The Jacksonville Jaguars set their sights on several appealing candidates during their search for a head coach. They ultimately set on Liam Coen, who got the spotlight for turning the Tampa Bay Buccaneers into an offensive juggernaut. But leaving aside his work as a coordinator, Pro Football Hall-of-Fame left tackle Tony Boselli recently talked about the moment the Jags were sold on him.
Boselli made an appearance on 1010 XL and shared details about the team's coaching search, noting that Jacksonville was impressed with what he did for the Bucs' offense.
"The guy's a great leader, high energy from a football standpoint, came into Tampa and took him from 32 in the run until top 5, pretty much same personnel outside of one running back. They drafted Bucky Irving, but he really understood the run game, pass game, the marriage of it, just like what he did for the offense. He was off the charts. That's how they talked about so, like, everything was very positive. So that was great."
Boselli continued, "But you hear a lot of good things about all the different guys we're interviewing. And you hear some negatives that you want to look into, and red flags, and people have their own experiences. And so that was super positive. Then when we got into the in-person interviews, from the moment he walked in, he just owned the room and had a great plan for how we saw the team."
As Boselli noted, the Buccaneers had a good offense in 2023 but relied too much on the passing game. It wasn't until Coen became the coordinator last year that they hit their stride. Quarterback Baker Mayfield, in particular, benefitted from Coen's presence, and he's expected to have a similar impact on Trevor Lawrence.
This is understandable when you take into account that the Jags have invested a lot in Trevor Lawrence, so a huge part of the process was whether their next head coach saw him as a franchise quarterback to build around.
"Obviously, a big part of this whole thing was Trevor Lawrence. We've invested a ton of money in Trevor, and we believe, and you've heard me say this on this, I said we will win a Super Bowl championship trophy, a Lombardi trophy with Trevor Lawrence. I believe that from Day 1, I still do. And so you want to understand, okay, how do you see him? Because we may see him differently, and what's the plan? And what do you think about the personnel?"
So how was his response?
"Unreal and detailed. I was like, okay, and you go through it. You have a conversation. And I knew, and I'm not saying I'm 100% right on this, but whether it's in football or business, which I've been running and doing most of my time, you get a stance pretty quickly," Boselli said.
Boselli goes on to say that he felt great about Coen sitting in interviews with him, noting that the former Tampa Bay offensive coordinator had what it takes to be a head coach.
"We think your first impression, your first gut feeling is a lot of times right. At least for me, it is. And I remember sitting there and 30-60, minutes into this interview, I'm like, This dude is like, he's a head coach, and he's gonna be a good head coach, and you get that feeling."
"And I thought a lot of the people we talked to, and a lot of people I've met during this process are probably going to be good head coaches, have a chance to be good at coaches. But for us, it was clear to me that Liam was the right guy and the right choice. And I'm glad that we were able to get through it and figure it out, and then obviously him and Shad all that negotiation."
Below is Boselli's full exchance on 1010 XL.
The Jaguars nearly lost out on Liam Coen but ultimately managed to convince him
The Jaguars were impressed with Coen's knowledge of football and leadership skills in their first interview. They scheduled a second meeting with him, but he balked at the idea of working with Baalke and returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a new deal. That made the Jags realize that they needed to dismiss general manager Trent Baalke if they didn't want to lose their guy.
Right after the ousting of Baalke, Jacksonville resumed talks with Coen to be their head coach. Based on what Tony Boselli says and the fact that they hired him, they didn't want to miss out on one of the hottest candidates in this hiring cycle.
Liam Coen will soon get to work. If he truly has what it takes to be a head coach, he should have no trouble steering the ship in the right direction.