January 30, 2025 • 47 mins
A new chapter unfolds for the Jacksonville Jaguars as Liam Coen steps in as head coach, aiming to instill a winning culture and prioritize Trevor Lawrence's development. The episode explores Jay's key takeaways from Coen's introductory presser as the new coach discussed his thoughts on improving the team's culture and offensive line, their building blocks, and more.
Join Jay as he also tackled the team's personnel structure, which was also a talking point of the presser. Stay informed about the potential influence of Tony Boselli in shaping the Jaguars' future, possibly bringing a Chris Spielman-like impact to the team when he joins the front office.
Lastly, to close the show, Jay listed the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator candidates the Jags have interviewed and briefly shared his thoughts on the potential pursuit of Ian Cunningham. Engage with us on Twitter and through our website, Touchdown Jaguars, as we prepare for a new Jags era. Embrace this period of renewal and growth for the Jaguars alongside us.
James Johnson and Phil Barrera bring you the best and most up to date Jacksonville Jaguars news. "Touchdown Jaguars!" is a tribute to the prospective ownership group "Touchdown Jacksonville!" In 1991, the NFL announced plans to add two expansion teams and "Touchdown Jacksonville!" announced its bid for a team, and Jacksonville was ultimately chosen as one of five finalists. In November 1993, the NFL owners voted 26–2 in favor of awarding the 30th franchise to Jacksonville. James and Phil have been fans of the franchise ever since and have had the honor (and sometimes dishonor) of covering the team professionally since 2017. The rest as they say, is history.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Welcome to the Touchdown Jacksonville 109 yards
Incredible, incredible.
Play action Upstairs wide open.
Tommy Bohannon touchdownJacksonville.
Looking for Jimmy in the endzone.
(00:55):
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Welcome to the TouchdownJaguars podcast.
Here are your hosts, jamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
All right, all right, all right.
Ladies and gentlemen, I almoststarted this episode with a
(01:15):
different intro Not that oursisn't great, but I almost
started this episode with theintro of Roscoe P Coldchain
Shout outs to Star Trek Records,one of the best record
companies ever built.
Um.
But I almost started thisepisode with the intro using
(01:36):
Roscoe P Cold Chain's song Hot D.
You know, I know I won't cusson this podcast, so I can't say
the the other word, butunfortunately we get flagged for
copyrights and Pharrell mightdrop the hammer on us and all
that good stuff.
But I almost started it withRoscoe P Cold Chain's song Hot D
(01:56):
.
But I did away with that andI'm joking a little bit here, by
the way, because it is A newday indeed for the jacksonville
jaguars, as we discussed lastweek.
Right, trent balk, he's out um.
And then after that we gotmoving on finding the coach and
(02:17):
we finally found our coach inliam cohen, former offensive
coordinator of the Tampa BayBucks, who will now lead us into
a new era of JacksonvilleJaguars football.
So we'll get into that in justa bit and that's what today's
episode is about.
But before we even do so, I needto introduce myself, of course.
(02:39):
I am James Johnson, akaSportsGrind underscore Dunn, as
you all know me on Twitter.
James Johnson, aka Sportsgrindunderscore Dunn, as you all know
me on Twitter, hosting thisepisode, which is episode 108,
solo as my guy Phil.
He's busy with what I think isa convention coming up forgive
me if I'm misquoting y'all onthat Phil with the Wait For it
(03:00):
podcast, him and Eric Serna, asyou all know his other project,
where he does pop culture andanime and things of that nature.
So feel free to go ahead andfollow the wait for a podcast as
well.
And shout outs to our buddy,eric cerner, who also has been
on the show, but I believe it'sa convention.
Um, they might be preparing forat the moment, but I told phil
(03:23):
to fear not.
I can hold it down for the soloepisode as we have some very
exciting news to talk about withLiam Cohen.
But, as always, shout outs toPhil, who will join me on the
next episode.
Who's excited, by the way, justas I am, about the announcement
?
I know, you know, last week westill kind of vented some
frustration, but at the sametime we were happy that we're
(03:44):
going in a new direction fromTrent Baalke, um.
So I think I speak for Philwhen I say he's excited about
this Liam Cohen situation.
But, uh, he just is kind oftied down right now, just hasn't
been able to um, take the timeout to record.
So I told him, fear not, I'llhold it down for a solo episode.
And that's exactly what we'regoing to do as we're going to
(04:05):
talk about the Jags.
New hire now.
Look, you know, it's just Liamright now solo.
And some more hires need to bemade and we'll get to that a
little bit in this episodebecause some interviews need to
be done this, that and the other.
But we do have our head coachin place and we'll talk about
the press conference that he hadjust a few days ago and some of
(04:29):
my top takeaways from it, whichI watched the whole presser
yesterday.
So I'm a little late to theparty.
Yesterday was the 28th but, muchlike Phil, I've been busy
myself as well, so I reallydidn't get to see the press
conference.
Until a few days ago, really, Ididn't get to see it live.
So, yeah, you know that'sthat's not normal of me.
(04:51):
Like I'm right there, johnny,on the spot, watching it live
making quotes as the as thepresser is going on.
But you know life happens andyou know work happens and things
of that nature.
I've also missed all of theTwitter shenanigans that's been
going on the Bears fans comingat us, tampa Bay Bucks fans
(05:13):
coming at us as well, about thecoaches search.
So I've been missing out onthat, but I've gone down my
timeline and caught up oneverything and got a few laughs
out of it as well, because ithas been a hilarious journey to
actually get Liam to put pen topaper.
But before we get into all ofthat, of course I got to plug
(05:36):
all of the handles.
Let you all know where you canfind us.
If you're a first time listener, welcome to the show.
We appreciate your listening.
Your listens in your ears and,as I said, normally it's a two
man show it's me and Phil.
So if you're a first timelistener, we'll have Phil back
(05:57):
talking some Jags as well nextweek.
But, as I mentioned, you canfind me on Twitter at Sports
Grind underscore done and youcan find the Touchdown Jaguars
Twitter handle under at TD Jagspod.
Our official site is TouchdownJaguars dot com.
We will be getting some writtencontent up there, especially
(06:17):
with, you know, us now having ahead coaching us, going through
a journey of finding theassistance and a GM.
Eventually that's going to be abig one.
And yeah, shout outs to, also tomy boy, stodge, for joining us
in the space.
We've been doing a few spaceslately and you know my guy has
(06:37):
been alongside me along alongthe way in those in talking Jags
.
I know Stodge's big thing is,you know, the Joe button podcast
and what have you when we talkabout the space room.
But yeah, we've done about twospaces.
Talk some Jags.
I'm going to reach out to himand see if he wants to do
another one tomorrow perhapsbecause you know it feels like
(07:01):
this defensive coach hire iscoming up.
But shout-outs to Stodd,shout-outs to Aaron, who's also
been on the show as well, for,you know, popping into space and
being there alongside me totalk Jags.
Shout-outs to everybody whojoined us in the most recent
space or any of the spaces we'vedone throughout the last few
weeks.
Shout-outs to all of you.
(07:22):
I hope you all are listening.
We appreciate you all coming inand sharing that space with us
talking Jags, talking about anew era with Liam Cohen, and we
hope to have many, many morewith you all, something that
we're trying to bridge into alittle bit more.
Aside from the podcasting realm, aside from writing, aside from
going to press conferences,we're trying to just build this
(07:45):
thing up and just becomemultifaceted, if you will.
So shout outs to everybody thatjoined.
Also, shout outs to JacobDeLawrence, who came through for
a space too, a former co-hostwith me at Phil as well, when we
used to talk Jags on one of ourother projects.
But with all of that out of theway, let's go ahead and get
into the show itself and thetopics at hand.
(08:08):
Liam Cohen was introduced to theJacksonville Jaguars earlier
this week and I always say thisI don't want to make it a
long-winded podcast.
So I initially had 10 takeaways.
I'm going to narrow that down,probably by half or more.
I always say this that I'mgoing to make it not long-winded
(08:29):
, and it ended up being that way.
But I have narrowed this listdown from 10 takeaways to maybe
like four or five, and hopefully, with those four or five I
don't get long-winded, but herewe go nonetheless.
And you know, and I I didn'tchoose these in any particular
order, you know, or thechronicle, the chronological
order that he spoke of them in,so these might be out of order
(08:52):
in terms of when he spoke oneach of these things, but we'll
get right into it here.
And one of the things that stoodout to me a reporter asked him,
you, what does he hope toachieve, being that he'll, you
know, be one of the coaches.
As we all know, the new coachesget an early start with their
team.
They get to meet, they get tostart putting things together
(09:14):
and meeting with the team andgetting everybody in the
building on April, the 17th.
And one of the reporters askedLiam, what does he hope to
(09:34):
establish throughout thatprocess, when he gets that early
start on meeting with the team?
And one thing he said thatreally stood out to me is that
he wants to establish a culture,which I mean, of course, you
know, no, that's a key part ofany organization and you know
that's one of the fundamentals,fundamental parts of an
organization, but it's been apart of the organization that
the Jaguars have desperatelymissed and needed for a very,
(09:55):
very long time, especially underTrent Baalke and Doug Peterson.
Was you know, just culturally,what are the Jacksonville
Jaguars?
And Doug Peterson was you know,just culturally, what are the
Jacksonville Jaguars?
We never really knew, even whenwe had a little bit of success.
We really never knew what theJaguars were culturally.
And that's one of the thingsthat just really upset me when
(10:20):
it came to Trent Baalke and DougPeterson and it felt like it
was never a thing that theyemphasized at least from Trent's
perspective, especially thatthey really emphasize or put the
amount of time that wasrequired into getting that fix
and establishing that cultureRight Around this time of the
year.
You remember last year, and thiswas always the case, you
(10:42):
couldn't find Trent when it cametime to talk about what went
wrong, what's the outlook forthe team, how do we fix it, this
, that and the other x, y and z.
You can never find Trent,especially last year.
You know he didn't speak withthe public until I can't
(11:02):
remember.
