Baker Mayfield's 2025 Season Will Define the Liam Coen Effect

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen was hired to be the team's new leader for a number of reasons, but perhaps chief amongst those reasons was what he did with Baker Mayfield last season as the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Now, Coen will be expected to replicate that same success with Trevor Lawrence. But could we know sooner than the end of the 2025 season whether Coen will be able to do so?

Simply put, how Mayfield performs throughout the 2025 season should give a fair level of insight into the Coen effect.

Yes, the 2025 Buccaneers will not be the 2024 Buccaneers exactly in terms of roster contruction. But Mayfield is returning all of his top receivers, running backs, tight ends, offensive linemen, and has had a first-round wide receiver added to the mix.

As things stand today, the Buccaneers have one of the best supporting casts in all of football. If Mayfield can't produce with this group to the same level that he produced under Coen, then it will become very clear how much of an impact Coen had on Mayfield.

And if that is the case, then the Jaguars should be feeling pretty secure about the coach they hired to take Lawrence to the next level. Coen seemingly was the reason Tampa Bay turned into an elite offense last year, and any dip in their production will reveal this truth.

Coen does a lot of things to set up his quarterbacks for success. He did it for Mayfield, and he is now set to do it for Lawrence,

“I really like it. It has a lot of answers. It’s great. It puts a lot on the players. You have to know your stuff, but it gives you all the answers," Lawrence said during the offseason program.

"You don’t feel like you are stuck in a play that’s not set up for success. It gives us a lot of answers. We changed the presentation a lot. A lot of things look the same. Without going into too much detail, there are a lot of things I like about it. It is definitely unlike any system that I have learned before, so it has been cool to learn, pick the coaches’ brains and try to get it down as fast as possible.”