The Jacksonville Jaguars intended to keep Trent Baalke around beyond 2024. However, they quickly realized how bad the idea was when he hampered their head-coaching search. Ultimately, owner Shad Khan had no choice and gave the embattled general manager his walking papers. Just recently, Pete Prisco of CBS Sports shared details about Baalke's exit from the Jags.
Prisco shared his thoughts on Liam Coen's introductory press conference and later talked about the new head coach's top priorities, citing the need to find a general manager who shares his vision as the biggest one.
"Okay, step one is to find a general manager that doesn't have an ego, and that's hard to do, but that's somebody that needs to come in there and work closely with Liam Cohen, and everybody I've talked to, Liam Cohen has the juice in the building," Prisco said. "By the way, Shad Khan has given that juice to the coach. That doesn't necessarily mean he's going to make the decision on who the GM is."
Prisco continued, "In fact, he's not going to make the decision. He will have input into it. But they need to find a guy you can work with, and the guy that when you do have success, the egos don't get in the way. When you do have failures, they don't start blaming each other. I think that's No. 1 priority for them as an organization, that wasn't Trent Baalke."
Later in the conversation, Prisco talks about the things that played a role in Baalke's exit.
"And by the way, why isn't Trent Baalke there? Trent Baalke is actually the guy who identified Liam Cohen in the process. He was a big guy pushing him for that job. But what happened? From what I heard, he wanted to help him guide him through his process of choosing his staff. And Liam Coen said, 'Look, I'm not going to take a job with that as a caveat. And I think that ended up ending the relationship, and that's why they came back to him after Trent Baalke was gone," Prisco said.
All things considered, this news isn't particularly surprising. Baalke is known for being difficult to work with, and his presence reportedly scared prospective coaches. As a matter of fact, one prominent candidate said that he was less inclined to take the job because of Baalke's presence.
But even if you don't want to give credence to reports, the fact that Ben Johnson and Coen (briefly) balked at the Jaguars is proof that Baalke was hampering the head coach. And if he weren't, why did Khan dismiss him after previously stating that he valued his insight?
It's also worth noting that the Jags resumed talks with Coen to become their head coach just hours after giving Baalke his walking papers. So there's enough evidence to think he was indeed holding the coaching search back. Below is Prisco's discussion about the Jaguars' new head coach.
The Jaguars no longer have to worry about Trent Baalke after securing Liam Coen
Pete Prisco's report goes against what Liam Coen said. During his introductory press conference, he made it clear that Trent Baalke's presence didn't play a factor in his decision to choose the Jacksonville Jaguars. However, he wasn't going to outright say that he wasn't thrilled to work with someone who wanted to handpick his staff.
It's kind of well-known that Baalke got in rifts with coaches dating back to his days with the San Francisco 49ers. Then again, Coen wasn't going to talk badly about the general manager during his introduction. For starters, it was pointless. Moreover, there were more important things to talk about in his first exchange with the local media.
The bottom line is that Trent Baalke was holding back the Jaguars even if Liam Coen or Shad Khan don't want to acknowledge it. And why would they? They're not looking backward and instead have set their sights on the future.