Liam Coen passing on Jaguars head coaching job proves it's NFL's least appealing gig

Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen surprised the NFL on Wednesday when it was reported that he would be remaining with the team, while spurning the Jacksonville Jaguars head coaching job.

According to ESPN, Coen opted to stay in Tampa, and become the highest-paid assistant coach in the league instead of leaving to run his own show in Jacksonville.

If you didn't know it already, this news should prove to you just how deeply unserious the Jaguars are as an organization, and just how undesirable their head coaching job actually is.

Jacksonville has never exactly been a premier destination in the NFL, but their status as a league punchline has only gotten worse in recent years. After all, it takes a particularly special kind of incompetence to screw up the most can't miss quarterback prospect in a decade in Trevor Lawrence, after making what was universally derided as the single worst head coaching hire in recent memory in Urban Meyer.

They have one of the strangest rosters in the sport, one that has talent in places, but is utterly bereft in others, a defense that looked like one of the absolute worst in the NFL, and a collection of skill position players on offense that make you stop and go "huh, I guess he's pretty good?"

But less concerning than the talent on the field are the people off it. Trent Baalke is notorious for wanting to be the guy when it comes to personnel decisions, despite a track record that is...less than stellar in that regard.

Baalke is the guy who chased Jim Harbaugh out of San Francisco with his controlling management style. He wants to run everything, be the guy in charge of every decision made, and have final say so over everything from personnel decisions to on-field play styles.

Making matters worse in this case, Coen was the guy in this search, pretty much from the start. He was the favorite for the job from the jump, and even the Buccaneers were prepped to lose him to Jacksonville.

He was a logical fit; a coordinator who'd showed himself capable of maximizing a quarterback's talents and getting teams to win quickly, at scheming creatively to optimize a player's strengths while hiding their flaws as much as possible. For a franchise like the Jags, you can't ask for a more logical fit. It should have been a no-brainer.

For Coen to get to this stage and then say "thanks, but no thanks" is a massive blow for the Jags. It implies there was something about the job beyond simply the state of the roster that made him pass on it. After all, if you don't like what you see on paper, you just turn down an interview.

The Jaguars will find a coach; everyone wants to be a head coach, and many of them are willing to put up with Baalke to do it. But Coen was as close to a slam dunk as Jacksonville was going to find, and now they're scrambling. The only other coaches who were set for second interviews were former Jets head coach Robert Saleh (what is it with this guy and incompetent franchises?) and Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham (whose defense ranked 25th in the NFL last season in scoring and 18th in yards allowed).

Neither of those names is going to inspire a ton of confidence from the fan base, and certainly won't generate the kind of excitement Coen would have.

When Jacksonville fired Doug Pederson, owner Shad Khan made it clear he wasn't planning a full rebuild, and backed Baalke's ability to build this team.

But after Coen passed on the job to stay in Tampa, one can't help but wonder if he's reconsidering that decision.

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Liam Coen passing on Jaguars head coaching job proves it's the NFL's least appealing gig

By Sam Westmoreland | 1:22 PM EST