The 2025 NFL head coaching carousel is in full swing with the Chicago Bears snapping up Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson, the consensus top coach available for this cycle. The Jacksonville Jaguars missed out on hiring Johnson, who reportedly wanted the Jaguars head coaching position and wanted to work with young quarterback Trevor Lawrence. However, the one thing Johnson did not want to do (according to multiple reports) was work with Trent Baalke.
In the Jaguars’ offseason press conference earlier this month, Baalke and owner Shad Khan met with the media and were both adamant that not cleaning house — despite Khan’s questions of what that phrase actually means — wouldn’t hinder the team’s coaching search. Khan even went so far as to say that if he felt it was going to be an issue and a candidate had a better option for a general manager, he would be open to making changes.
Obviously not.
The Jaguars are once again losing the battle of optics in the NFL offseason with their fans. The Jaguars fired head coach Doug Pederson after another disappointing season, as they should have, but one very specific move tainted anything else that would be coming. The Jaguars are in the end game of the search for their new head coach in the 2025 NFL offseason and no matter what direction they go, the fact of the matter is it’s always going to be tainted. The optics of whoever they hire is always going to look bad, at least in the immediate, because of one thing in particular.
General manager Trent Baalke.
When Jaguars owner Shad Khan decided to make the move of firing Pederson at the end of the season, virtually everyone was shocked that the firing of Baalke didn’t follow soon after. Even more surprise swept not just the fanbase, but the NFL as a whole, that not only was Baalke not going to be fired, but he would be heavily involved in the search for the Jacksonville Jaguars’ new head coach. There were reports as early as November during the 2024 season that Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was the guy for the Jaguars and he wanted the job. As we got to the offseason those reports and rumors, the guy everyone with a coaching vacancy wanted, wanted the Jaguars job.
Could you believe that? Finally, the Jaguars are the apple of someone’s eye. Not just someone, but the guy everyone else says is the best and the guy everyone else wants.
But they screwed it up.
Because of Trent Baalke.
The Jaguars are set to meet with Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen, former Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh in person this week for a second round of interviews for their vacant head coaching position. Most believe that the job now, with Johnson out of the mix, Coen’s if he wants it. Personally, I think Coen is a perfectly good hire for what the Jaguars want to accomplish, but because of how the Jaguars have conducted themselves this offseason, it’s going to taint whoever they’re going to hire in the short term.
The Jaguars have once again, in the short term, fumbled the bag.
Their optics on their decision-making processes look like a jumbled mess, once again.
