The Liam Quinn saga brings strange developments to the coaching circuit

A coach’s recruiting season often brings a surprise or two. Usually, the surprise comes with the dismissal of the coach. The surprise this year comes with the departure of Tampa’s Liam Quinn.

If, as it appears, Quinn will soon be named head coach of the Jaguars, his departure involves developments more bizarre than a Coen brothers movie.

In general, coaches have the absolute right to leave one team as an assistant and join a new team as a head coach. No contract can prevent this from happening.

When it comes to training, teams do what works best for them. The Buccaneers have a history of some surprising decisions in the “best interest of the team,” from abruptly firing Jon Gruden and quickly promoting defensive backs coach Raheem Morris in 2009 to getting out of the box for Rutgers coach Greg Schiano in 2012 to firing Lovie Smith in 2016 and promoting Offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter at a time when other teams were interested in hiring Koetter in late March “retired” Bruce Arians in 2022 after Tom Brady does not retire. Coaches, in turn, can do what is right for them as well.

There is still a right way to deal with it.

Based on multiple reports and things we gathered separately, Quinn’s story went something like this.

Quinn conducted an initial interview with the Jaguars with the Buccaneers’ explicit encouragement. Then, just as he was about to return for a second interview, he agreed to a new contract that would have made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. Although the new deal may have been unenforceable, it was based on the understanding that he would not be going to Jacksonville for a second interview.

When the Jaguars fired GM Trent Baalke, everything changed. Instead of signing a new contract, Quinn…secretlyHe returned to Jacksonville without telling the Buccaneers, and suddenly the Buckeyes couldn’t track him down.

Then there’s this, from Rick Stroud of Tampa Bay Times: “To be clear.” . . Liam Quinn called coach Todd Bowles around 5pm on Thursday night. He said He was with one of his childrenwho fell ill in the doctors office. He only mentioned the Jaguar situation briefly, saying he wanted to take a look at it again.

By all accounts, Quinn was actually in Jacksonville, working on a deal to become the head coach of the Jaguars.

It’s very likely that Quinn’s actions stemmed from the idea that he got the new contract by agreeing not to re-interview with the Jaguars. Maybe he thought that if he did that, the deal would be off the table. If he doesn’t then get the job in Jacksonville, the new deal may have been cancelled.

He could still sign him and then re-deal with the Jaguars. Once again, the Pirates were unable to keep him from going. But it would have interfered with the handshake deal that got him the new contract — even if handshake deals aren’t worth the paper they’re not printed on.

Although this result would have infuriated Tampa, his decision to ignore this result, and then provide an apparently lame excuse for doing so, became even more severe.

Ultimately, he’ll walk away with a contract that will pay him, we’re told, roughly $12 million a year. But the NFL is a convenience store with only 32 distinct branches. Over the course of their careers, most coaches move, in time, from team to team to team. Unless Quinn becomes the long-term solution with a team that changes coaches more often than cars need new tires, how he leaves Tampa could become a complication at some point.