Jaguars' Liam Coen Envisions a New Mentality Along OL

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen has a tall task in front of him when it comes to getting the Jaguars' offense back on track.

Coen has the quarterback in Trevor Lawrence and a host of weapons at his disposal. But what the Jaguars are lacking is a dominant unit up front.

“I think we would all agree that it needs to improve, right? I think, first and foremost, when you look at the offensive side of the ball, you want that unit and that group, it's the first thing when you break the huddle that the defense sees," Coen said about the Jaguars' offensive line on Monday.

"I want that to mean something. We want that to mean something. And it will. And that's a mentality. That's personnel. That's scheme. That's technique. That's fundamentals. That's attitude. That's something that we need to make sure we instill."

The Jaguars have struggled to run the ball for several years now, something that even quarterback Trevor Lawrence bemoaned about at the end of the 2024 season. Coen's offense last year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, meanwhile, finished as one of the top rushing offenses in the entire NFL.

But as Coen explained on Monday, he is not married to one blocking scheme over the other. The Buccaneers success on the ground actually came about a different way than Coen anticipated.

"We ended up really going more gap this year. Like we started zone, we started off in the offseason. 'Hey, we're going to start off teaching zone', because it's so much easier to teach because you got no pads on. So you can teach zone in the off eason when you're playing in shorts, like you can teach zone," Coen said.

"We looked at our backs, and we looked at in Tampa, our backs and our whole line, they ended up just being better gap blockers and better gap runners. When we defined the hole for the backs with the gap, we felt like they hit it harder and quicker and faster."

It remains to be seen what kind of running scheme Coen is going to bring to Jacksonville, but it certainly appears he will be willing to build his scheme around his roster.

"And then when you have to block movement in the NFL, right? Well, zone, if you block and if you're moving this way and the D line moves that way, it can be a challenge. Or if you're moving this way and they move that way, can also be a challenge," Coen said.

"But with gap, if they move this way and you're going that way ...Or if you're running gap this way and they're moving this way, you can shut it off and shut it down and stop penetration and movement. So ultimately, we became a gap team and used zone as an auxiliary run. It's all going to depend on, really, what these guys are best at."

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