Would The Bucs Have Hired Liam Coen If Baker Mayfield Balked?
August 21st, 2024
“Liam, you’re lucky I like you.”
As Joe pointed out, including in practice notes yesterday, new Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen is very much an interactive coach.
If Coen sees his players dragging arse or making dumb mistakes, simple mistakes, he’s not afraid to get on them.
Early in training camp, it wasn’t rare to hear Coen scream “Timeout!” when the offense wasn’t lined up correctly or when someone was using the wrong motion. Then you’d hear Coen order the offense back to the huddle to start over.
Details.
So when Coen’s predecessor Dave Canales bolted for Carolina in February, and the Bucs were on a search for a new offensive coordinator, Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht and coach Todd Bowles consulted with Mayfield, an pending free agent, to ask who he would want as a new playcaller.
The Bucs turned to Coe, who also had been Baker Mayfield’s offensive coordinator in Los Angeles for about 6 weeks at the end of the 2022 season. It was Coen who helped begin the turnaround in Mayfield’s NFL career.
Monday during the SiriusXM NFL Radio training camp tour, Licht detailed to former NFL general manager Rick Spielman why the Bucs consulted Mayfield on Coen.
In short, Licht and Bowles wanted as little of a learning curve for Mayfield and the offense as possible.
Rick Spielman: You also this offseason [hired] a new offensive coordinator. Dave Canales got the head job up in Carolina. As you went through that process and you ended up with Liam Coen, how important was that relationship with Baker? Did that have anything to do with the decision process? And were you trying to keep the same continuity on offense as far as schematics coach.
Jason Licht: I will say Todd and I did communicate with Baker on that — I know Todd did as well — it played a little bit into it. We wanted to keep it — I don’t want to say simple — but we wanted to make it as easy of a transition as possible. But Todd wanted to find the best guy out there. And we felt like Liam fit the bill for everything that we checked all the boxes that Todd was looking for.
This begs the question for Joe: If Bowles really did believe Coen was the best candidate available and Mayfield told Bowles he didn’t want to work with him, what then?
Would Bowles have capitulated and hired a lesser coordinator? Would Mayfield have signed elsewhere? And if so, would that have triggered an avalanche? Would Mike Evans have re-signed if he didn’t know who his quarterback was? Would Lavonte David have then decided, ‘nah man, I’m good, I’ll call it a career?’
Would the Bucs have then hocked the farm and traded up to draft Bo Nix or Michael Penix? Would the Bucs have decided to go with Kyle Trask and then, with a decent draft pick next spring, have gone after Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward? Would the Bucs have been in full-blown rebuild mode?
Joe doesn’t think it is a stretch to suggest this Bucs team would look a whole lot different if Mayfield told Bowles he wasn’t comfortable playing for Coen.
August 21st, 2024 at 4:20 am
There’s a lot of what ifs! All I know is I’m glad none of those what ifs came to fruition!
August 21st, 2024 at 5:54 am
Thank you Farmer; Joe’s playing the ‘What If?’ game again. There’s absolutely no way any of us can ever know the answer to all those questions, since they never came to pass.
Just look at the 2 questions ‘Would the Bucs have decided to go with Kyle Trask and then, with a decent draft pick next spring, have gone after Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward? Would the Bucs have been in full-blown rebuild mode?’
For starters, Joe is ASSUMING that our 2024 record would have been so bad that we’d be a front-runner for the PRESUMED top 2025 QB pick. And would THAT put us into full-rebuild mode? TONS of ASSUMPTIONS built into just those 2 ‘What Ifs’ Joe.
The real bottom-line to any ‘What If’ is that ‘You are where you are’. JL & TB made some nice plays to get us to this point. Let’s embrace it & keep building on it instead of spending our time ‘checking six’ with a bunch of ‘What Ifs’.
August 21st, 2024 at 7:23 am
So many scenarios. Interesting stuff. In the end, we have Baker and that is a great thing. Plus, he has worked with Coen before. Sounding good!
August 21st, 2024 at 7:32 am
What if an extinction level meteor struck a mile west of St. Pete? What then? Gimme a break!
August 21st, 2024 at 7:59 am
Actually, if we were struck with that avalanche of what ifs, we would not have been in such a bad predicament. Kyle could have easily replaced Baker’s production and even though we live Mike, this years crop of receivers are adequate for us to still have a good offense had he chosen to leave in free agency. Our defense would still be great and we would have had enough money to sign a veteran edge rusher and inside linebacker.
Although I wouldn’t want Mike to leave had he and Baker left it wouldn’t have been a death knell for our playoff chances!
