The Jacksonville Jaguars took a winding road to get here, but they finally have their new coach -- Liam Coen. Now, the Jaguars have a long way to go this offseason to build Coen's first coaching staff, address the general manager search, and build the roster through free agency and the draft.
But time will soon come for all of that. Today, it is about Coen and how he is set to change the entire organization. When the Jaguars started this entire process, there is a reason Coen's name was at the top of the list. What Coen did with the entirety of the Buccaneers' offense this season was nothing short of a glorious achievement. He took an offense that had just seen one coordinator land a head coach job and turned it into a significantly better unit, upgrading the running game and getting the most out of the entire depth chart.
Add in Coen's youth, energy and innovativeness, and this is the hire the Jaguars needed to make. They went with the responsible and even-keeled veteran coach last time around. This time, the Jaguars needed to hire a coach who could breath life into the franchise and help the locker room take a next step. Coen could, and should, be that coach.
Jaguars owner Shad Khan has made aggressive, outside the box moves before. He sought after Tom Coughlin as a front office executive and made the gutsy move of hiring Urban Meyer out of the college ranks. Khan has never been afraid to throw his weight and resources around before, but his pursuit of Coen took it to another level. Make no mistake -- this is the most aggressive Khan has ever been.
He has made his fair share of mistakes in the past, namely how long he retained former general manager Trent Baalke and several of his hiring decisions. But Khan has also shown that he is willing to spend big and be courageous in his convictions. That kind of aggressiveness from Khan is another sign that he truly, badly, desperately wants to win. There will surely be growing pains when it comes to being a first-time head coach, but as long as Coen fills his staff with enough experience and is able to get enough buy-in from the locker room, it isn't hard to forsee him having success early on.
