After flying under the radar for several years, the Jacksonville Jaguars are suddenly the talk of the town. Part of that is because they can go toe-to-toe with the best teams in the NFL. They're 3-1 heading into Week 5 of the 2026 season and have won 10 of their last 12 games (including playoffs) dating back to last year.
Although there are many reasons for Jacksonville's recent success, the biggest reason for their recent ascension is, without a doubt, head coach Liam Coen.
How did the Jaguars end up with Liam Coen?
For a brief moment, it looked like Doug Pederson was the head coach who could turn the Jacksonville Jaguars into a perennial contender. They reached the playoffs and even beat the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card Round in 2022. Understandably, expectations soared, but it would all be downhill from there.
At one point in 2023, the Jags were in contention for the No. 1 seed in the AFC but came crashing down late in the season, losing seven of their last eight games. By 2024, it was clear that Pederson was not the answer. The team regressed, and he even threw players under the bus to protect protegee Press Taylor. Rightly, he was given the boot after Jacksonville posted a 4-13 record. That's where Liam Coen comes in.
When the Jaguars ousted Pederson, Ben Johnson became the top candidate to fill their head-coaching vacancy. However, they ended up zeroing in on Coen, who impressed them not only with his football knowledge but his leadership skills as well. And after a series of twists, Jacksonville ended up hiring him. Fast forward to 2026, and Coen has proven to be everything the organization needed and then some.
Liam Coen is bringing much needed stability to the Jaguars
Because no other team interviewed Liam Coen in the 2025 hiring cycle, they raised questions about his hiring. Although it turned out to be trivial, he was bashed for how he did his Duval chant. Compounding the issue is that he had a reputation for leaving jobs and spending just a year in each of their last three stops. It didn't matter.
From the moment he became the head coach, Coen has brought stability to the Jaguars. It hasn't always been pretty, but he's done a great job of bringing stability and constency to a team that's lacked both traits. Think about it: The Jags reached the playoffs in 2017 and 2022 but failed to qualify the following year.
With Coen at the helm, Jacksonville is enjoying sustained success. It's too early to tell how the organization will look five years from now, but in less than two years, he's already racked up more wins than Gus Bradley did in four seasons on the job.
As of this writing, ahead of Week 5 of the 2026 season, Coen is six away from tying Doug Pederson's win/loss record and seven away from Doug Marrone. He's got a great chance to pass both of them this season in only his second year as the head coach. But wait, there's more!
Coen has the best winning percentage among head coaches in the modern NFL era at 76.2 percent. He has a better percentage than Vince Lombardi (76.2 percent), Bill Belichick (65.2 percent), and Andy Reid ( 64.3 percent).
Granted, it's a small sample, but Coen that's some great company to be with, and it shows that Coen is trending in the right direction. It's also worth noting that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have struggled since he left in 2025. They tried to keep him, but the prospect of becoming a head coach in Jacksonville was too good to pass up. The Bucs are 8-13 since he left and show no signs of getting better any time soon.
Make no mistake, the Jaguars have a lot of talented players, including but not limited to Trevor Lawrence, wide receiver Parker Washington, and linebacker Foyesade Oluokun. Without them, Coen wouldn't have success, but he's been the right man to get the most out of them and turn Jacksonville into a team that can enjoy sustained success.
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