Amidst Coach of the Year buzz, Coen's focus remains solely on the Jaguars' downing the Jets and securing victory.
As early as October, chatter has pointed to Liam Coen as a potential Coach of the Year for 2025. And that speculative chitchat has morphed into a conversation as the NFL sprints toward the playoffs, with four games left in the regular season.
The first-year Jaguars coach has recently been touted as a credible COY candidate, alongside Mike Vrabel from the AFC East-leading Patriots (11-2) and Ben Johnson, who's turned around the Bears (9-4), who trail the Packers in the NFC North.
Coen has so far led the Jaguars to a 9-4 record and a one-game lead in the AFC South. That's a big turnaround from 4-13 from last season, when Jacksonville sat out the postseason under then-coach Doug Pederson.
The Jaguars plucked Liam Coen from the Buccaneers and signed him as their new head coach in January 2025, after firing Doug Pederson in December, when Jacksonville missed the playoffs for the second year in a row. (Travis Register/Imagn Images)Pederson, the Jags' seventh permanent head coach, who was hired following the short-lived Urban Meyer era (2021), lasted three seasons, compiling a 22-29 W-L record and earning the division title and a playoff berth in 2022.
Coen told reporters Wednesday that COY talks are not on his radar.
"That's the furthest thing from your brain at the moment," he said. "You're so focused on the day-to-day in terms of just trying to keep getting better as a group."
COY might not be on Coen's agenda, but he's been part of an increasingly busy conversation among analysts and players.
"Liam Coen should definitely be in the Coach of the Year conversation with Ben Johnson and Mike Vrabel," J.J. Watt, commentator and three-time Defensive Player of the Year for the Texans, posted Sunday on X, noting the quality of the Jags' top-ranked defense.
"The thing I like most about them is that they’re constantly evaluating themselves and figuring out how to be most successful with the tools they have," Watt said. "They don’t care what it looks like or how it gets done, they just want to find the best possible path to wins."
First-year head coach Liam Coen (center right) brought in Anthony Campanile (left of Coen) as defensive coordinator, who has turned his squads into a top-ranked defense. (Travis Register/Imagn Images)Coen was already Bruce Arians' pick after leading Jacksonville to three wins. The former head coach and current senior consultant for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers appeared on FanDuel TV's "Up & Adams" on Oct. 2 to say he saw Coen as a likely COY – even over Bucs HC Todd Bowles.
Tampa Bay currently leads the NFC South with a 7-6 record.
Arians, also a regular on ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show," praised the Jags' improved rushing and his work developing QB Trevor Lawrence.
Coen served as the Bucs' offensive coordinator for the 2024 season before bolting to Jacksonville in January 2025.
Jaguars CB Greg Newsome thinks his HC should be a shoo-in for COY.
"He's a motivator. He does a great job of getting us ready to go all the time," Newsome told reporters on Monday. Coen's "a guy that (is) literally on the field every single day, and checks in on you."
"For this to be his first year is unbelievable," Newsome added. "He's been doing a great job of just getting guys to really buy in. I feel like that’s the biggest thing for a coach, get guys to truly buy in and want to play for you. And I think you can kind of see that with how this team is playing, we want to play for our coaches. And that's the recipe for success."