Liam Coen - Head Coach, jaguars Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-05 | Full transcript (primary source).
On September 5, 2026, Liam Coen, Head Coach of the Jaguars, addressed the media in a press conference following the team's preseason performances. The discussion focused on player development and team growth as they prepare for the upcoming season.
Transcript
Coen: Brian Thomas Jr. tonight and just over the course of pre-season, I mean, what kind of impression has he made on you and your defensive staff so far? He's play style is the right way. If it's a lot of the things that we preach and that we're about as a team, you know, when you have a gift to rush in the passer, man, it's something that you can't ignore. And I thought he did some nice things against the run as well tonight. I thought the defense as a whole, obviously, with the shutout was huge, and led by Brian. And, you know, he's making it really difficult, which is a good thing. It's just what we're hunting up. But, you know, he's had that skill set. That was something we really appreciated about his game. And he's just continued to do it on this stage.
Coen: Lee, in looking at the big picture, in what ways do you think you guys have grown the most as a team over these last four weeks? Yeah, I think you look at the physicality of, like, just truly understanding how we have to play, right? And any time that that became a little bit of a calling card, an MO of our team last season, but then you have to reintegrate that, right? You have all these new players, all these rookies, all these young guys that are playing the majority of the snaps in these games. And I think our team did a nice job of truly putting that together from, all right, New Orleans joint wasn't perfect, right? The game got better, right? Those guys kind of took it up a notch. Go to Carolina, have a successful joint. And the young guys got to see the older guys do it and do it in those settings. And so I think to cap off the preseason this way with a physical outing and the guys playing their tails off, I think is exactly, just continues to reinforce the message to the team that that is our style of play, that is our brand of football. And for us to have success, we have to play that way.
Coen: I know you'll have to watch film, but what did you think of Carter's performance tonight and then also Joey? Yeah, I think, you know, both of them were efficient. You know, I think there was a few things. Both of them would like to have back. I thought Carter did a nice job leading the touchdown drive, could have had another one to trammel there that I think we might have missed, would like to have back, did a great job on the two-point play, making a guy miss. I thought Joey came in and, you know, obviously was a little bit later and not being asked to truly push the ball down the field too much, but he has a presence about him. The offense kind of rolls with him in there at times, and he's crafty with some of the zone read stuff where we're able to kind of spit the ball on the perimeter and be able to get the ball in space. So I thought they operated a little bit better than we had maybe seen.
Coen: How hard is it to avoid putting too much emphasis on the last impression you have of guys walking off the field? That's exactly what Tony and James and I were literally just talking about was, hey, it's exciting, it's great to see, and there's some juice out there that is something that you're excited about, but you have to continue to put the entire body of work into play when making these decisions, as maybe more difficult as they got tonight in some ways, in some positions for some players. But the reality is when you do put it on tape in a game, it does matter. It does take a little bit, you know, hold some juice, hold some weight, and you have to appreciate that and take it into consideration, but you can't overcompensate or overrotate on maybe one game or one outing, although, you know, some impressive things.
Coen: Coach, you just mentioned Brian Thomas a minute ago, Michael Wortham is going to make SportsCenter tonight, I'm sure. You and James Ladstone talked about raising the floor when you got here last year. The fact that you're going to have a pretty miserable 43 and a half hours here, does that indicate that you guys kind of mission accomplished on that front? I would say I thought Michael started to show up a little bit more in my eyes in the Carolina joint where he had to get some meaningful reps with the second offense, and he had taken a bubble in practice down the sidelines, and you saw some of what we saw here tonight on that play. He's got a phenomenal forward lean about the way that he runs. He's a football player at heart, and he's kind of built a little bit, I don't want to say like Parker, but in some ways there's some similar play styles there, and, you know, he definitely made it challenging tonight, and that's overall what we were hunting up, right? I mean, you're continuing to try to raise the level of competition in the building. You're trying to make these decisions hard on us. That's the goal when hopefully you've improved as a team, and you can continue to build the roster and raise the floor, as you mentioned. So, yeah, I think in some ways mission accomplished for sure, in some other positions, we need to continue that and continue to find and elevate the level of performance.
Coen: Hey, Liam. Kaiser and Mccary obviously have not practiced. Does that complicate things this weekend, to get to 53 wall? Not too bad, to be honest. Especially, I don't think that necessarily hurts us too much. I think we have a pretty good idea right now on the 53. It's more so just trying to make sure that we're doing the right things in the short term to get those guys, obviously, into a place where they can play again, and I think it's more, some of the more difficult conversations we're about to probably have are about the P squad. Like, when you have 16, you get the one exemption, those are going to be some more challenging conversations, I think, that we're about to have in the next two days. And so, hopefully, that doesn't impact us too much.
Coen: Coach, thank you. Great. Thank you, guys.
