Will Liam Coen Be the Coach That Got Away?
Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-USA TODAY Sports
For all that’s gone wrong this season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense has been a major bright spot, and a big reason has been offensive coordinator Liam Coen. Sure, you have to give some credit to Baker Mayfield, but someone had to get the best out of him, which was something that didn’t always happen with the Cleveland Browns.
With success come rumors, and there has been some chatter that Coen could be a hot head coaching candidate this offseason. With the way he has made Mayfield look, a team considering a coaching change like, say, the Jacksonville Jaguars or Chicago Bears would have to be excited about him. After all, if he could get Mayfield’s game raised like that, what he could do with other talented No. 1 overall quarterbacks like Trevor Lawrence or Caleb Williams?
Coen’s offense averaged 30 points per game before Mike Evans and Chris Godwin went down with injuries. Even since then, the offense has mostly been able to overcome the absence of their two stars. The Bucs have scored less than 20 points just once, against the Denver Broncos back in Week 3.
The emergence of Tampa’s running game is one of the big reasons for the offense finding so much more success than before. At times, there have been gripes about how he has used the talent in the backfield, but this is a more balanced attack than years past, and rookie Bucky Irving looks like he could be one of the best running backs in the league over the next few years.
It really does appear the Bucs might have a tough decision this offseason regarding who will be leading Irving, Mayfield, and others into battle. While the Bucs offense has been so good, the same can’t be said about the Todd Bowles-led defense. Tampa Bay is giving up 26.6 points per game, the 27th-most in the league. With Bowles being a defensive coach first and the defense being the failure of Tampa Bay this season, it’s not a shock that there has been chatter about his future in Florida.
It’s not like this defense is short of talent, either: They have three first-rounders, three second-rounders, and three third-rounders on the defense. It’s clear that the skill is there; they just aren’t getting the best out of the players, and the buck has to stop with Bowles.
So, what should the Bucs do? There is no guarantee that Coen will get head coaching interviews, but if he does and takes a job somewhere like Jacksonville or New York City, he could be the one who gets away. You never know how a coordinator is going to handle the move to an NFL head coach, but what we’ve seen from Coen this season shows that he’s smart and capable.
Bowles is 61 years old and seems to be nearing the end of his career, while Coen is 39 years old and might be the next great young coach. He is around the same age as Kevin O’Connell and Todd McVay, two of the smartest offensive minds in the NFL right now, and Coen looks like he could be on the same page as them. After all, Coen spent time under McVay learning with the Los Angeles Rams, which is a hot pedigree for coaching hires.
The good news for Bucs fans is that they might already have an idea of how they might handle this after the season. After the 2009 season, it took 17 days for the Bucs to fire Jon Gruden, and one reason they moved so quickly could have been the leaguewide interest in defensive backs coach Raheem Morris.
After firing Gruden, the Bucs hired Morris as head coach. That’s one example, but it’s not the only one. Lovie Smith went 6-10 his first year with Jameis Winston, and the Bucs decided to move on but kept the team’s continuity by promoting offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter to the head coach role.
We don’t exactly know how the ownership feels about Coen and whether they feel he is ready to take over the reins. But if they feel like he’s the next big thing, and he starts getting calls from other teams, the Bucs may have to act fast to keep him in-house so that they don’t miss out on one of the up-and-coming coaches in the NFL.
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