Why Coen’s Biggest Challenge in Jacksonville Is Leadership

As spring nears, Sean McVay’s coaching tree has grown two more branches. One of them is in Jacksonville, where Liam Coen embarks on his first season as an NFL head coach.

Head coach, as in leader of the entire team, not just the offense. And as a young coach with an offensive background, leadership is Coen’s biggest challenge, according to senior NFL writer Mike Sando.

"A guy who coaches the quarterback is coaching the most cerebral person in the building," a defensive coach told Sando. "When you make him be head coach, he's not used to coaching that defensive lineman who will tell you to go to hell. That is why a lot of guys fail.”

To avoid failure, the first step is to overcome the awkward first impression he presented to his players, watching with everyone else as events unfolded during his clandestine transition from Tampa Bay. Rather than beginning his Jaguars tenure with good field position, he’s starting backed up against his own goal line.

Coen’s impressive credentials reached their peak last season, when he helped Baker Mayfield author the quarterback’s best NFL season. That effort led Shad Khan to pursue Coen so zealously that the Jaguars’ owner fired general manager Trent Baalke to keep Coen interested, then allowed Coen to lead the charge in selecting Baalke’s replacement. Jacksonville’s eventual general manager, James Gladstone, was the only finalist who had previously worked with Coen.

But the way in which Coen agreed to a lucrative new contract with the Buccaneers then left them in the dark, left a lot of observers questioning his ability to communicate with players. Coen will get his first opportunity to reach those players directly when the Jaguars hold their voluntary veteran minicamp before April’s draft.

Sando’s research revealed that young head coaches with offensive pedigrees have strengths, among them greater emphasis on scheme and game-planning and stronger mastery of technology compared to traditional, older leaders.

However, Sando also said that younger coaches lack experience with regard to quality in-game adjustments. Foundational knowledge in a system allows for ready solutions on the fly, marrying concepts rather than simply calling plays.

"There is no substitute for calling games where the s--- counts," McVay told Sando.

That’s why pass game coordinator Shane Waldron, among the 24 assistants on Coen’s first Jacksonville coaching staff, might’ve been Coen’s best hire. Waldron, 45, has spent the last four seasons as an NFL offensive coordinator and could certainly help Coen with in-game adjustments.

“Yeah, so Shane got me into this profession, right?” Coen said from the scouting combine Tuesday. “So, Shane was somebody that Sean McVay leaned on heavily when he took the first job in L.A. That was one of his first hires and brought Shane there.

Coen said Waldron’s coaching foundation while working for Bill Belichick in New England not only earned him Super Bowl rings; it also gave Waldron a strong understanding of marrying concepts.

“He'll be great for big-picture ideas and be able to, ‘Hey, how do we tie in some of these things?,’ and also some of the developmental pieces within the coaching staff.”

And as for Waldron’s short tenure and abrupt ending in Chicago, Coen said he has zero concerns.

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