Liam Coen can't wait to dig into Jacksonville Jaguars' Week 1 opponent

“Your focus, it’s so internal,” Coen said. “Everything is self-scout and worrying about ourselves and I want to keep that focus the same.”

The offseason program, though, isn’t a race against time. There is no game coming up. To that end, Coen will spice up the voluntary workouts (and next month’s mandatory minicamp) by presenting potential looks from their Week 1 opponent.

More from O'Halloran: Why new Jaguars WR Ben Patterson picked NFL rookie camp over graduation

“You start diving into it and we can start to almost incorporate it into our offseason program,” he said. “Alright, let’s throw some stuff (at the players) that we know we’re going to install. And there may be something that pops up on tape that we would know we’re going to run in Week 1 — well, let’s start to sprinkle that in throughout the offseason and see what that looks like. Maybe even throw it up against some of the looks that could be presented.”

Week 1 is usually the time for exotic coverages and pressures thrown at an offense early in the game or throughout on gotta-have-it downs.

To that end …

“I would say toward the end of minicamp, we’ll do ‘BPU’ (blitz pick-ups) against all of our Week 1 opponent’s pressures,” Coen said. “We will script them and rep them out here without (the Jaguars players) knowing.”

Well, they know now!

Coen’s Week 1 successes

Coen has been an NFL play-caller in two previous season openers and the results should encourage Jaguars fans regardless of who they play and where they play in Week 1.

As the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator in 2024, Coen directed a 37-20 home win over the Washington Commanders.

The Commanders’ defense had no answers (although they would get their revenge in a wild-card round win over Tampa Bay).

The Buccaneers were 9 of 13 on third down, gained 392 yards on 61 plays, scored on seven of their eight possessions (not including a kneel-down to end the game) and had players with 83, 75 and 61 yards receiving. Quarterback Baker Mayfield was 24-of-30 passing for 289 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions and a 146.4 rating. Tampa Bay built a 23-7 lead and never trailed.

In his Jaguars’ head-coaching/play-calling debut last September, Coen directed a 26-10 win over the Carolina Panthers.

The Jaguars gained 378 yards on 63 plays, rushed 32 times for 200 yards and never trailed while building a 23-3 lead. Interesting to me was how Coen kept it simple personnel-wise, using only two groupings — “11” (three-receiver, one-running back and one-tight end) and “12” (two-receiver, two-tight end and one-running back) — in the first three quarters.

On the Jaguars’ first drive, three players had rushing attempts, tight end Brenton Strange caught three passes for 49 yards and receiver Travis Hunter two for 20 yards.

Coen’s brief track record is of Week 1 offensive production and around 8 p.m. on May 14, Jaguars fans get fired up about how he will attack this year’s opening opponent.

Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com or on X at @ryanohalloran. Listen to Ryan on 1010AM on Thursday (1:15 p.m. in “XL Primetime") and a new two-hour show every Friday ("The Lead," from 4-6 p.m.).

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Liam Coen ready to dig into Jaguars' Week 1 opponent once it's revealed