Maybe it was in early February,maybe or late January and it
felt like that was a little bitforced right.
So we really had no clue oridea of how the people on the
inside of the building, the mostimportant people on the inside
of the building, and Sean Connwasn't speaking either, right?
(11:23):
People on the inside of thebuilding and shot con wasn't
speaking either, right?
Um, we had no idea how thepeople in the inside of the
building felt about how thingsended and how it was going to
get fixed and what direction andwhat path the team was going to
take to get there.
And that always has irked meabout the jacksonville jaguars
and many fans as well.
Here you have, after the end ofthe season a disappointing
(11:45):
season here you have all ofthese GMs and whatnot taking the
podium, some of them bythemselves, some of them
alongside the coaches, some ofthem with the owners.
Taking the podium, you know,and not just apologizing to the
fans.
It's bigger than justapologizing.
Apologizing to the fans, whichthat's huge too, but not just
apologizing to the fans, whichthat's huge too.
(12:06):
But not just apologizing to thefans, but explaining to them by
their eyes, what went wrong,what we'll do to fix it, how
we're going to attack theoffseason.
Of course, you're not going togive people a flat out blueprint
of what's going to be done, butyou gave them a guideline and
just a basic understanding ofhow things felt within the
(12:28):
building and you know theoutlook and you know a general
plan of what you would do,heading forward as an
organization, to fix what wentwrong that year.
The Jacksonville Jaguars reallydidn't get that, and when they
got it it was really late intothe offseason Right Three, four
weeks after the offseason,whatever the case may be, when
Trent finally took the podium.
(12:49):
And here you have Liam Cohen,who is a breath of fresh air,
and I know the man hasn'tstepped on the field once yet as
a as a head coach for theJacksonville Jaguars yet, but
clearly he understands that.
You know one thing that we needto establish here immediately,
especially within the players,and as soon as I can meet with
(13:11):
all of the team collectively,it's we got to get the culture
established.
So that was important to hear,despite how much of a basic
concept it is for anorganization.
He added that after theyestablish that, they'll work on
fundamentals and technique andthen after that they'll work on
scheme.
But while they're working onscheme they'll also emphasize
(13:33):
the culture as well.
So I can't wait for April toget here, not just because of
the draft, but just to allowLiam and the staff when they're
you know, when they fullycomplete the staff to get their
hands on these players and startveering them in a direction,
culturally, because that hasbeen something that has been
(13:55):
missing for the JacksonvilleJaguars organization for quite
some time.
Other thing that stood out to mein this press conference, which
is a much like the culturething, is a no duh moment and
something that is, you know, isa foundational piece of how to
(14:15):
get a football organization tooperate properly, but still
something that needs to be saidand still something that we
wanted to hear.
Right, because this team hadn'tbeen functioning like a normal
team.
They haven't been doing thingsfundamentally correct, they
haven't been putting out thefundamental messages that they
should have been putting out.
But that second thing was thatyou know, liam said he wants to
(14:38):
make Trevor Lawrence thecenterpiece, which no duh.
I mean you know the quarterbackis arguably the most important
part of an organization, right,and you know, I mean you know
the quarterback is arguably themost important part of an
organization, right, and youknow you have to feel like
Trevor Lawrence I mean,obviously he was a big part of
Liam coming to the JacksonvilleJaguars, because if you don't
have a quarterback, you're lostin his league and you know not
(15:01):
only that, but as a first timecoach, in all probability
without a quarterback yourchances are very slim of
surviving.
Right, even you know if theplan is to get a quarterback in
the draft eventually and thengoing from there, eventually
you're going to need aquarterback, and that's just
football 101, especially for afirst year head coach.
(15:22):
But you know he spoke highly ofTrevor.
I like that.
He mentioned he respectsTrevor's toughness and the
reason that's important isbecause because we're coming off
a time where, you know, a lotof fans have been vocal about
this but it felt like it was arift between Trevor Lawrence and
Doug Peterson.
Right, and here you have acoach right off the rip
acknowledging that he loves howtough the quarterback has been
(15:45):
and how he's been able to pushthrough adversity and so on and
so forth.
So already starting on betterfooting you know, before Trevor
Lawrence has even thrown a passunder this coach already
starting off on better footingwith your new head coach, with
your new head coach, you couldclearly tell that Trevor
Lawrence loves Liam already andtheir relationship will only
(16:09):
grow again.
They haven't really done anywork together just yet, but
there were rumors saying thatTrevor was higher on bringing
Liam in than he was bringing inBen Johnson.
So that's huge.
You can see the excitement inboth of their faces.
They put a video out onJaguarscom of Liam meeting the
team or meeting some of the keymembers of the team, and Trevor
(16:31):
was the first one that they putup and those two dapped each
other up and you could tell likethey really, really want to
build something special.
So that's always good.
But I said all of that to saythis.
That's still, while it'ssomething rather basic, still
something important becauseTrevor Lawrence is coming off
what looked to be a rockyrelationship with the last head
(16:53):
coach and Doug Peterson andprobably you know his staff as
well.
Takeaway I had was later in thepress conference, in the
questioning part of it, cohensingle out not necessarily
players by name, but he singledout some aspects of the team
that he likes and that stood outto me because you already could
(17:15):
kind of establish where hismindset is in terms of what's
the foundation of the team,where you could build from and
what needs to be fixed Right.
And you know he singled out was, you know, wide receiver one
BTJ junior, uh, btj, brianThomas Jr.
He said that we also have twogood running backs, uh, that we
(17:39):
can utilize.
You know, and I'm justparaphrasing here, so obviously
he's high on Taint Biggs, me,travis Etienne right, he singled
out the defense.
He said they got some guys onthat side of the ball.
It's just about getting them ina better position to make plays
.
Obviously he watched the filmlast year.
He saw the talent there.
Josh Allen, tr.
(17:59):
Trayvon walker right, ourrookie, my son smith, you know,
who had moments, even though youknow it was a hassle for him to
get on the field because dougwas trying to keep him off of
the field, uh, to sabotage trentbalky.
You know all of these guys, um,that you could clearly see
talent in.
Now, look, that secondary needsto be reworked big time.
(18:21):
But you could clearly see sometalent in the trenches.
It just felt like the schemingand we all knew this with Ryan
Nilsen, that the scheming wasjust terrible, you know.
And Ryan Nilsen lost thatlocker room, that defensive
locker room, probably early inthe process, which that is a
huge sign that he wasn't theright guy to begin with, not
(18:43):
just from a schematic standpointbut from a leader standpoint.
Right, and Liam also mentionedthe special teams, which they
announced that we will bekeeping our special teams coach,
by the way, and rightfully so.
Right, because Heath Farwellhad the best unit on the team.
You know me and Phil, we'vesaid it on this podcast.
(19:04):
We joked about having the bestspecial teams and you know one
of the best special teams infootball.
But like it kind of wasn't ajoke.
Like you know, logan Cook is anelite punter, right.
Cam Little was money as a rookieRight, and it felt like it was
no place from the field that hecouldn't make a field goal from.
(19:25):
Now, obviously that's notphysically possible, but y'all
know what I mean.
You know, if they were in along-range field goal situation,
it felt like we could put abunch of confidence into Cam
Little making that field goalright.
You got Parker Washington, whenhe can hang on to the ball, a
very good returner right.
(19:45):
He has to get that fumbling andball security cleared up, but
still he's a guy that couldchange the outcome of a game and
change field position and makethe impact play that needs to be
made to put the offense in aposition where they have the
short field.
And you know with how ouroffense struggled, that was, you
know, a much needed shot in thearm at times when we were
(20:07):
losing.
But those were the things hesingled out btj, two running
backs, the defense, the specialteams.
And I think the reason that'simportant is because what liam's
story and what's unique abouthis story in Tampa Bay was, you
know they weren't that great ofan offense year before last
(20:30):
Right, especially in the rungame.
Then he gets there, he turnsthings around, which I think
that's kind of telling of thesedisciples of Sean McVay, you
know they they can turn thingsaround instantly, instantly.
And it's about players and notthe plays, right, that's
something that we definitelylove to hear, and he did say
that that was a talking point ofthis press conference players,
(20:53):
not plays, which you know Idon't like to give Trent credit,
but Trent is kind of alluded tothat too.
It's about the, the ex, uh, thejimmies and the joes, not the
x's and the o's is how he put it.
So you know I don't want to actlike trent didn't think that
way either, but it never reallyfelt like he truly believed that
at times, I guess, um, but allof that said, all of this is
(21:14):
important because of how liamcohen found his way to stardom.
He, you know what the Bucs hadand made it even better and made
them a top five offense.
And this is just a sign of himalready identifying what he
already has and what he canbuild upon.
And the fact that he feels thatand he didn't say this
(21:37):
necessarily, but he alluded toit he feels that they can win
and be a good team right off therip, and rightfully so, because
it's the AFC South too.
(22:01):
But not only that.
He did inherit a team that fora first year, head on the edge
between Walker and Allen, whohe's already, you know, he
already has a relationship withbecause of, you know, the
connection to the University ofKentucky.
But most first year headcoaches don't get that
opportunity and that's that'skind of why he needed to jump on
(22:21):
this and he couldn't pass onthis.
A lot of the premium positionswe said this are set with this
team.
A lot of first year headcoaches don't get to say that or
get to jump into a situationwhere that's the case.
That's why the JacksonvilleJaguars opening was one.
If you remove Trent Baalke fromit, that was coveted and
eventually, when they movedTrent Baalke from it, it became
(22:43):
coveted, as it should have been,and the rest wrote itself right
.
So, anyway, I found that quoteinteresting and you could just
kind of see it in his eyes whenhe, when he in that video that I
alluded to earlier where he wasmeeting people at the facility,
and when he looked into BrianThomas's eyes right, dapped him
(23:05):
up and Brian Thomas embraced himwith a smile.
And when he dapped up TankBigsby, which I tweeted about on
the Touchdown Jaguars podcasthandle, and when he dapped up
Trevor Lawrence, which I alreadymentioned as well, and him
mentioning Josh Allen by name.
