realized that it was going to be impossible to hire a good candidate with Baalke running the show, so in a total stunner, he FIRED his general manager.
JAN. 23
- Jaguars make second effort to land Coen. With Baalke out of the way, the Jags called Coen back and asked him to reconsider a second meeting. At that point, Coen was clearly interested and the two sides started negotiating a contract on Thursday night. However, Coen never told the Buccaneers about his plans. The Bucs tried to reach Coen for several hours on Thursday, but they got ghosted. Coen eventually talked to someone with the Bucs early Thursday evening, CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones reported.
- Coen finally gets hired. After a dramatic 48 hours, Coen finally got hired as Jaguars head coach late Thursday night. According to The Athletic, the Jags are going to let Coen pick the team’s new general manager and they’re also going to pay him a lot of money, so basically, it was an offer Coen couldn’t refuse.
- Robert Saleh was supposed to interview on Thursday. To make things even weirder, the Jaguars were actually supposed to interview Saleh on Thursday, but Saleh ended up not going once he realized that the Jags were targeting Coen. With Jacksonville no longer an option, Saleh will likely end up back in San Francisco as the 49ers defensive coordinator, according to The Athletic.
If you’re scoring at home, the Jaguars fired their head coach, but kept their general manager, but then had at least two candidates lose interest in the job because they didn’t like the general manager, so they fired the general manager, then turned back to one of the candidates that spurned them and made him their head coach.
If that’s too confusing of a summary, you can read our full story on Coen’s hiring here.
