Liam Coen’s departure from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was messy, and it appears his former team isn’t looking to give him an edge as he now ascends to head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tampa Bay has blocked multiple interview requests by Jacksonville revolving around some of its assistant coaches, according to ESPN.
Specifically, the Bucs blocked requests for offensive line coach Kevin Carberry and assistant offensive line coach Brian Picucci for roles on Coen’s staff. Beyond their shared stop with the Buccaneers, Picucci worked with Coen at the University of Kentucky, while Carberry also coached with Coen with the Los Angeles Rams.
While they may have a link beyond Coen’s lone season with the Buccaneers, it appears the new head coach will have to look somewhere other than his former squad to fill out his staff.
Buccaneers promote Josh Grizzard to offensive coordinator after losing Liam Coen to Jaguars
Jordan Dajani
This could be viewed as the Bucs not wanting to help Coen in his transition as an NFL head coach, particularly after his tumultuous split with the organization over the last few weeks. After the former offensive coordinator initially took himself out of the running of the Jaguars head coaching job, he agreed to an extension with Tampa Bay that would’ve made him one of the highest-paid coordinators in the NFL.
In a rather stunning reversal, however, Coen decided to revisit the Jaguars opening in the aftermath of the team parting ways with general manager Trent Baalke. As Coen was looking back into the opportunity with Jacksonville, he reportedly ghosted the Buccaneers, who attempted to reach him throughout that period but those calls went unanswered.
That seems to have left a sour taste in the Buccaneers’ mouth, making them less eager to let him potentially poach coaches off of Todd Bowles’ staff.