You know it already shows thathe's identified, which all
coaches do, but still, still,nonetheless, it's good to hear
it from the coach.
He's identified what this teamcould do.
(23:26):
Well, and he, you know, again,he feels as if this team can hit
the ground running.
Also, another thing that hesaid that makes me confident
that he believes he could hitthe ground running is, you know,
he said this isn't a four-winteam.
He flat out said that.
You know, and a lot of us agreewith that.
You know we saw, like themarginal losses we had by, you
(23:49):
know, less than a touchdown.
So, yeah, obviously they'reknocking on the door, you know,
and when you factor in thatthey're in the AFC South, you
know, a few tweaks here andthere could get you over the top
and get you into to theplayoffs.
And it feels like Cohen, basedon what he did with what he had
over there in Tampa Bay, is theguy that could get us over the
top and overtake the Texans assoon as this year.
(24:12):
So I can't wait to see if hecan do it, get us in the playoff
, and I can't wait to see whathe does with his offense in
terms of the skill players wehave.
That brings me to my next point.
Right, one of the parts of thisteam that he did not single out
like he did the departments Ijust mentioned was the offensive
(24:33):
line, and he said something.
This was probably the biggesttakeaway from the whole press
conference for me.
He mentioned I think it wastowards the end of the press
conference that you know one ofthe things that the opposition
sees when you break the huddleand they're on defense is that
(24:54):
offensive line.
And he said I want that to meansomething.
Quote an end quote.
And that was so significantbecause we've all long felt that
way.
We've all long felt that thisoffensive line was not where it
needed to be and not one thatTrevor Lawrence or this
organization could win with, andit was so frustrating when you
(25:19):
factor in how Trent Baalke wentabout it.
I've said this many, many timesY'all heard me rant about Trent
Baalke's approach on theoffensive line, where it felt
like he was putting resourcesinto it but he just simply
didn't know what he was doing.
Keeping Dave Caldwell's pick inthe fray of Cam Robinson, who
the mentality of most GMs is.
(25:40):
They get rid of those whoweren't effective from the last
regime.
So it always felt like he keptKen Robinson too long from the
regime that came before Right,and Ken Robinson didn't really
make an impact like that.
You know.
He paid the man as well, by theway, gave him a extension, and
he didn't make the impact thatyou would expect for somebody
(26:01):
that's a GM to say, oh you know,I'll identify that guy from the
next regime and I want to keephim and I think we can build
something with him.
You know what I'm saying.
That's not the guy that youwould expect.
Or should I say Cam Robinsonwas not that guy.
You know, if anything, itshould have been Josh Allen,
which it was, and they paid himeventually.
But Cam Robinson and Josh Allenwere two different players is
(26:23):
what I'm saying.
You know, one was clearly a guythat they should have continued
with, which they did, and onewas on the opposite end of the
spectrum.
And then you look at how muchthey paid brandon scherf and, uh
, how much of a shell of himselfthat he was.
You know, he didn't looknowhere near close to the player
he was with the Washingtoncommander, so it felt like money
(26:46):
was wasted there, although youknow he wasn't terrible, but he
surely wasn't all pro that wethought we were getting right.
The massive miss on LukeFortner, right, who Liam Cohen,
actually, you know, mentioned,cause I think he might've coach
Luke Fortner over in Kentucky.
So take with that little tidbit, take from that what you will,
(27:08):
but that'll be an interestingthing to watch heading forward,
but the massive miss on LukeFortner.
When you look at Trent Baalke'scareer as the Jacksonville
Jaguars GM, it feels like thatwas the most disappointing part
of his career as a JacksonvilleJaguars GM.
It feels like that was the mostdisappointing part of his
career.
And what was the mostdisappointing part about it was
(27:28):
what I mentioned in the spacesand what I have mentioned on
this podcast.
Here we are talking about and Idon't mean to keep talking
about Trent, because he's nolonger here with the team but a
lot of what made this pressconference what it was was the
fact that they're moving on fromTrent and going in a totally
different direction than theywere with him.
(27:50):
So he has to be brought up inthese conversations.
But one of the mostdisappointing things about
Trent's tenure was the fact thatwhen you look at Trent uh,
being a disciple of BillParcells the first thing that's
going to come to your mind islike hey, this guy's going to be
able, at the very least, toestablish a tough team in the
(28:10):
trenches, especially theoffensive line and the defensive
line, and it feels like it wasthe exact opposite.
Right, and Liam Cohen hasalready identified that that was
an issue and that he wants toinvest and he wants to make that
unit and get that unit where itneeds to be in terms of the
physical toughness that it needsto have and he mentioned
(28:32):
physicality a lot in this pressconference, especially within
the offensive line.
But it's clear as day that hewants to get that unit as mean
and nasty as we want it and, aswe've seen in the past, back in
the day when we used to havethese you know, massive
offensive lines that MauriceJones drew and Fred Taylor ran
behind.
You know rest in peace to VinceManowai and Brad Meester just
(28:55):
rugged, tough guys that didn'tcare who lined up in front of
them.
They were moving people off ofthe ball, whether it was run or
pass, and when it came down tothose situations where we had to
have the yards and get peopleoff of the ball, they did
exactly what they needed to dofor Maurice Jones, drew and Fred
Taylor and David Garrard andwhoever else was behind that
line of scrimmage.
(29:16):
Liam Cohen clearly wants to getback to that and, of course, one
of the big things that he hadwith Tampa Bay is a physical
offensive line.
So it feels like, when you lookat the situation, especially
with the power he has, he'sgoing to invest into that
offensive line.
Therefore, trevor Lawrence cantake off and have the success
(29:38):
that he needs to have again,which was one of the first
things I mentioned.
One of the first takeaways washe wants to build around Trevor
Lawrence.
Well, obviously, the biggestkey to getting him to perform up
to his best is to fix thatoffensive line.
So I cannot wait to see whatLiam Cohen does to fix this
offensive line and how heinvests in into it, and also,
(30:02):
not just that, but how much of astark difference it is from how
Trent Balky built the offensiveline.
And also, too, you know, I justhope he has a better eye for
talent than Trent did on theoffensive line, which, you know,
he's a first-year head coachand we don't know what Liam
Cohen has to offer as a scout,but I'm hoping and praying that
(30:24):
he learned a lot from thoseexecutives in Tampa Bay in terms
of identifying how to finddominating offensive linemen and
dominating defensive linemen inthe trenches.
And then to wrap up thetakeaways with a few smaller
tidbits Well, I don't even wantto say smaller, because getting
(30:44):
a GM is a big deal but someother tidbits from the Liam
Presser, the Liam Cohen Presser.
There were some things revealedabout the structuring of the
front office, most notably thatthe team will have a role for
Tony Bocelli.
Most notably that the team willhave a role for Tony Bocelli,
(31:04):
who was helping Shaq Khan andwill probably continue to help
him throughout the hiringprocess and, you know, played a
key role in the JacksonvilleJaguars being able to land Liam
Cohen and probably played a keyrole in them being able to
circle around.
After you know, it looks likehe was going to sign with the
Tampa Bay Bucs and get him torevisit and reconsider and
(31:30):
eventually ended up being theJacksonville Jaguars head coach.
So they asked Sean Cohn in thepresser you know if Tony Bocelli
would be joining the frontoffice and you know what kind of
role he would have.
And Shaw, you know, basicallysaid and I'm just paraphrasing
here you know they have to checkwith the league in terms of how
(31:54):
they'll be able to bring him inand what role he would be able
to join the front office in, andyou know things of that nature
it's not as easy as hey, I wantto bring this guy into my front
office and I want know things ofthat nature.
It's not as easy as hey, I wantto bring this guy into my front
office and I want to make himthe evp or whatever the case may
be which we have talked about.
Um, I think it was the lastpodcast where we were saying or
at least I was saying that I waskind of jumping off of that
(32:17):
boat of making tony bocelli aevp, especially after you know,
um, some of the things he saidon 1010XL not this week but last
week, but it looks like, hey,maybe he was just playing the
game and trying to get his footin the door in terms of helping
Sean come with his coaching hireand, you know, getting Trent
Baalke up out of thereeventually.
(32:38):
So maybe you know some of thethings he was saying in praising
Trent last week on 1010 XL.
Maybe he didn't wholeheartedlyfeel that way but knew he needed
to get into the door and findhis way into the inner circle of
Shotgun to help him make a, youknow, the proper decision in
terms of getting rid of Trentand finding the right head coach
(32:59):
for this team.
But all, all of that said, tonyBocelli will have some kind of
a role within the front office,and shotgun confirmed it.
Albert Breer put out a articleas well earlier today, stating
that the role for Bocelli thatthe Jaguars might have in mind
(33:21):
is something similar to that ofChris Spielman.
As we all know, that's thebrother of Rick Spielman, who is
currently with the DetroitLions, and on paper, the role
that they have for him is calledthe special assistant to the
owner and CEO.
At least that's how Wikipediagot it.
(33:42):
I know some people sayWikipedia isn't like a good
source or whatever the case maybe, but that's how he's listed
and just from what I gather,because you know I've done a lot
of research on the Lions,obviously because you know we
we're looking to coach BenJohnson and potentially some
others from the franchise.
But from how I gather it, whatSpielman's role has been with
(34:05):
the Lions, especially withhelping their, their owner and I
think her name is Sheila Ford,if I'm not mistaken His role has
kind of been and I think Iremember them saying this on a
Sunday night football game thatthe Lions played in, or maybe it
could have been another gamelike a big time primetime game
that the Lions played in, ormaybe it could have been another
game like a big time prime timegame that the Lions were in.
(34:26):
But what he kind of helped dois when Sheila Ford started the
whole process of resetting theLions and getting the current
front office and getting thecurrent coaching staff that they
have, that they going on thisrun with because remember
previously the Lions, lions,their culture was terrible, just
flat out terrible.
