With Trent Baalke out, Liam Coen could be back soon

He was outside. And now he could be back.

Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen has returned to Jacksonville in connection with the team’s head coaching search, according to multiple reports. The move comes after Coen removed his name from the mix, which apparently prompted the Jaguars to fire GM Trent Baalke.

Now that Baalke is out, Coen is talking to the Jaguars about becoming the team’s next head coach.

Coen agreed to a new contract with the Buccaneers after deciding to stay. Obviously, he’s still free to take the head coaching job at any other team. And very soon it could.

He served as the Rams’ offensive coordinator in 2022 before returning to the University of Kentucky in the same role in 2023. After Dave Canales left the Bucs to become the Panthers’ coach, Coen replaced Canales in Tampa Bay.

The 39-year-old Massachusetts native coached at the college level from 2010 to 2017, before taking the Rams job. He went to Kentucky in 2021 before returning to the Rams in 2022 before returning to Kentucky in 2023.

If hired, he will be the team’s fifth head coach since Shad Khan bought it in 2012.

Khan fired Doug Pederson after the 2024 season, two years after the Jaguars advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs.