Did Liam Coen lie to Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Baker Mayfield before taking Jacksonville Jaguars job?

Liam Coen and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were recently involved in one of the strangest sequences in NFL history.

Last offseason, the Bucs hired Coen away from the University of Kentucky, where he had been serving as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Coen was back in the NFL and given keys to an offense that ranked 20th in scoring before he arrived as the new play-caller. Under Coen’s guidance, the Bucs’ offense morphed into the fourth-highest-scoring unit in the NFL.

Yet, his success only made Coen more desirable as seven NFL teams looked to fill their head coaching vacancies. Ultimately, it was the Jacksonville Jaguars who decided to hire Coen as their head coach. However, his promotion from Buccaneers offensive coordinator to the Jaguars’ head coach didn’t come without a lot of drama.

Liam Coen told Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay Buccaneers he wasn’t leaving, then left

Liam Coen, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baker Mayfield — Credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

Just two days before Liam Coen accepted the Jacksonville Jaguars’ head coaching job, he reportedly agreed to a verbal contract offer that made him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history.

Coen even reportedly informed Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ front office, which includes general manager Jason Licht and head coach Todd Bowles, that he wouldn’t be leaving this offseason.

“On Tuesday night, Coen texted Licht, Bowles, Mayfield and other players to say that he was staying with Tampa.”
ESPN’s Michael DiRocco and Jenna Laine on Liam Coen

Yet, two days after giving the Bucs his word that he’d be staying put, he darted to Jacksonville to become the Jaguars’ head coach.

Coen, instead of reportedly earning roughly $4.5 million per season, landed a contract that now pays him an estimated $12 million per season. This places Coen among the highest-paid coaches in the NFL today.

For Coen, it should have been a no-brainer to accept the promotion, which included a significant pay raise. After all, there are only 32 NFL head coaches in the universe, and now Coen is one of them. Yet, we can’t help but wonder how his former quarterback feels about how everything transpired.