(34:48):
You can argue that the Lionsculture, you know, and their
history is worse than theJacksonville Jaguars, at least
within the last 20 years atleast.
That being said, you know shereally wanted to fix things and
she really put a lot of effortinto getting it right and
getting the right people inplace.
You know, not just Dan Campbell, which was an excellent hire,
(35:09):
by the way, and not just thefront office with Brad Holmes,
another excellent hire.
You know, brad Holmes broughtin Ray Agnew, superb hire as
well, but she also needed somehelp in just kind of figuring
out the pulse and just figuringit out, uh, figuring out the
relationship with the fans just.
(35:31):
And again, this is, you know,something that they mentioned in
one of the big primetime games.
So I'm, you know, I might notbe telling it 100 correctly, but
if I could recall um, she justkind of needed some help with
weighing the pulse of the fanbase and she needed somebody to
kind of help guide her withfinding the right football
(35:54):
people.
So that was where ChrisSpielman.
He was one of the people thathelped her with both of those
things.
So he was kind of like anassistant to break down the
football operation side ofthings to her and the, you know,
just kind of gauging to breakdown the football operation side
of things to her and you know,just kind of gauging the
temperature of the fan base andyou know, gauging where they
were and how they felt about theteam and the outlook of the
team and what needs to be donebetter and what could be
(36:16):
improved.
Perspective.
But what could the organizationdo better for the fans?
And to measure the pressurebetween the fan base and measure
the relationship between thefan base and the organization,
which you know?
One thing we've always heardabout at Jacksonville Jaguars
and you know the fans say it allthe time is that they're very
(36:36):
tone deaf when it comes toweighing the fans and their
needs and you know what theywant in their consideration.
Now, of course you can't justflat out do what the fans say um
, that's just not how it works.
But the Jacksonville Jaguarshave been in this position at
least out of under shot.
Come for the.
You know last what he's beenthe owner for about 12, 13 years
(36:59):
, where it just feels like hejust has no gauging of the fan,
I guess.
Well, he just has no idea ofhow the fans feel and why they
feel that way and so on and soforth.
So I think that's somethingthat Tony Bocelli could help
with, because, as we all know,you know, he's always on the
radio.
He hears the fans loud andclear.
(37:20):
Whether he agrees with them ornot, he at least hears them and
takes their thoughts and theirtakes into consideration.
And I think he can, you know,kind of bring that up to Shotgun
, keep Shotgun up to speed withhow the fans are feeling and
also too, as he did with theinterviews, help Shotgun with um
(37:41):
, you know, putting togetherfootball personnel and getting
the right people, because, as weall know, shotgun doesn't
really know the game of footballlike that.
And then also to the otherthing that they asked about.
They asked Shotgun about youknow when a GM will be hired.
He said, you know, the firstthing you know, again
paraphrasing that he wants to dois to let liam make his um or
(38:06):
put together his coaching staff,and then after that, that's
when they'll start the processof looking for a gm.
And of course, you know thecombine or um.
Yeah, the nfl combine is at theend of next month and I think
the deadline to have a gm isaround that time.
I wrote it down here februarythe 28th.
(38:28):
So they want to have somebodyin place before then.
They probably have somebody inplace well before then.
And, um, that's going to be themost interesting part of this
man because, as you all know,like we have been leading the
agenda of getting t Baalke outof here, me and Phil the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast,because we know, with the right
(38:50):
GM, you know, of course, thecoaching matters and you know
who you choose to be.
The coach is a big part of it,but it all starts with team
building and team structuringand things of that nature, which
is ultimately that comes downto the GM and that's an
important part of what will getthe Jaguars where they need to
be.
So that's going to be a veryexciting thing to monitor and
watch, especially when youconsider, like, how the front
(39:15):
office is structured Now, whereLiam is calling the shots, which
can make things ratherinteresting, right in terms of
them choosing a GM and any GMswanting to interview, because
you know you might have some GMswho say, like you know, I want
to have total power in terms ofplayer personnel, the draft, so
(39:36):
on and so forth.
I don't think this is the jobfor me.
I want to interview for that.
An interview for that, or atleast you know they want to have
it where it was, where bothshod and the gm report to shot.
Um, excuse me, both the gm andthe coach, both um trent and um
peterson, were reporting to shod, albeit it felt like trent had
(39:57):
all the power when it came topersonnel and player decisions.
So you know, maybe the gms thatthey interview, or you know the
potential candidates out thereyou know, might be of the
mindset that they want somethinglike that in terms of a setup.
So that's going to make thissearch for a GM real interesting
.
And it also is interesting fromthe standpoint of Liam is a
(40:18):
first year head coach too.
And we don't necessarily evenknow about Liam's scouting
ability.
And sure you know he probablyhas put in a word or two or
shared his thoughts or bangedthe table for a prospect or two.
But we don't know about LiamCohen, the GM you know, and
that's essentially what he couldend up being.
He also have the pro personneldecisions to address as well.
(40:43):
So it's going to be realinteresting because we don't
know what Liam offers as a GM.
And that makes that hire of aGM all the more important
because this is his first timeessentially doing this.
So he does need to havesomebody who is a mastermind and
who can offer him eliteanalysis when it comes to the
(41:05):
draft, when it comes to the proside and, you know, acquiring
talent through the pros ortrading, whatever the case may
be, especially when you considerwhere the Jaguars are in terms
of all of the draft picks theyhave.
You know, and it would be verybeneficial for Liam to you know,
knock a lot of those picks outof the park, kind of like the
(41:27):
Detroit Lions have done for thelast three or four years,
whatever the case may be,because, as a first year head
coach, you need every little bitof help where you could get it.
And you know, as we all know,and it will always be this way,
that teams are ultimately builtthrough the draft.
So, um, he has an importanthire coming up there in terms of
the GM situation, but again,you know, I think some
(41:50):
candidates could be turned offby the setup.
So I will definitely bewatching that head and forward
and you know who interviews andwho they could get, because it's
going to be real interesting.
I know a lot of people have saidthat Ian Cunningham is rumored
to be interested or the Jaguarsare interested in him.
You have to wonder how he wouldfeel about the setup.
(42:14):
And also, too, I kind of havesaid this too and we'll get more
into this down the road but Ianis a guy that I don't want to
say I'm low on, but I'm not ashigh on as others.
Um, you all have, you know,seen my list, of course, of
potential GMs that I would liketo have.
We even did an episode on it.
But, um, just looking at howthe Bears are structured and how
(42:36):
they've been built and you know, I get it that Ryan Poles is
probably pulling the strings andmaking the decisions, but Ian
Cunningham is such a bright mindyou have to feel like part of
that roster that has been builtis an indictment on him in some
way, shape or form, right, Ifind it hard to believe somebody
with his football intelligencedidn't have a hand in some kind
(42:57):
of construction in that roster.
And to me that roster isn'tconstructed all that great.
So you know, that's anotherstory for another time.
But I said all of that to say.
This is that I can't wait tosee where they go with the
direction of this GM hire.
Real quick, before we wrap it up, I'll just go over some quick
(43:17):
hit news.
Of course the JacksonvilleJaguars have been doing
offensive and defensivecoordinator interviews.
I'll just go through the listhere.
I won't really talk on it,everybody will say that for
another episode.
But the guys they haveinterviewed so far I'll pull it
up on jaguarscom.
On the offensive side they kindof have just started on the
(43:39):
offensive side as of yesterdaythey had been doing mostly
defensive coaching candidateinterviews but on the offensive
side and the most recent oneactually popped up as I was
recording this.
But Tavita Pritchard was thelatest interviewee.
He is the quarterback's coachfor the Commanders worked with
(44:02):
Jaden Daniels obviously.
Quarterback's coach for thecommanders work with jayden
daniels obviously.
So that's huge in terms of youknow why he would be somebody
the jaguars would be interestedin for coaching up trevor
lawrence.
They have also interviewed onthe offensive side nate shield
house, who is the passing gamecoordinator and offensive
(44:22):
assistant for the rams.
So he's under the Sean McVaytree.
So obviously you can make theconnection between Liam and the
tree, the Sean McVay tree.
He's a branch from that tree.
So this was probably a big timesuggestion from Sean McVay.
And then on the defensivecoordinator side of things.
They interviewed Durante Jonesof the Minnesota Vikings.
(44:46):
He's the pass game coordinatorand defensive backs coach.
They interviewed Patrick Grahamagain, who you know a lot of
people were high on and thoughthe would end up getting the
defensive coordinator role, buthe will be staying with the
Vegas Raiders, the Las VegasRaiders.
Another Rams assistant here Ramsdefensive pass game coordinator
(45:07):
and assistant head coach,aubrey Pleasant.
I think that's who the Jaguarsmight end up with as their
defensive coordinator.
Obviously he's a Sean McVaydisciple, like Liam.
Liam also worked with him whenhe was with the Rams and under
Sean McVay, so there is aconnection there that he knows
Aubrey Pleasant personally.
And then the Green Bay Packerslinebackers coach and defensive
(45:29):
run game coordinator, anthonyCampanile, who's been making
runs on Twitter in regards ofthe video that surfaced about
him and his thoughts onestablishing dominance about him
and his thoughts onestablishing dominance we'll put
it that way on the opposition,which I found it as a very
(45:53):
interesting video and evencommented on it as well.
Wouldn't mind having a guy withthat kind of mentality too.
So that's where they're at, orthat's where they are with those
hires or those candidateinterviews.
I wouldn't be shocked if we geta hire tomorrow on the defensive
side.
We'll talk about that in.
We get a hire tomorrow on thedefensive side.
We'll talk about that in thenext episode, as well as the
offensive hire and any otherassistants that are hired by the
Jacksonville Jaguars and LiamCohen.
(46:14):
So, all of that said, I will goahead and wrap this up as I
said.
We'll get Phil on for the nextepisode.
Shout outs to him.
And you can find me atsportsgrind underscore done on
twitter.
You can find phil at phil thefilipino.
You can follow the touchdownjaguars podcast at tdjagspod on
twitter and our official websiteis touchdownjaguarscom.
