It’s been a year since Jaguars owner Shad Khan switched gears in the middle of a coaching search and fired general manager Trent Baalke.
* Owner Shad Khan fired general manager Trent Baalke on January 22, 2025, a pivotal move for the franchise.
* Following Baalke’s dismissal, the Jaguars hired Liam Coen as head coach and later added Tony Boselli and James Gladstone to leadership roles.
* The new leadership team led the Jaguars to a 13-4 regular-season record and an AFC South title.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are a franchise with precious few foundation-rattling, fortune-turning days since they started play in September 1995.
No Super Bowl appearances. Sixteen 10-loss seasons. Seven full-time coaches. And more last-place (nine) than first-place (five) division finishes.
All of which is why fans should remember a year ago Thursday: Jan. 22, 2025.
The day owner Shad Khan flipped the script.
The day Khan pushed his pride aside and admitted a mistake.
The day Khan possibly set the Jaguars up for sustained success.
Hours after top candidate Liam Coen, then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator, removed his name from consideration, Khan fired general manager Trent Baalke.
Two days later, Coen was announced as the Jaguars’ new coach.
Tony Boselli was named executive vice president of football operations on Feb. 3.
And general manager James Gladstone was hired on Feb. 21.
Had Khan not changed course with Baalke, none would have been on the Jaguars’ payroll (Boselli would have remained as a radio commentator).
What a calendar year it was for the Jaguars — a 13-4 regular-season record, AFC South title, emergence of myriad players and hope for the future.
Everything changed at 3:03 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2025.
Reviewing the chaos
Unless you’re the New York Giants and John Harbaugh, NFL coaching searches rarely go in a straight line. Just look at the Jaguars in January 2017. For days, I thought things were trending toward Mike Smith as the new coach, but Khan hired Tom Coughlin as the football chief and promoted Doug Marrone to coach.
Last year, the Jaguars engaged in a boilerplate, straight-line search from Jan. 6-21, 2025, to replace Doug Pederson. Their initial interview list consisted of five offensive coordinators, four defensive coordinators and one recently-fired coach (Robert Saleh).
Despite Baalke being retained by Khan to lead the search, it didn’t seem, at least externally, to impact the candidate pool. Ben Johnson, Kellen Moore and Aaron Glenn talked to the Jaguars and were eventually hired by Detroit, New Orleans and the New York Jets, respectively.
The Jaguars prepared to host three candidates for in-person interviews: Coen (Jan. 22), Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham (Jan. 23) and Saleh (Jan. 24). Coen was viewed as the favorite because of his offensive background.
But then, chaos.
Morning of Jan. 22: Coen cancelled the in-person interview with the Jaguars and planned to sign a contract extension with the Buccaneers.
Afternoon of Jan. 22: Baalke was fired.
Morning of Jan. 23: Graham interviewed with the Jaguars, a group that included Boselli. Coen was back in play and flew to Jacksonville.
Evening of Jan. 23: Coen, who could not be reached by the Buccaneers, agreed to join the Jaguars.
Jan. 27: Coen held his first Jaguars press conference.
Khan said he “took swift and decisive action,” to hire Coen. He sure did.
Had Khan not fired Baalke, where would the Jaguars be today?
My guess is Saleh would have returned to Jacksonville (he was the linebackers coach from 2014-16) to replace Pederson. Does a team built by Baalke and coached by Saleh reach the heights achieved by Boselli-Gladstone-Coen? No. Khan had gut feeling about Coen being the right person to turn around the Jaguars and for at least this year, he was right.
Alignment achieved
During the landmark day in Jaguars history, I was in Kansas City for The Buffalo News covering the Chiefs’ side of things ahead of that weekend’s AFC championship game against the Bills. After attending the Chiefs’ media activities, I returned to my hotel in Overland Park, Kansas.
Since leaving Jacksonville in May 2018, whenever I did a radio hit or podcast back here, I always prepared to talk about the Jaguars and it was no different when 1010XL’s Ryan “The Hacker” Green texted on that Wednesday morning.
Sure, we would talk about Bills-Chiefs, but the Jaguars’ search was falling apart so I started poking around on what was actually going on.
We recorded the interview, but then Coen bowed out.
(Should we re-record? Yes.)
We recorded a second interview, but then Baalke was fired.
(Should we re-record? Yes.)
And we recorded a third interview.
My main takeaway during the final radio interview: The Jaguars needed to start over. A move that should have been executed Jan. 6 was ultimately executed on Jan. 22. Better late than not at all.
The Jaguars needed alignment at all levels of the organization. They needed to change the focus to winning games, not worrying about who was getting the credit when things went well or the blame when things went poorly.
The main thing became the main thing. Coen coached the team and led the staff. Gladstone worked to improve the roster. And Boselli served as the sounding board for both.
Jan. 22, 2025: The day everything changed for the Jaguars.
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