Coach Liam Coen discards past wins, prioritizing attacking weaknesses and striving for a more balanced offense to chase deeper playoff success.
As Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen enters his second season, he has made it clear his prior success means little to him, focusing on improving this season.
"There's nothing that we're defending, we're attacking everything that we're doing," Coen said on the Jaguars' X page. "Theoretically, we could get better as a football team and not win 13 games. That's something we have to be prepared for, we have to understand, because if we live in those results of last year, this ain't going to be a fun process."
Coen shined in his first season as an NFL head coach, leading the Jaguars to a 13-4 record and an AFC South title. He also became the first rookie head coach in NFL history to win 12 or more games after taking over a team with four or fewer wins the previous year.
However, this success did not translate to the playoffs, as Jacksonville fell 27-24 to the Buffalo Bills in the wild-card round.
Coen and the team have loftier goals than posting an impressive regular season, setting their sights on building on a successful his rookie campaign.
However, he has also made it clear that the process won't be easy, as the Jags have welcomed new faces and lost key contributors in free agency.
"Winning is a fantastic deodorant: It covers up what stinks about you. It covers up what your blind spots are," Coen said. "If we can attack those areas with humility, with honesty, with a relentless pursuit to improve those areas, then we'll still continue to work on the areas in which we were good."
One of the areas the Jags were really good was takeaways, notching the second-most in the NFL (31), converting them into a league-leading 110 points. This was a huge turnaround from the year prior, in which Jacksonville finished with just nine, a league low.
The Jaguars became the first NFL team to record 30 or more takeaways after having fewer than 10 the previous season.
But, Coen acknowledged the offensive side of the ball, which at times was dominated by either the pass or the run, losing out on the benefits of a healthy mix.
"We're always looking for better balance on offense," Coen said. "I think the run game, for the first eight weeks of the season, really carried us offensively and allowed us to win some of those games. And then, the pass game the second half of the season really allowed us to go offensively, so we have to create a little more balance there."
Jaguars starting quarterback Trevor Lawrence shined in the back half of the season, throwing 15 touchdowns and only one interception in Jacksonville's final six games. The Jaguars ended the regular season on an eight-game win streak.
Creating better balance in the run game will helpfully aid Lawrence in continuing this hot streak, but Coen will have to fill a major void left by Travis Etienne's departure.
He spoke on losing Etienne, while expressing confidence in newly signed Chris Rodriguez as a productive replacement. Coen has familiarity with Rodriguez, serving as his offensive coordinator at the University of Kentucky in 2021.
"Losing a player like TJ [Etienne], a first round pick, the ability in the run and the pass and some of the production, that's going to be hard to match for anybody," Coen said.
"What I always really appreciate about C-Rod when working with him at Kentucky and then following his career over the past few years has been his rushing yards over expected and his yards after contact," Coen said.
Last season, Rodriguez recorded career highs in rushing yards (500) and touchdowns (6), serving as the Commanders' third down and short yardage back. Rodriguez displayed this tough running style, ranking eighth in the league last year in average yards after contact with 3.46.
Throughout Coen's answers, he frequently talked about being intentional in the offseason, maximizing growth in limited time. For Coen, having this mentality after rapid success in his first season is encouraging, as the Jaguars seek their first playoff win since 2023.
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