(46:38):
Once again, shout outs toeverybody who were, uh, who
participated in the spaces we'vedone lately.
I'll get with Starr see if hewants to do one tomorrow and we
can talk about the draftprospects and a lot of the
all-star games going on SeniorBowl.
So I think it's about time westart moving into that as well
(46:58):
because, make no mistake aboutit, it's going to be an exciting
draft, especially with uslooking at it from a different
perspective, because TrentBaalke is no longer here and you
know the Jaguars might go adifferent route than they you
know obviously will go adifferent route than they
previously used to under Baalke.
So until then, everybody takecare, everybody be safe,
(47:23):
everybody look out for eachother, and until next time, you
all hold it down and I amsigning out.
Welcome to the Touchdown Jacksonville 109 yards
Incredible, incredible.
Play action Upstairs wide open.
Tommy Bohannon touchdownJacksonville.
Looking for Jimmy in the endzone.
(00:55):
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Touchdown Jaguars.
Welcome to the TouchdownJaguars podcast.
Here are your hosts, jamesJohnson and Phil Smith.
All right, all right, all right.
Ladies and gentlemen, I almoststarted this episode with a
(01:15):
different intro Not that oursisn't great, but I almost
started this episode with theintro of Roscoe P Coldchain
Shout outs to Star Trek Records,one of the best record
companies ever built.
Um.
But I almost started thisepisode with the intro using
(01:36):
Roscoe P Cold Chain's song Hot D.
You know, I know I won't cusson this podcast, so I can't say
the the other word, butunfortunately we get flagged for
copyrights and Pharrell mightdrop the hammer on us and all
that good stuff.
But I almost started it withRoscoe P Cold Chain's song Hot D
(01:56):
.
But I did away with that andI'm joking a little bit here, by
the way, because it is A newday indeed for the jacksonville
jaguars, as we discussed lastweek.
Right, trent balk, he's out um.
And then after that we gotmoving on finding the coach and
(02:17):
we finally found our coach inliam cohen, former offensive
coordinator of the Tampa BayBucks, who will now lead us into
a new era of JacksonvilleJaguars football.
So we'll get into that in justa bit and that's what today's
episode is about.
But before we even do so, I needto introduce myself, of course.
(02:39):
I am James Johnson, akaSportsGrind underscore Dunn, as
you all know me on Twitter.
James Johnson, aka Sportsgrindunderscore Dunn, as you all know
me on Twitter, hosting thisepisode, which is episode 108,
solo as my guy Phil.
He's busy with what I think isa convention coming up forgive
me if I'm misquoting y'all onthat Phil with the Wait For it
(03:00):
podcast, him and Eric Serna, asyou all know his other project,
where he does pop culture andanime and things of that nature.
So feel free to go ahead andfollow the wait for a podcast as
well.
And shout outs to our buddy,eric cerner, who also has been
on the show, but I believe it'sa convention.
Um, they might be preparing forat the moment, but I told phil
(03:23):
to fear not.
I can hold it down for the soloepisode as we have some very
exciting news to talk about withLiam Cohen.
But, as always, shout outs toPhil, who will join me on the
next episode.
Who's excited, by the way, justas I am, about the announcement
?
I know, you know, last week westill kind of vented some
frustration, but at the sametime we were happy that we're
(03:44):
going in a new direction fromTrent Baalke, um.
So I think I speak for Philwhen I say he's excited about
this Liam Cohen situation.
But, uh, he just is kind oftied down right now, just hasn't
been able to um, take the timeout to record.
So I told him, fear not, I'llhold it down for a solo episode.
And that's exactly what we'regoing to do as we're going to
(04:05):
talk about the Jags.
New hire now.
Look, you know, it's just Liamright now solo.
And some more hires need to bemade and we'll get to that a
little bit in this episodebecause some interviews need to
be done this, that and the other.
But we do have our head coachin place and we'll talk about
the press conference that he hadjust a few days ago and some of
(04:29):
my top takeaways from it, whichI watched the whole presser
yesterday.
So I'm a little late to theparty.
Yesterday was the 28th but, muchlike Phil, I've been busy
myself as well, so I reallydidn't get to see the press
conference.
Until a few days ago, really, Ididn't get to see it live.
So, yeah, you know that'sthat's not normal of me.
(04:51):
Like I'm right there, johnny,on the spot, watching it live
making quotes as the as thepresser is going on.
But you know life happens andyou know work happens and things
of that nature.
I've also missed all of theTwitter shenanigans that's been
going on the Bears fans comingat us, tampa Bay Bucks fans
(05:13):
coming at us as well, about thecoaches search.
So I've been missing out onthat, but I've gone down my
timeline and caught up oneverything and got a few laughs
out of it as well, because ithas been a hilarious journey to
actually get Liam to put pen topaper.
But before we get into all ofthat, of course I got to plug
(05:36):
all of the handles.
Let you all know where you canfind us.
If you're a first time listener, welcome to the show.
We appreciate your listening.
Your listens in your ears and,as I said, normally it's a two
man show it's me and Phil.
So if you're a first timelistener, we'll have Phil back
(05:57):
talking some Jags as well nextweek.
But, as I mentioned, you canfind me on Twitter at Sports
Grind underscore done and youcan find the Touchdown Jaguars
Twitter handle under at TD Jagspod.
Our official site is TouchdownJaguars dot com.
We will be getting some writtencontent up there, especially
(06:17):
with, you know, us now having ahead coaching us, going through
a journey of finding theassistance and a GM.
Eventually that's going to be abig one.
And yeah, shout outs to, also tomy boy, stodge, for joining us
in the space.
We've been doing a few spaceslately and you know my guy has
(06:37):
been alongside me along alongthe way in those in talking Jags
.
I know Stodge's big thing is,you know, the Joe button podcast
and what have you when we talkabout the space room.
But yeah, we've done about twospaces.
Talk some Jags.
I'm going to reach out to himand see if he wants to do
another one tomorrow perhapsbecause you know it feels like
(07:01):
this defensive coach hire iscoming up.
But shout-outs to Stodd,shout-outs to Aaron, who's also
been on the show as well, for,you know, popping into space and
being there alongside me totalk Jags.
Shout-outs to everybody whojoined us in the most recent
space or any of the spaces we'vedone throughout the last few
weeks.
Shout-outs to all of you.
(07:22):
I hope you all are listening.
We appreciate you all coming inand sharing that space with us
talking Jags, talking about anew era with Liam Cohen, and we
hope to have many, many morewith you all, something that
we're trying to bridge into alittle bit more.
Aside from the podcasting realm, aside from writing, aside from
going to press conferences,we're trying to just build this
(07:45):
thing up and just becomemultifaceted, if you will.
So shout outs to everybody thatjoined.
Also, shout outs to JacobDeLawrence, who came through for
a space too, a former co-hostwith me at Phil as well, when we
used to talk Jags on one of ourother projects.
But with all of that out of theway, let's go ahead and get
into the show itself and thetopics at hand.
(08:08):
Liam Cohen was introduced to theJacksonville Jaguars earlier
this week and I always say thisI don't want to make it a
long-winded podcast.
So I initially had 10 takeaways.
I'm going to narrow that down,probably by half or more.
I always say this that I'mgoing to make it not long-winded
(08:29):
, and it ended up being that way.
But I have narrowed this listdown from 10 takeaways to maybe
like four or five, and hopefully, with those four or five I
don't get long-winded, but herewe go nonetheless.
And you know, and I I didn'tchoose these in any particular
order, you know, or thechronicle, the chronological
order that he spoke of them in,so these might be out of order
(08:52):
in terms of when he spoke oneach of these things, but we'll
get right into it here.
And one of the things that stoodout to me a reporter asked him,
you, what does he hope toachieve, being that he'll, you
know, be one of the coaches.
As we all know, the new coachesget an early start with their
team.
They get to meet, they get tostart putting things together
(09:14):
and meeting with the team andgetting everybody in the
building on April, the 17th.
And one of the reporters askedLiam, what does he hope to
(09:34):
establish throughout thatprocess, when he gets that early
start on meeting with the team?
And one thing he said thatreally stood out to me is that
he wants to establish a culture,which I mean, of course, you
know, no, that's a key part ofany organization and you know
that's one of the fundamentals,fundamental parts of an
organization, but it's been apart of the organization that
the Jaguars have desperatelymissed and needed for a very,
(09:55):
very long time, especially underTrent Baalke and Doug Peterson.
Was you know, just culturally,what are the Jacksonville
Jaguars?
And Doug Peterson was you know,just culturally, what are the
Jacksonville Jaguars?
We never really knew, even whenwe had a little bit of success.
We really never knew what theJaguars were culturally.
And that's one of the thingsthat just really upset me when
(10:20):
it came to Trent Baalke and DougPeterson and it felt like it
was never a thing that theyemphasized at least from Trent's
perspective, especially thatthey really emphasize or put the
amount of time that wasrequired into getting that fix
and establishing that cultureRight Around this time of the
year.
You remember last year, and thiswas always the case, you
(10:42):
couldn't find Trent when it cametime to talk about what went
wrong, what's the outlook forthe team, how do we fix it, this
, that and the other x, y and z.
You can never find Trent,especially last year.
You know he didn't speak withthe public until I can't
(11:02):
remember.
Maybe it was in early February,maybe or late January and it
felt like that was a little bitforced right.
So we really had no clue oridea of how the people on the
inside of the building, the mostimportant people on the inside
of the building, and Sean Connwasn't speaking either, right?
(11:23):
People on the inside of thebuilding and shot con wasn't
speaking either, right?
Um, we had no idea how thepeople in the inside of the
building felt about how thingsended and how it was going to
get fixed and what direction andwhat path the team was going to
take to get there.
And that always has irked meabout the jacksonville jaguars
and many fans as well.
Here you have, after the end ofthe season a disappointing
(11:45):
season here you have all ofthese GMs and whatnot taking the
podium, some of them bythemselves, some of them
alongside the coaches, some ofthem with the owners.
