Done Deal; Liam Coen Is Your New Bucs Offensive Coordinator
February 3rd, 2024
Welcome to Tampa Bay, coach.
UPDATED: Say hello to Liam Coen, the new offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Bucs made an official announcement today and Jenna Laine of ESPN had additional details.
The Bucs completed interviews with their candidates early Friday and Coen publicly emerged as the favorite. Reports then detailed that things were still being worked out with the University of Kentucky as Coen was under contract as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Terms of the Coen’s Bucs deal were not disclosed.
So there you have it.
Some kvetch that the Bucs pandered to Baker Mayfield with this move. Joe disagrees. Of course, Joe is confident Mayfield was consulted. The fact Coen comes from the Sean McVay tree that pumps out quality coaches like Big Storm Brewing pumps out cans of Bromosa tells Joe the Bucs are refreshingly forward-thinking.
Welcome to Tampa Bay, Coach.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:24 pm
Alright. About the same feeling I had when Canales came to town. Let’s see what happens
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:25 pm
Congrats to Coach Bowles. Seems like a solid hire.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:28 pm
Auman has it first.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:29 pm
Cool.
I imagine the compensation was fairly substantial as Coen was making good $ at UK – almost $2M per year…. And he had a $500k buy out clause that had to be covered….
Way to step up Glazers!
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:30 pm
WELCOME! Great hire!
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:32 pm
Nice job, now get Baker signed as well as Evans. Get something good in the first and second round and let Licht work his magic. Let’s Go Bucs!!!
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Hey may actually be better than Canales
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Baker needs to sell Coen to Evans. Coen needs to bring in some good assistants for OL, especially run blocking.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:38 pm
Pleased!!
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:44 pm
He will be better than Canales was. He’s a good OC.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:50 pm
Great hire, hope to see a lot of the WCO. Think he will be a lot better than Canales, who I never really liked.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:51 pm
There is absolutely nothing impressive about Liam Coen’s coaching career. The Rams offense was trash when he was their OC and his college team’s offense is not top 10 in anything remarkable. Our offense will continue to suck next season with him as our OC.
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:56 pm
Who?
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:19 pm
He actually has more play-calling experience than Canales had last year and runs a very similar system.
There will be some new terminology to learn but at least our players don’t have to learn a completely new system for the 3rd year in a row.
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Jack Clark, you will see .. this guy is going to be really good
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:21 pm
May be an upgrade from Canales.
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:22 pm
In my view coaches make a difference, but we can talk all day about Coordinators, Oline coaches, RB coaches, etc etc on and on. When Jason Licht acquires stronger more talented Olineman the Bucs will have better Oline play! When Licht drafts and acquires more talented RBs the Bucs running game will rank higher!! UNTIL THEN BOTH WILL STRUGGLE
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:23 pm
I always read the comments and it’s actually sad that we have some of the so called fans that we have.. It’s like they are never happy and always look for something to complain about.. I would really hate to have the life these people live..
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:25 pm
From what I’ve read, this was a decent hire. Coen is gonna run a up tempo, power run, pass run evenly and always trying to keep the offense guessing. This sounds very good but I want to see it on the field in September
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:48 pm
good hire!
February 3rd, 2024 at 1:54 pm
Still concerning that he has bounced around the past few years but, Maybe he will pan out!
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:02 pm
And the winner is….Jack Clark. You get to be the President of #negativethinking
Quite an achievement Jack since the competion here for negativity is really fierce!
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:03 pm
If everything goes smoothly, he’s just running the same system and isn’t screwing it up. If Baker returns to his normal self and is a bust, well, it’s the OC that ruined him.
With that said, this offense was 20th in scoring, and Baker was the lowest scoring QB that started 16 or 17 games, so there’s tons of room for improvement.
But I like the hire, at least with the limitations that having Bowles as your head coach is going to put on any offense.
Also Bowles made a very good hire last time, so he gets the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes defensive coaches can pick good offensive coaches because they know what schemes and style of play is the hardest to defense.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:09 pm
@Jack Clark he didn’t call plays for the Rams. That’s why he left. He wanted to call plays and get experience. At Kentucky the offense performed better when he was there, regressed in every major category when he left, and then improved when he went back. Brandon had a good breakdown of the numbers in a different article.
He’s a good coach from a successful coaching tree with play calling experience. I think the Bucs offense will be fine as long as they get stronger in the trenches and acquire a power back to complement White.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:10 pm
What are the limitations of having Bowles as your coach? It didn’t prevent a one year OC from getting a head coaching job. If there are such limits it must have served the OC well.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:11 pm
This was an awesome hire. If for no other reason that it means Mayfield will probably be coming back, which means that Evans will probably come back. Which means Winfield will either sign a new contract or get the franchise tag. Then resign Lavonte and Wirfs and the rest is gravy. Run it back
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:11 pm
DOES THIS LOCK THE BUCS INTO ….
