Liam Coen is clearly upset with how the NFL is treating the Jaguars, and Caleb Williams is a big reason why
The Jags’ head coach talked on Thursday about how the NFL is making it simple for him to motivate his team.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are gearing up for what they hope is a step forward from a 13-4 regular season and an AFC South title last year, but a season that ended prematurely with a 27-24 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC wild-card round of the playoffs.
It felt like a season where the AFC was truly up for grabs last year, and the Jags were a play or two away from potentially going on a run and reaching their first Super Bowl. As such, it shouldn’t take too much added motivation for Liam Coen to get his team ready to play this year.
And still, Coen has found some from the league itself, and curiously, in a way, it involves Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams.
Coen went on The Drill on 1010 AM on Thursday, and he discussed how the NFL loves to promote Williams on the league’s website, but that there’s nothing on its website showing his team or his players, and that makes it easy for players to buy in to the disrespect angle.
Jaguars HC Liam Coen calls out NFL Network website for featuring Caleb Williams but nothing on his team or players
“This is what I said to the staff the other day, I said, ‘you know, this is the best part of coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars, you don’t have to make up telling your players stuff,’” Coen said. “You don’t have to make up the fire. You don’t have to make it up. It’s given to us every day. It’s a gift from the heavens.
“You just scroll — I just go and I pull out my phone and look at the NFL Network website and just pop up here (shows phone) and I’m just curious if I just see any photos or anything about the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think I’ll just scroll right on through. I think I’ll see forty pictures of Caleb Williams, and I won’t see a single thing about any of our players on here. And so, it’s beautiful. It’s like, hey, guys, this is great. I’m just going to tell all these guys how much you all think they suck, and we’ll just keep going.”
Now, of course, Coen is saying he loves the disrespect angle that he can pull from it, and that’s clearly a built in benefit for him. But it’s also apparent that it irks him that the small-market Jaguars aren’t getting the same coverage as bigger market or bigger name franchises around the league.
But that’s the name of the game in professional sports. Deserving or not, the league is going to cater to its big markets and fan bases. That’s why we have Phillies vs. Yankees, Red Sox vs. Dodgers, Lakers vs. Celtics, Cowboys vs. (insert just about any NFL team) on national broadcasts and occupying space on league pages and social media accounts. That’s where the money is.
And Coen is certainly right about using that to fuel his team. Because as close as they are to being true Super Bowl contenders, it might not take all that much more to push them over the top and to the sport’s brightest lights for the first time ever.