Taking the podium, you know,and not just apologizing to the
fans.
It's bigger than justapologizing.
Apologizing to the fans, whichthat's huge too, but not just
apologizing to the fans, whichthat's huge too.
(12:06):
But not just apologizing to thefans, but explaining to them by
their eyes, what went wrong,what we'll do to fix it, how
we're going to attack theoffseason.
Of course, you're not going togive people a flat out blueprint
of what's going to be done, butyou gave them a guideline and
just a basic understanding ofhow things felt within the
(12:28):
building and you know theoutlook and you know a general
plan of what you would do,heading forward as an
organization, to fix what wentwrong that year.
The Jacksonville Jaguars reallydidn't get that, and when they
got it it was really late intothe offseason Right Three, four
weeks after the offseason,whatever the case may be, when
Trent finally took the podium.
(12:49):
And here you have Liam Cohen,who is a breath of fresh air,
and I know the man hasn'tstepped on the field once yet as
a as a head coach for theJacksonville Jaguars yet, but
clearly he understands that.
You know one thing that we needto establish here immediately,
especially within the players,and as soon as I can meet with
(13:11):
all of the team collectively,it's we got to get the culture
established.
So that was important to hear,despite how much of a basic
concept it is for anorganization.
He added that after theyestablish that, they'll work on
fundamentals and technique andthen after that they'll work on
scheme.
But while they're working onscheme they'll also emphasize
(13:33):
the culture as well.
So I can't wait for April toget here, not just because of
the draft, but just to allowLiam and the staff when they're
you know, when they fullycomplete the staff to get their
hands on these players and startveering them in a direction,
culturally, because that hasbeen something that has been
(13:55):
missing for the JacksonvilleJaguars organization for quite
some time.
Other thing that stood out to mein this press conference, which
is a much like the culturething, is a no duh moment and
something that is, you know, isa foundational piece of how to
(14:15):
get a football organization tooperate properly, but still
something that needs to be saidand still something that we
wanted to hear.
Right, because this team hadn'tbeen functioning like a normal
team.
They haven't been doing thingsfundamentally correct, they
haven't been putting out thefundamental messages that they
should have been putting out.
But that second thing was thatyou know, liam said he wants to
(14:38):
make Trevor Lawrence thecenterpiece, which no duh.
I mean you know the quarterbackis arguably the most important
part of an organization, right,and you know, I mean you know
the quarterback is arguably themost important part of an
organization, right, and youknow you have to feel like
Trevor Lawrence I mean,obviously he was a big part of
Liam coming to the JacksonvilleJaguars, because if you don't
have a quarterback, you're lostin his league and you know not
(15:01):
only that, but as a first timecoach, in all probability
without a quarterback yourchances are very slim of
surviving.
Right, even you know if theplan is to get a quarterback in
the draft eventually and thengoing from there, eventually
you're going to need aquarterback, and that's just
football 101, especially for afirst year head coach.
(15:22):
But you know he spoke highly ofTrevor.
I like that.
He mentioned he respectsTrevor's toughness and the
reason that's important isbecause because we're coming off
a time where, you know, a lotof fans have been vocal about
this but it felt like it was arift between Trevor Lawrence and
Doug Peterson.
Right, and here you have acoach right off the rip
acknowledging that he loves howtough the quarterback has been
(15:45):
and how he's been able to pushthrough adversity and so on and
so forth.
So already starting on betterfooting you know, before Trevor
Lawrence has even thrown a passunder this coach already
starting off on better footingwith your new head coach, with
your new head coach, you couldclearly tell that Trevor
Lawrence loves Liam already andtheir relationship will only
(16:09):
grow again.
They haven't really done anywork together just yet, but
there were rumors saying thatTrevor was higher on bringing
Liam in than he was bringing inBen Johnson.
So that's huge.
You can see the excitement inboth of their faces.
They put a video out onJaguarscom of Liam meeting the
team or meeting some of the keymembers of the team, and Trevor
(16:31):
was the first one that they putup and those two dapped each
other up and you could tell likethey really, really want to
build something special.
So that's always good.
But I said all of that to saythis.
That's still, while it'ssomething rather basic, still
something important becauseTrevor Lawrence is coming off
what looked to be a rockyrelationship with the last head
(16:53):
coach and Doug Peterson andprobably you know his staff as
well.
Takeaway I had was later in thepress conference, in the
questioning part of it, cohensingle out not necessarily
players by name, but he singledout some aspects of the team
that he likes and that stood outto me because you already could
(17:15):
kind of establish where hismindset is in terms of what's
the foundation of the team,where you could build from and
what needs to be fixed Right.
And you know he singled out was, you know, wide receiver one
BTJ junior, uh, btj, brianThomas Jr.
He said that we also have twogood running backs, uh, that we
(17:39):
can utilize.
You know, and I'm justparaphrasing here, so obviously
he's high on Taint Biggs, me,travis Etienne right, he singled
out the defense.
He said they got some guys onthat side of the ball.
It's just about getting them ina better position to make plays
.
Obviously he watched the filmlast year.
He saw the talent there.
Josh Allen, tr.
(17:59):
Trayvon walker right, ourrookie, my son smith, you know,
who had moments, even though youknow it was a hassle for him to
get on the field because dougwas trying to keep him off of
the field, uh, to sabotage trentbalky.
You know all of these guys, um,that you could clearly see
talent in.
Now, look, that secondary needsto be reworked big time.
(18:21):
But you could clearly see sometalent in the trenches.
It just felt like the schemingand we all knew this with Ryan
Nilsen, that the scheming wasjust terrible, you know.
And Ryan Nilsen lost thatlocker room, that defensive
locker room, probably early inthe process, which that is a
huge sign that he wasn't theright guy to begin with, not
(18:43):
just from a schematic standpointbut from a leader standpoint.
Right, and Liam also mentionedthe special teams, which they
announced that we will bekeeping our special teams coach,
by the way, and rightfully so.
Right, because Heath Farwellhad the best unit on the team.
You know me and Phil, we'vesaid it on this podcast.
(19:04):
We joked about having the bestspecial teams and you know one
of the best special teams infootball.
But like it kind of wasn't ajoke.
Like you know, logan Cook is anelite punter, right.
Cam Little was money as a rookieRight, and it felt like it was
no place from the field that hecouldn't make a field goal from.
(19:25):
Now, obviously that's notphysically possible, but y'all
know what I mean.
You know, if they were in along-range field goal situation,
it felt like we could put abunch of confidence into Cam
Little making that field goalright.
You got Parker Washington, whenhe can hang on to the ball, a
very good returner right.
(19:45):
He has to get that fumbling andball security cleared up, but
still he's a guy that couldchange the outcome of a game and
change field position and makethe impact play that needs to be
made to put the offense in aposition where they have the
short field.
And you know with how ouroffense struggled, that was, you
know, a much needed shot in thearm at times when we were
(20:07):
losing.
But those were the things hesingled out btj, two running
backs, the defense, the specialteams.
And I think the reason that'simportant is because what liam's
story and what's unique abouthis story in Tampa Bay was, you
know they weren't that great ofan offense year before last
(20:30):
Right, especially in the rungame.
Then he gets there, he turnsthings around, which I think
that's kind of telling of thesedisciples of Sean McVay, you
know they they can turn thingsaround instantly, instantly.
And it's about players and notthe plays, right, that's
something that we definitelylove to hear, and he did say
that that was a talking point ofthis press conference players,
(20:53):
not plays, which you know Idon't like to give Trent credit,
but Trent is kind of alluded tothat too.
It's about the, the ex, uh, thejimmies and the joes, not the
x's and the o's is how he put it.
So you know I don't want to actlike trent didn't think that
way either, but it never reallyfelt like he truly believed that
at times, I guess, um, but allof that said, all of this is
(21:14):
important because of how liamcohen found his way to stardom.
He, you know what the Bucs hadand made it even better and made
them a top five offense.
And this is just a sign of himalready identifying what he
already has and what he canbuild upon.
And the fact that he feels thatand he didn't say this
(21:37):
necessarily, but he alluded toit he feels that they can win
and be a good team right off therip, and rightfully so, because
it's the AFC South too.
(22:01):
But not only that.
He did inherit a team that fora first year, head on the edge
between Walker and Allen, whohe's already, you know, he
already has a relationship withbecause of, you know, the
connection to the University ofKentucky.
But most first year headcoaches don't get that
opportunity and that's that'skind of why he needed to jump on
(22:21):
this and he couldn't pass onthis.
A lot of the premium positionswe said this are set with this
team.
A lot of first year headcoaches don't get to say that or
get to jump into a situationwhere that's the case.
That's why the JacksonvilleJaguars opening was one.
If you remove Trent Baalke fromit, that was coveted and
eventually, when they movedTrent Baalke from it, it became
(22:43):
coveted, as it should have been,and the rest wrote itself right
.
So, anyway, I found that quoteinteresting and you could just
kind of see it in his eyes whenhe, when he in that video that I
alluded to earlier where he wasmeeting people at the facility,
and when he looked into BrianThomas's eyes right, dapped him
(23:05):
up and Brian Thomas embraced himwith a smile.
And when he dapped up TankBigsby, which I tweeted about on
the Touchdown Jaguars podcasthandle, and when he dapped up
Trevor Lawrence, which I alreadymentioned as well, and him
mentioning Josh Allen by name.
You know it already shows thathe's identified, which all
coaches do, but still, still,nonetheless, it's good to hear
it from the coach.
He's identified what this teamcould do.
(23:26):
Well, and he, you know, again,he feels as if this team can hit
the ground running.
Also, another thing that hesaid that makes me confident
that he believes he could hitthe ground running is, you know,
he said this isn't a four-winteam.
He flat out said that.
You know, and a lot of us agreewith that.
You know we saw, like themarginal losses we had by, you
(23:49):
know, less than a touchdown.
So, yeah, obviously they'reknocking on the door, you know,
and when you factor in thatthey're in the AFC South, you
know, a few tweaks here andthere could get you over the top
and get you into to theplayoffs.
