Armed with a potent wideout corps and an MVP-caliber QB in Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville’s head coach Liam Coen is recognized around the NFL as one of the best play callers in the league.
The Jacksonville Jaguars' offense could be one of the best in the league this season.
Quarterback Trevor Lawrence, at just 26 years old, is just hitting his prime and is coming off the best season of his career, finishing fifth in MVP voting.
The Jaguars have possibly the best wide receiver foursome in the NFL with Brian Thomas Jr., Jakobi Meyers, Parker Washington, and Travis Hunter. Thomas is looking to bounce back after a disappointing 2025 season, while Hunter only played seven games as a rookie due to a knee injury.
Even with Hunter out for the majority of the year and BTJ being a shell of the player he was in 2024, the Jaguars' offense still finished sixth in the league in scoring at 27.9 points per game. Who knows how high the offense's ceiling can be if both play up to their enormous talent levels this season.
Even running back Travis Etienne enjoyed a career resurgence, almost doubling his rushing yardage from the 2024 season and scoring 13 total touchdowns.
However, every great orchestra needs a maestro to lead it, and the Jaguars have one of the league's best in head coach Liam Coen. Making last year's success even more impressive was that the offense had to learn Coen's system, which Lawrence said was "stressful mentally." Now in Year 2, the Jags' offense can reach an even higher level.
Proving the respect Coen has earned around the league, Ted Nguyen of The Athletic surveyed eight different defensive playcallers and assistants to rank the best offensive playcallers in the NFL. Coen finished fifth.
Moving Up The Ranks
Jacksonville's success last season has Coen moving up the ranks. In the same poll last year, he finished ninth and has now cracked the top-5. The only four ranked above him are Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay, Ben Johnson, and Matt LaFleur.
The defensive coaches praised Coen for his role in getting the most out of Lawrence, much like he did with Baker Mayfield as OC of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"Like Johnson with Jared Goff and Williams, Coen helped take a veteran quarterback’s game to the next level (Baker Mayfield) as offensive coordinator at one stop and then helped elevate another young quarterback’s game as a head coach at another. The Jaguars offense started the season slowly as Trevor Lawrence and the rest of the unit were having growing pains learning Coen’s system, but found their rhythm after Week 8 — they averaged 20.86 points per game before Week 8 but 32.8 points after, ranking second in the league behind only the Rams in that span.
"Defensive coaches noted Coen’s ability to stay a step ahead of them and their adjustments and timing when to go for shot plays.
“'I think he has good timing and I think he would like to get to (certain calls) more,” an AFC defensive coordinator said. 'I think Trevor probably limits them a little bit more than what Baker did.'
"Coen’s offense in his first season with Mayfield was more expansive than in his first season with Lawrence, but there were other limitations. The Buccaneers had one of the best offensive lines in 2024, which allowed them to do more in the run game.
“'In Tampa, some of the run game stuff they had been doing that year was like, that was always something I was trying to study,” the coordinator said. “I thought some of the 21 pony types (two running backs on the field) of looks and some of the different stuff they were doing with like two-back sets was pretty cool to see in the league. There was some nuance to it that kind of made it a little different than what anybody else was doing.'”
That is very high praise for Coen, even if saying Lawrence "limits" the offense seems harsh for a player who was one of the most highly-touted QB prospects in history.
Coen did tell his team that it would take more than a single season of winning to earn the respect of those outside their own building. That includes Lawrence.
Final Thoughts
What the Jaguars accomplished under Coen last season was amazing. The team won 13 games, a nine-win improvement from 2024. Lawrence and the rest of the offense finished the season as one of the most explosive units in the NFL, clearly playing with a better understanding of the system as the season progressed.
Now that they have a year in Coen's offense under their belts, Lawrence and the rest of the offense should be even better this year.
That is a scary thought for the rest of the league.
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