Liam Coen’s camp felt Buccaneers ‘strong-armed’ him with highest paid OC contract

The sementics surrounding the Liam Coen, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jacksonville Jaguars drama don't need to be rehashed much more. However, there is still the fallout from the events that took place as everyone involved has seemed to take sides in how everything went down and was handled.
While there is plenty to unwrap from Liam Coen taking the Jacksonville Jaguars' head coaching job after leading the Buccaneers' offense in one season to a top-five unit, the most obvious has come down to how the two sides feel about the situation.
According to NFL insider and analyst Adam Schefter on the Pat McAfee Show Friday morning, while the Buccaneers organization feels like they were spurned, the complete opposite was going on with Liam Coen and his camp as they felt Tampa Bay's contract offer to make Coen the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history was "strong-arming" him from any possible head coaching gigs.
READ MORE: Buccaneers front office not happy with Liam Coen leaving for Jaguars in the style he did
"There's two different sides in this Liam Coen situation..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 24, 2025
He felt like the Bucs strong armed him into this new deal..
The Bucs would say they made him the highest paid coordinator in NFL history & they couldn't find him yesterday to sign the contract"@AdamSchefter #PMSLive https://t.co/we6awHPR7h pic.twitter.com/h3ECPhdCGM
It is a very unique situation, to say the least, and one that usually never happens in the NFL outside of a few instances here and there. Coen's position was one of those instances as the Buccaneers' regarded their coordinator very highly for what he was able to do this season. While I can see where Coen is coming from, I do believe that the situation could have been handled better from his side.
The Bucs have always been honest and open about these sorts of things despite the contingency that was placed in the contract. I get the secrecy as to not try and break said contingency but if you are confident in the fact that you are indeed going to get the job that you have been inquired about then there is no reason why this drama, mess, circus, whatever you want to call it would have occurred.
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