And it feels like Cohen, basedon what he did with what he had
over there in Tampa Bay, is theguy that could get us over the
top and overtake the Texans assoon as this year.
(24:12):
So I can't wait to see if hecan do it, get us in the playoff
, and I can't wait to see whathe does with his offense in
terms of the skill players wehave.
That brings me to my next point.
Right, one of the parts of thisteam that he did not single out
like he did the departments Ijust mentioned was the offensive
(24:33):
line, and he said something.
This was probably the biggesttakeaway from the whole press
conference for me.
He mentioned I think it wastowards the end of the press
conference that you know one ofthe things that the opposition
sees when you break the huddleand they're on defense is that
(24:54):
offensive line.
And he said I want that to meansomething.
Quote an end quote.
And that was so significantbecause we've all long felt that
way.
We've all long felt that thisoffensive line was not where it
needed to be and not one thatTrevor Lawrence or this
organization could win with, andit was so frustrating when you
(25:19):
factor in how Trent Baalke wentabout it.
I've said this many, many timesY'all heard me rant about Trent
Baalke's approach on theoffensive line, where it felt
like he was putting resourcesinto it but he just simply
didn't know what he was doing.
Keeping Dave Caldwell's pick inthe fray of Cam Robinson, who
the mentality of most GMs is.
(25:40):
They get rid of those whoweren't effective from the last
regime.
So it always felt like he keptKen Robinson too long from the
regime that came before Right,and Ken Robinson didn't really
make an impact like that.
You know.
He paid the man as well, by theway, gave him a extension, and
he didn't make the impact thatyou would expect for somebody
(26:01):
that's a GM to say, oh you know,I'll identify that guy from the
next regime and I want to keephim and I think we can build
something with him.
You know what I'm saying.
That's not the guy that youwould expect.
Or should I say Cam Robinsonwas not that guy.
You know, if anything, itshould have been Josh Allen,
which it was, and they paid himeventually.
But Cam Robinson and Josh Allenwere two different players is
(26:23):
what I'm saying.
You know, one was clearly a guythat they should have continued
with, which they did, and onewas on the opposite end of the
spectrum.
And then you look at how muchthey paid brandon scherf and, uh
, how much of a shell of himselfthat he was.
You know, he didn't looknowhere near close to the player
he was with the Washingtoncommander, so it felt like money
(26:46):
was wasted there, although youknow he wasn't terrible, but he
surely wasn't all pro that wethought we were getting right.
The massive miss on LukeFortner, right, who Liam Cohen,
actually, you know, mentioned,cause I think he might've coach
Luke Fortner over in Kentucky.
So take with that little tidbit, take from that what you will,
(27:08):
but that'll be an interestingthing to watch heading forward,
but the massive miss on LukeFortner.
When you look at Trent Baalke'scareer as the Jacksonville
Jaguars GM, it feels like thatwas the most disappointing part
of his career as a JacksonvilleJaguars GM.
It feels like that was the mostdisappointing part of his
career.
And what was the mostdisappointing part about it was
(27:28):
what I mentioned in the spacesand what I have mentioned on
this podcast.
Here we are talking about and Idon't mean to keep talking
about Trent, because he's nolonger here with the team but a
lot of what made this pressconference what it was was the
fact that they're moving on fromTrent and going in a totally
different direction than theywere with him.
(27:50):
So he has to be brought up inthese conversations.
But one of the mostdisappointing things about
Trent's tenure was the fact thatwhen you look at Trent uh,
being a disciple of BillParcells the first thing that's
going to come to your mind islike hey, this guy's going to be
able, at the very least, toestablish a tough team in the
(28:10):
trenches, especially theoffensive line and the defensive
line, and it feels like it wasthe exact opposite.
Right, and Liam Cohen hasalready identified that that was
an issue and that he wants toinvest and he wants to make that
unit and get that unit where itneeds to be in terms of the
physical toughness that it needsto have and he mentioned
(28:32):
physicality a lot in this pressconference, especially within
the offensive line.
But it's clear as day that hewants to get that unit as mean
and nasty as we want it and, aswe've seen in the past, back in
the day when we used to havethese you know, massive
offensive lines that MauriceJones drew and Fred Taylor ran
behind.
You know rest in peace to VinceManowai and Brad Meester just
(28:55):
rugged, tough guys that didn'tcare who lined up in front of
them.
They were moving people off ofthe ball, whether it was run or
pass, and when it came down tothose situations where we had to
have the yards and get peopleoff of the ball, they did
exactly what they needed to dofor Maurice Jones, drew and Fred
Taylor and David Garrard andwhoever else was behind that
line of scrimmage.
(29:16):
Liam Cohen clearly wants to getback to that and, of course, one
of the big things that he hadwith Tampa Bay is a physical
offensive line.
So it feels like, when you lookat the situation, especially
with the power he has, he'sgoing to invest into that
offensive line.
Therefore, trevor Lawrence cantake off and have the success
(29:38):
that he needs to have again,which was one of the first
things I mentioned.
One of the first takeaways washe wants to build around Trevor
Lawrence.
Well, obviously, the biggestkey to getting him to perform up
to his best is to fix thatoffensive line.
So I cannot wait to see whatLiam Cohen does to fix this
offensive line and how heinvests in into it, and also,
(30:02):
not just that, but how much of astark difference it is from how
Trent Balky built the offensiveline.
And also, too, you know, I justhope he has a better eye for
talent than Trent did on theoffensive line, which, you know,
he's a first-year head coachand we don't know what Liam
Cohen has to offer as a scout,but I'm hoping and praying that
(30:24):
he learned a lot from thoseexecutives in Tampa Bay in terms
of identifying how to finddominating offensive linemen and
dominating defensive linemen inthe trenches.
And then to wrap up thetakeaways with a few smaller
tidbits Well, I don't even wantto say smaller, because getting
(30:44):
a GM is a big deal but someother tidbits from the Liam
Presser, the Liam Cohen Presser.
There were some things revealedabout the structuring of the
front office, most notably thatthe team will have a role for
Tony Bocelli.
Most notably that the team willhave a role for Tony Bocelli,
(31:04):
who was helping Shaq Khan andwill probably continue to help
him throughout the hiringprocess and, you know, played a
key role in the JacksonvilleJaguars being able to land Liam
Cohen and probably played a keyrole in them being able to
circle around.
After you know, it looks likehe was going to sign with the
Tampa Bay Bucs and get him torevisit and reconsider and
(31:30):
eventually ended up being theJacksonville Jaguars head coach.
So they asked Sean Cohn in thepresser you know if Tony Bocelli
would be joining the frontoffice and you know what kind of
role he would have.
And Shaw, you know, basicallysaid and I'm just paraphrasing
here you know they have to checkwith the league in terms of how
(31:54):
they'll be able to bring him inand what role he would be able
to join the front office in, andyou know things of that nature
it's not as easy as hey, I wantto bring this guy into my front
office and I want know things ofthat nature.
It's not as easy as hey, I wantto bring this guy into my front
office and I want to make himthe evp or whatever the case may
be which we have talked about.
Um, I think it was the lastpodcast where we were saying or
at least I was saying that I waskind of jumping off of that
(32:17):
boat of making tony bocelli aevp, especially after you know,
um, some of the things he saidon 1010XL not this week but last
week, but it looks like, hey,maybe he was just playing the
game and trying to get his footin the door in terms of helping
Sean come with his coaching hireand, you know, getting Trent
Baalke up out of thereeventually.
(32:38):
So maybe you know some of thethings he was saying in praising
Trent last week on 1010 XL.
Maybe he didn't wholeheartedlyfeel that way but knew he needed
to get into the door and findhis way into the inner circle of
Shotgun to help him make a, youknow, the proper decision in
terms of getting rid of Trentand finding the right head coach
(32:59):
for this team.
But all, all of that said, tonyBocelli will have some kind of
a role within the front office,and shotgun confirmed it.
Albert Breer put out a articleas well earlier today, stating
that the role for Bocelli thatthe Jaguars might have in mind
(33:21):
is something similar to that ofChris Spielman.
As we all know, that's thebrother of Rick Spielman, who is
currently with the DetroitLions, and on paper, the role
that they have for him is calledthe special assistant to the
owner and CEO.
At least that's how Wikipediagot it.
(33:42):
I know some people sayWikipedia isn't like a good
source or whatever the case maybe, but that's how he's listed
and just from what I gather,because you know I've done a lot
of research on the Lions,obviously because you know we
we're looking to coach BenJohnson and potentially some
others from the franchise.
But from how I gather it, whatSpielman's role has been with
(34:05):
the Lions, especially withhelping their, their owner and I
think her name is Sheila Ford,if I'm not mistaken His role has
kind of been and I think Iremember them saying this on a
Sunday night football game thatthe Lions played in, or maybe it
could have been another gamelike a big time primetime game
that the Lions played in, ormaybe it could have been another
game like a big time prime timegame that the Lions were in.
(34:26):
But what he kind of helped dois when Sheila Ford started the
whole process of resetting theLions and getting the current
front office and getting thecurrent coaching staff that they
have, that they going on thisrun with because remember
previously the Lions, lions,their culture was terrible, just
flat out terrible.
(34:48):
You can argue that the Lionsculture, you know, and their
history is worse than theJacksonville Jaguars, at least
within the last 20 years atleast.
That being said, you know shereally wanted to fix things and
she really put a lot of effortinto getting it right and
getting the right people inplace.
You know, not just Dan Campbell, which was an excellent hire,
(35:09):
by the way, and not just thefront office with Brad Holmes,
another excellent hire.
You know, brad Holmes broughtin Ray Agnew, superb hire as
well, but she also needed somehelp in just kind of figuring
out the pulse and just figuringit out, uh, figuring out the
relationship with the fans just.
(35:31):
And again, this is, you know,something that they mentioned in
one of the big primetime games.
So I'm, you know, I might notbe telling it 100 correctly, but
if I could recall um, she justkind of needed some help with
weighing the pulse of the fanbase and she needed somebody to
kind of help guide her withfinding the right football
(35:54):
people.
