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Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer
TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have agreed to terms with Liam Coen as their new offensive coordinator, the team announced Saturday.
The Bucs completed interviews with their candidates early Friday morning, and Coen publicly emerged as the favorite. But sources said then that details were still being worked out with the University of Kentucky as Coen was still under contract as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
Terms of the deal weren’t immediately available, nor were the arrangements that needed to be made with Kentucky.
Coen was an attractive candidate for the Buccaneers as he had previously worked in Sean McVay’s system, serving as the Los Angeles Rams‘ assistant wide receivers coach from 2018 to 2019, assistant quarterbacks coach in 2020 and offensive coordinator in 2022, with stints at Kentucky as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2021 and 2023.
The offense that the Buccaneers ran under now-departed offensive coordinator Dave Canales in 2023 was a system derived from Shane Waldron’s Seattle Seahawks offense. Waldron had worked with McVay for four seasons before bringing his system to Seattle. After spending the past year learning a new offense under Canales, the Buccaneers felt it was ideal to keep the offense as close to last year’s as possible for continuity.
Coen’s arrival in Tampa is an important piece to the Buccaneers potentially re-signing quarterback Baker Mayfield, as the two worked together in Los Angeles in 2022. It could also help with re-signing Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans, given Evans expressed a high degree of satisfaction with the system last year. Both indicated they would like to return to Tampa Bay if it can be worked out financially, and the Buccaneers would love for them both to return as well.
