If there was any doubt that Liam Coen should be named Coach of the Year, Week 17 should have completely erased it. The Jacksonville Jaguars walked away with a win over the Indianapolis Colts, getting them one step closer to winning the AFC South and improving to a 12-4 record.
There has already been buzz surrounding Coen deserving the nod as the best coach in the league, but it surely will get louder now. The Jags didn't have an easy win over the Colts, but it was still a win, exemplifying the gritty, resilient culture Coen has been able to foster.
And with that win, it turns out that Coen isn't just turning Jacksonville into a team to be both respected and feared. He's doing something no other rookie coach in the NFL has done, making his success not just exciting for Jaguars fans, but something historic.
Liam Coen just did something no NFL coach has ever done before
In 2024, the Jags finished at 4-13, a miserable record that led Shad Khan to clean house, to literally no one's surprise. That is what brought Liam Coen, along with James Gladstone as general manager, to Jax, and while it was certainly expected that there would be improvement, it's safe to say that not many could have predicted just how successful Jacksonville would be.
Coen is a first-year head coach, and it's for that reason that this turnaround is one for the history books. No other first-year head coach has ever won 12 or more games after the team had four or fewer wins the prior season.
Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen is the only first-year head coach in NFL history to win 12-plus games after taking over a team with four or fewer wins the season prior. pic.twitter.com/4jdkO8CgQo
— JaguarsPR (@JaguarsPR) December 28, 2025
Seriously — can we just go ahead and name him Coach of the Year already? The Jaguars have scored 433 points so far this season, the most in franchise history, and the season isn't even over yet. Coen has completely changed this team's identity, and it's paid off in a big way.
It's hard to believe how well the Jags are doing, considering there were some bumps in the road earlier this season. But after the BYE, Jacksonville got it together and never looked back. They now have a seven-game winning streak, and while anything could happen, their final opponent is the Tennessee Titans, so it'll likely become eight.
There is every chance the Jaguars could make a run all the way to the Super Bowl, but unless something catastrophic happens, the future looks bright for the Jags even without going to the big game. And that's largely due to Coen, who deserves far more credit than he's currently getting from the league.