Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen hints at lingering resentment, questioning Tampa's season collapse after a broken agreement and departure.
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen didn’t leave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on good terms, and he might still have a bone to pick with the organization.
During Super Bowl week, Coen walked by Nick Wize, a sports radio host from Tampa's WDAE.
Christopher Mathis, a radio producer for the same station, tweeted that Coen was asked to join the show. Per Mathis, Coen then was told the show was based in Tampa and refused to come on. A short time after that, Coen walked by again and again was asked to join.
"You’re just like everybody else," Coen said.
Wize argued he was among Coen defenders, to which Coen responded, "What happened this year?"
That quip was interpreted as a reference to the Bucs' second-half collapse in 2025, when the team lost seven of its last nine games and failed to capture the NFC South for the first time since 2019.
On the surface, it seems strange that Coen and the Bucs would have bad blood.
Coen was Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator in 2024, and like many good coordinators, he left after the season to take a head-coaching job.
Most of the time, the team losing the coordinator understands that the grass is greener, and no hard feelings form as a result.
That wasn’t quite the case with Coen leaving Tampa Bay.
Initially, Coen wasn’t going to go to Jacksonville, and agreed to stay in Tampa.
Tampa was prepared to make Coen the highest-paid offensive coordinator in league history, and had a handshake agreement that Coen wouldn’t have an in-person interview with Jacksonville.
Coen ended up having an in-person interview, and eventually became the Jags head coach, which was a blow to Bucs fans.
A bigger blow was how the 2025 season turned out: Tampa crashed and burned, and the Jags had one of their best years ever, going finishing 13-5 after a playoff loss to the Bills, and winning the NFC South title.
Coen finished second in the NFL’s Coach of the Year voting, and Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles … didn’t.
Wize made it clear that Coen’s words were in good-fun, but it’s gonna be hard to convince many Tampa Bay fans that there aren’t any problems.
It could be argued that part of the reason Tampa didn’t keep its NFC South title was because it didn’t adequately replace Coen.
Josh Grizzard was fired after just one season, and now, Tampa has brought in former Falcons coordinator Zac Robinson for the job.
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