Jaguars need some wisdom
So far, the Jaguars reset lacks experience. Some old heads should be included
For a first-time head coach, one of the most important decisions is who to hire as the opposite coordinator and staff. In Liam Coen’s case, his decision to hire Anthony Campanile as the Jaguars’ defensive coordinator tells a lot about his approach.
Coen, who played quarterback in college and coached on the offensive side of the ball in his college and NFL coaching career, selected a coordinator who has never held the role before.
Former NFL executive Michael Lombardi, now the general manager of football at the University of North Carolina, said that how Coen approaches building his staff is going to be key.
“To me, I think you need to see their leadership skills immediately,” Lombardi said on The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN. “How they hire coaches. Are they going to hire their friends or are they going to hire the best person for the staff? Are they going to be head coaches or are they going to be subcontractors?”
It made sense to hire an offensive-minded coach who had success working with quarterbacks in the past. Coen fits the bill. But the job of head coach requires more than concentration on one position or player.
“Everybody wants Jacksonville to fix Trevor Lawrence,” Lombardi said “Jacksonville has lost so much. They have to fix the franchise. That’s Liam’s challenge. You have to be able to work in all areas or else the rest of the organization feels like they aren’t paying as close attention to them.”
Coen has never been a head coach before. Campanile has never been a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He spent one season as the co-defensive coordinator at Boston College in 2018 and three seasons as the defensive coordinator at Don Bosco Prep in New Jersey. Since Coen says that he will call plays on offense, that means that the three most important tasks in the staff will be handled by two men who have never been in their new roles before.
It would be wise for Coen to surround a staff of young, inexperienced coaches with some veterans. So far, the reported coaching hires have included younger, less experienced coaches including Matt Edwards, who was hired as the defensive line coach from the Buffalo Bills where he was the assistant defensive line coach. Tem Lukabu was reported as being selected as the linebackers coach, a position he held with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019 before becoming the defensive coordinator at Boston College. Most recently, he was the outside linebackers coach for the Carolina Panthers the past two seasons.
One name that has surfaced on the defensive side as a potential hire is former Panthers and Washington Commanders’ head coach Ron Rivera. Rivera would bring excellent experience to the staff. A former NFL player, Rivera has been a coach in the NFL since 1997 when Coen was in middle school. The entire staff does not need to be filled with veteran coaches like Rivera, but with Coen leaning on younger coaches in the top positions, it would be beneficial to add some wisdom to the staff.