August 21st, 2024 at 8:13 am
Too many Wouda, Couda, Shouda’s. Time to move on to the Fins
August 21st, 2024 at 8:40 am
How about What if we picked the wrong coordinator just because Mayfield wanted him? Seems like a more plausible question to me.
August 21st, 2024 at 8:53 am
Yikes, geno711! I wasn’t even thinking that until you said it.
Optimistically, Coen is the right guy at the right time. He already seems to be better than Canales.
August 21st, 2024 at 10:10 am
Nice positioning by “this Joe” – many of us ran through those same scenarios, it’s nice to force the naysayers to look back.
I think we got the right OC, one that can build off familiarity – both with the previous scheme and the personnel that will run the offense.
The re-signings look great, the drafting of Barton and a couple of other offensive weapons, all certainly complimented the decision to bring in Coen. Sure looks like it couldn’t have gone any better!
In a few short days we’ll get an opportunity to see if it all works the way it was planned.
August 21st, 2024 at 10:18 am
Would Coen have come to the Bucs if Trask or a draft pick was the QB1?
August 21st, 2024 at 10:52 am
Looks like we got a good one. Offense stands to be markedly better. What’s the defense gonna look like?
Let’s hope we see a unit that knows there assignments and significantly improves their bust rate against the Commandos and beyond. No sense pretending that will be visible against the Phish on Phriday.
Hope it’s not offensive to take the Phish’ s name in vain.
August 21st, 2024 at 11:19 am
would have – could have – what if – etc are mind games and a waste of time or Joe, you didn’t have another story to tell and getting close to your story deadline.
August 21st, 2024 at 12:53 pm
Sounds kinda like butterfly effect. It was a movie about how changing one little thing can change whole lotsa lives.
My dad always said if the dog didn’t have to stop and take a sheet he would a caught the rabbit.
August 21st, 2024 at 2:35 pm
I doubt there’s anybody in the NFL with more hands-on knowledge of coaches and offensive coordinators than Baker. Look how many he’s had in his career and how many times he’s had to learn a new playbook. Lifelong Browns fan and I’m more excited for Baker and the Bucs than the Browns.
August 21st, 2024 at 3:14 pm
I know quite a few Browns fans. To a person, they all lament letting Baker get away, especially for the Wonderful Citizens Group of DeHandsyob and JaMiss.
Another jackpot for Jason.
August 21st, 2024 at 4:53 pm
Ancient Aliens level speculation here….
Is it just possible that… and if so, is it also possible that…..
August 21st, 2024 at 6:56 pm
“I know quite a few Browns fans. To a person, they all lament letting Baker get away, especially for the Wonderful Citizens Group of DeHandsyob and JaMiss.”
I was one of them Dave. Started rooting for them right before Baker got there cause they were the ultimate underdogs. Baker took them to a place they hadn’t sniffed in 50 years but they were idiots. I hate them with a passion now 🤣
Karmas a bitch. D Watson is NEVER going to be the player he was years ago and he’ll surely not be someone who leads them to the SB. I doubt he’ll play much before he’s “injured” again.
Baker is going to make believers out of many of the doubters. Not all, some of y’all are beyond help, but many will see the light after this season 🤘🏼
August 21st, 2024 at 8:08 pm
GoneGator,
Agree with you. Jimmy Haslam and Co made the dumbest trade in NFL history when they acquired Watson for three #1 draft picks and more. All this for a guy who was never going to take another snap in Houston. This year will prove the point. Fully expect that Mayfield will have a better season than Watson and more importantly Bucs look better than Browns. Thank God for NFL Sunday Ticket which enables a lot of us to follow Baker and the Bucs.
August 21st, 2024 at 11:01 pm
I remind my Cleveland friends – the team nickname is the Browns for a very good reason. Duhshaun has $250 large. He doesn’t need to and won’t do jack on the field, but he will definitely have jack off the field. As he has. This time in his own private facility.
JaMiss gets the com this season. Guaranteed. That should be hilarious.
August 22nd, 2024 at 12:20 am
If my aunt had nuts, she’d be my uncle…But she doesn’t, so she’s still just my aunt.
We don’t live in a world of what if’s…We live in a world of reality. Where it is what it is & not some woulda coulda shoulda maybe might be hypothetical BS.
Must be a slow news day for this Joe. Go Bucs!
August 26th, 2024 at 12:10 am
When in doubt, the NFL era has shifted to the era of offense. From the hiring of Coen, the beefing of the OL, it is clear. It’s about the passing game, with a run game that will sting you if you sleep on it.
Todd is adjusting the offense to this, we saw it in drive 1 against the Phish.
#Offense Rules