RAY DAVIS, RB Kentucky
(I hope so. 5-6 round. Human boiling ball that can run and catch.)
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:12 pm
He has more pedigree than Canales had when he became our OC. The modern McVay offense is an upgrade over Seattle system that Canales tried to run. Canales looked better last year because his personality and leadership covered up a not great meh offense. As far as Coen and the 2022 Rams offense is concerned, McVay has always called plays, not his OCs.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:16 pm
@Sly Ray Davis will be 25 years old this year. At a position where value plummets at 28 and and most RB careers are over by 30 he will and should go undrafted.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:18 pm
Hopefully Bowles strikes gold twice. His job depends on it as he will probably be in the hot seat again.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:23 pm
Ray Davis will be OFF the board before the 5th or 6th round 100%!!
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:35 pm
This is an upgrade from Canales.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:41 pm
I would guess that some of the “work things out with UK” could include an assistant or two!
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:43 pm
GREAT Hire – whether Baker stays, or not.
He runs a lot of Play Action (no more pound the rock on 1st/2nd down), with a huge variety of motions and patterns. Should be a great fit for White, among others. Can probably get more out of Palmer too, and probably Otten.
Now go get Harrison Bryant (TE) in Free Agency (should be cheap) and find an edge rusher and a decent guard.
February 3rd, 2024 at 2:58 pm
Are we all just going to ignore that he looks JUST LIKE MIKE GLENNON??
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:12 pm
Similar to the Mullens offense Trask thrived in.
Just saying.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:20 pm
He looks too passive in the photo. We need a yeller. If a guy doesn’t yell he doesn’t care, right? (Heavy sarcasm)
Cool. Like the hire.
GO BUCS!!
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:27 pm
Whoop de Doo.
February 3rd, 2024 at 3:51 pm
Jack Clark Says:
February 3rd, 2024 at 12:51 pm
There is absolutely nothing impressive about Liam Coen’s coaching career. The Rams offense was trash when he was their OC and his college team’s offense is not top 10 in anything remarkable. Our offense will continue to suck next season with him as our OC.
^^^^^^^^
There’s an old Steve Martin comedy bit where he tells children to “Criticize things you don’t know about”. Reminds me of Crybaby Clark, who has NO IDEA how it’s gonna go.
February 3rd, 2024 at 4:32 pm
I don’t know why, but for some reason I have more doubts about him than I did about Canales…
Really, really, really hope I’m wrong.
February 3rd, 2024 at 5:05 pm
Canales may prove to be a better HC than he was an OC, as I think he has been vastly overrated in that role. Really hoping to see more creativity, play-action and pre-snap motions out of Liam. But the biggest thing I’m hoping for: he puts Godwin back in the slot. It was criminal how Canales misused Godwin.
February 3rd, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Jackclark says holy ships have u ever said anything worth reading u r a nasty useless person find another site that wud appreciate u r 1st class garbage hit the road dude u suck
February 3rd, 2024 at 6:18 pm
Good hire, especially since many of the candidates the Bucs first listed did not even get to interview and went to Philly, Cleveland, Atlanta, Chicago or stayed with Houston and others like Van Pelt interviewed and then chose New England. Still, the Bucs did get someone from the McVay tree who has called plays. He called the game for the Rams where they scored 51 on Denver and Mayfield went 24 of 28, his best game as a Ram and also worked with Levis at UK. Again, solid hire.
February 3rd, 2024 at 9:32 pm
He did call plays for the Rams in the 2nd half of ‘22. Mcvay wanted to take back over play calling in ‘23 so that why he went to Ky.
February 4th, 2024 at 2:42 am
Okay, so I see Jack being negative…but I see a lot more people being positive. I am undecided…and really, at this point I won’t judge negative on Liam Coen.
But I would like some insight on the guy:
1. All of you saying it”s a great hire, is it because of the coaching tree, or do you actually have factual information to support that belief?
2. Canales seemed to be too much run…it certainly didn’t feel balanced, though I have not looked at the numbers. I believe Bowles dictated that, but can’t prove it.
So this question is two-pronged: What is the run vs pass ratio of a Liam Coen offense…and is he the kind of OC who will cave to Bowles on every play like Canales theoretically did?
3. How long was he a Sean McVay guy? I mean, if he lasted only a year, would he still be a guy who fit the Sean McVay mold?
4. Why did Sean McVay take back the playcalling duties? Was Liam Coen not doing a good job?
5. The Rams are a decent organization…so why would Liam Coen leave them? Even if not calling plays, he had to know credence came with the job.
February 4th, 2024 at 9:06 am
Well said Murph!
I will say regarding free agents, I didn’t realize Jensen’s cap hit extended past 2023. Womp womp…