So that was where ChrisSpielman.
He was one of the people thathelped her with both of those
things.
So he was kind of like anassistant to break down the
football operation side ofthings to her and the, you know,
just kind of gauging to breakdown the football operation side
of things to her and you know,just kind of gauging the
temperature of the fan base andyou know, gauging where they
were and how they felt about theteam and the outlook of the
team and what needs to be donebetter and what could be
(36:16):
improved.
Perspective.
But what could the organizationdo better for the fans?
And to measure the pressurebetween the fan base and measure
the relationship between thefan base and the organization,
which you know?
One thing we've always heardabout at Jacksonville Jaguars
and you know the fans say it allthe time is that they're very
(36:36):
tone deaf when it comes toweighing the fans and their
needs and you know what theywant in their consideration.
Now, of course you can't justflat out do what the fans say um
, that's just not how it works.
But the Jacksonville Jaguarshave been in this position at
least out of under shot.
Come for the.
You know last what he's beenthe owner for about 12, 13 years
(36:59):
, where it just feels like hejust has no gauging of the fan,
I guess.
Well, he just has no idea ofhow the fans feel and why they
feel that way and so on and soforth.
So I think that's somethingthat Tony Bocelli could help
with, because, as we all know,you know, he's always on the
radio.
He hears the fans loud andclear.
(37:20):
Whether he agrees with them ornot, he at least hears them and
takes their thoughts and theirtakes into consideration.
And I think he can, you know,kind of bring that up to Shotgun
, keep Shotgun up to speed withhow the fans are feeling and
also too, as he did with theinterviews, help Shotgun with um
(37:41):
, you know, putting togetherfootball personnel and getting
the right people, because, as weall know, shotgun doesn't
really know the game of footballlike that.
And then also to the otherthing that they asked about.
They asked Shotgun about youknow when a GM will be hired.
He said, you know, the firstthing you know, again
paraphrasing that he wants to dois to let liam make his um or
(38:06):
put together his coaching staff,and then after that, that's
when they'll start the processof looking for a gm.
And of course, you know thecombine or um.
Yeah, the nfl combine is at theend of next month and I think
the deadline to have a gm isaround that time.
I wrote it down here februarythe 28th.
(38:28):
So they want to have somebodyin place before then.
They probably have somebody inplace well before then.
And, um, that's going to be themost interesting part of this
man because, as you all know,like we have been leading the
agenda of getting t Baalke outof here, me and Phil the
Touchdown Jaguars podcast,because we know, with the right
(38:50):
GM, you know, of course, thecoaching matters and you know
who you choose to be.
The coach is a big part of it,but it all starts with team
building and team structuringand things of that nature, which
is ultimately that comes downto the GM and that's an
important part of what will getthe Jaguars where they need to
be.
So that's going to be a veryexciting thing to monitor and
watch, especially when youconsider, like, how the front
(39:15):
office is structured Now, whereLiam is calling the shots, which
can make things ratherinteresting, right in terms of
them choosing a GM and any GMswanting to interview, because
you know you might have some GMswho say, like you know, I want
to have total power in terms ofplayer personnel, the draft, so
(39:36):
on and so forth.
I don't think this is the jobfor me.
I want to interview for that.
An interview for that, or atleast you know they want to have
it where it was, where bothshod and the gm report to shot.
Um, excuse me, both the gm andthe coach, both um trent and um
peterson, were reporting to shod, albeit it felt like trent had
(39:57):
all the power when it came topersonnel and player decisions.
So you know, maybe the gms thatthey interview, or you know the
potential candidates out thereyou know, might be of the
mindset that they want somethinglike that in terms of a setup.
So that's going to make thissearch for a GM real interesting
.
And it also is interesting fromthe standpoint of Liam is a
(40:18):
first year head coach too.
And we don't necessarily evenknow about Liam's scouting
ability.
And sure you know he probablyhas put in a word or two or
shared his thoughts or bangedthe table for a prospect or two.
But we don't know about LiamCohen, the GM you know, and
that's essentially what he couldend up being.
He also have the pro personneldecisions to address as well.
(40:43):
So it's going to be realinteresting because we don't
know what Liam offers as a GM.
And that makes that hire of aGM all the more important
because this is his first timeessentially doing this.
So he does need to havesomebody who is a mastermind and
who can offer him eliteanalysis when it comes to the
(41:05):
draft, when it comes to the proside and, you know, acquiring
talent through the pros ortrading, whatever the case may
be, especially when you considerwhere the Jaguars are in terms
of all of the draft picks theyhave.
You know, and it would be verybeneficial for Liam to you know,
knock a lot of those picks outof the park, kind of like the
(41:27):
Detroit Lions have done for thelast three or four years,
whatever the case may be,because, as a first year head
coach, you need every little bitof help where you could get it.
And you know, as we all know,and it will always be this way,
that teams are ultimately builtthrough the draft.
So, um, he has an importanthire coming up there in terms of
the GM situation, but again,you know, I think some
(41:50):
candidates could be turned offby the setup.
So I will definitely bewatching that head and forward
and you know who interviews andwho they could get, because it's
going to be real interesting.
I know a lot of people have saidthat Ian Cunningham is rumored
to be interested or the Jaguarsare interested in him.
You have to wonder how he wouldfeel about the setup.
(42:14):
And also, too, I kind of havesaid this too and we'll get more
into this down the road but Ianis a guy that I don't want to
say I'm low on, but I'm not ashigh on as others.
Um, you all have, you know,seen my list, of course, of
potential GMs that I would liketo have.
We even did an episode on it.
But, um, just looking at howthe Bears are structured and how
(42:36):
they've been built and you know, I get it that Ryan Poles is
probably pulling the strings andmaking the decisions, but Ian
Cunningham is such a bright mindyou have to feel like part of
that roster that has been builtis an indictment on him in some
way, shape or form, right, Ifind it hard to believe somebody
with his football intelligencedidn't have a hand in some kind
(42:57):
of construction in that roster.
And to me that roster isn'tconstructed all that great.
So you know, that's anotherstory for another time.
But I said all of that to say.
This is that I can't wait tosee where they go with the
direction of this GM hire.
Real quick, before we wrap it up, I'll just go over some quick
(43:17):
hit news.
Of course the JacksonvilleJaguars have been doing
offensive and defensivecoordinator interviews.
I'll just go through the listhere.
I won't really talk on it,everybody will say that for
another episode.
But the guys they haveinterviewed so far I'll pull it
up on jaguarscom.
On the offensive side they kindof have just started on the
(43:39):
offensive side as of yesterdaythey had been doing mostly
defensive coaching candidateinterviews but on the offensive
side and the most recent oneactually popped up as I was
recording this.
But Tavita Pritchard was thelatest interviewee.
He is the quarterback's coachfor the Commanders worked with
(44:02):
Jaden Daniels obviously.
Quarterback's coach for thecommanders work with jayden
daniels obviously.
So that's huge in terms of youknow why he would be somebody
the jaguars would be interestedin for coaching up trevor
lawrence.
They have also interviewed onthe offensive side nate shield
house, who is the passing gamecoordinator and offensive
(44:22):
assistant for the rams.
So he's under the Sean McVaytree.
So obviously you can make theconnection between Liam and the
tree, the Sean McVay tree.
He's a branch from that tree.
So this was probably a big timesuggestion from Sean McVay.
And then on the defensivecoordinator side of things.
They interviewed Durante Jonesof the Minnesota Vikings.
(44:46):
He's the pass game coordinatorand defensive backs coach.
They interviewed Patrick Grahamagain, who you know a lot of
people were high on and thoughthe would end up getting the
defensive coordinator role, buthe will be staying with the
Vegas Raiders, the Las VegasRaiders.
Another Rams assistant here Ramsdefensive pass game coordinator
(45:07):
and assistant head coach,aubrey Pleasant.
I think that's who the Jaguarsmight end up with as their
defensive coordinator.
Obviously he's a Sean McVaydisciple, like Liam.
Liam also worked with him whenhe was with the Rams and under
Sean McVay, so there is aconnection there that he knows
Aubrey Pleasant personally.
And then the Green Bay Packerslinebackers coach and defensive
(45:29):
run game coordinator, anthonyCampanile, who's been making
runs on Twitter in regards ofthe video that surfaced about
him and his thoughts onestablishing dominance about him
and his thoughts onestablishing dominance we'll put
it that way on the opposition,which I found it as a very
(45:53):
interesting video and evencommented on it as well.
Wouldn't mind having a guy withthat kind of mentality too.
So that's where they're at, orthat's where they are with those
hires or those candidateinterviews.
I wouldn't be shocked if we geta hire tomorrow on the defensive
side.
We'll talk about that in.
We get a hire tomorrow on thedefensive side.
We'll talk about that in thenext episode, as well as the
offensive hire and any otherassistants that are hired by the
Jacksonville Jaguars and LiamCohen.
(46:14):
So, all of that said, I will goahead and wrap this up as I
said.
We'll get Phil on for the nextepisode.
Shout outs to him.
And you can find me atsportsgrind underscore done on
twitter.
You can find phil at phil thefilipino.
You can follow the touchdownjaguars podcast at tdjagspod on
twitter and our official websiteis touchdownjaguarscom.
(46:38):
Once again, shout outs toeverybody who were, uh, who
participated in the spaces we'vedone lately.
I'll get with Starr see if hewants to do one tomorrow and we
can talk about the draftprospects and a lot of the
all-star games going on SeniorBowl.
So I think it's about time westart moving into that as well
(46:58):
because, make no mistake aboutit, it's going to be an exciting
draft, especially with uslooking at it from a different
perspective, because TrentBaalke is no longer here and you
know the Jaguars might go adifferent route than they you
know obviously will go adifferent route than they
previously used to under Baalke.
So until then, everybody takecare, everybody be safe,
(47:23):
everybody look out for eachother, and until next time, you
all hold it down and I amsigning out.
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