The Liam Coen saga brings strange twists to the coaching merry-go-round

Coaching season often offers a surprise or two. Usually, the surprise comes in the firing of a coach. This year, the surprise comes from Liam Coen’s awkward exit from Tampa.

If, as it appears, Coen will soon be named head coach of the Jaguars, his departure contained more strange twists than a Coen brothers movie.

As a general matter, coaches have the absolute right to leave one team as an assistant and join a new team as a head coach. No contract can prevent that from happening.

When it comes to coaching, teams do what’s right for them. And the Buccaneers have a history of some eyebrow-raising “best interest of the team” decisions, from abruptly firing Jon Gruden and quickly promoting defensive backs coach Raheem Morris in 2009 to going outside the box for Rutgers coach Greg Schiano in 2012 to firing Lovie Smith in 2016 and promoted offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter at a time when other teams were interested in hiring Koetter for Bruce Arians’ “retirement” at the end of March in 2022 after Tom Brady’s retirement. Coaches, on the other hand, can also do what is right for them.

There is still a right way to handle it.

Based on several reports and things we’ve gathered separately, the Coen saga went like this.

Coen took an initial interview with the Jaguars at the express encouragement of the Buccaneers. Then, when he was ready to return for another interview, he agreed to a new contract that would have made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL. Although perhaps unenforceable, the new agreement was based on the understanding that he would not go to Jacksonville for an in-person, second interview.

When the Jaguars fired GM Trent Baalke, everything changed. Instead of signing the new contract, Coen will “secretly” went back to Jacksonville without telling the Buccaneers, and people with the Bucs suddenly couldn’t track him down.

Then there’s this, from Rick Stroud Tampa Bay Times: “To be clear . . . Liam Coen contacted head coach Todd Bowles around 5 p.m. Thursday. he said he had been with one of his childrenwho had fallen ill, at a doctor’s office. He mentioned Jaguar’s situation only briefly and said he would look back on it.

Coen was apparently back in Jacksonville working on a deal to become the head coach of the Jaguars.

Coen’s actions may stem from the notion that he got the new contract by agreeing not to do another interview with the Jaguars. Maybe he thought if he did, the deal would be off the table. If he then didn’t get the job in Jacksonville, the new deal could have been voided.

He still could have signed it and then re-committed to the Jaguars. Again, the Buccaneers couldn’t have kept him from going. But that would fly in the face of the handshake deal that had gotten him the new contract – even if handshake deals aren’t worth the paper they’re not printed on.

While that result would have ruffled feathers in Tampa, his decision to tease them, then offer a seemingly flimsy excuse to do so, makes for a tougher look.

Ultimately, he will come up with a contract that will pay him, we’re told, around $12 million a year. But the NFL is a small store with only 32 different branches. Over the course of a career, most coaches bounce from team to team to team. Unless Coen becomes the long-term answer with a team that changes coaches more often than cars need new tires, the way he leaves Tampa could become a complication at some point down the line.