Jaguars' Liam Coen Sounds Off on Carolina Panthers Matchup

The first game that Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen will ever lead his team against will be with a familiar opponent: the Carolina Panthers.

With last week's schedule release now finally settling in, the Jaguars and Coen know that all 17 games will count and will be hard-fought battles. But to set the tone of the new regime, Coen and the Jaguars will face a Panthers team in Week 1.

"I think ultimately, you look at the first one [vs. Carolina]. It’s against a team that we played twice last year, had a couple of good games against, obviously, a division opponent in Tampa. A team that’s continuing to grow," Coen said after OTAs earlier this week.

The last time the Jaguars played the Panthers came in Jacksonville in the 2023 season, a 26-0 Jaguars win that saw C.J. Beathard start at quarterback and Josh Hines-Allen break the franchise single-season sack record.

The Panthers have grown a good bit since then, enduring a rough patch during the first half of head coach Dave Canales' tenure that saw Bryce Young benched. Once Young came back into the lineup, the Panthers proved to be a much tougher out.

Coen coached against the Panthers twice last year as the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The first matchup was a 26-23 overtime victor vs. the Panthers in Week 13 and then a 48-14 win in Week 17 that saw Baker Mayfield throw five touchdowns.

Still, the Panthers are not an opponent the Jaguars can look past. While the game is still several months away, you can expect the Jaguars to place a large focus on the Panthers to set the tone throughout the preseason and training camp.

"They’re a team with a new head coach last year, trying to get into it, showed some really good signs, I thought, at times last year. Dave [Panthers Head Coach Dave Canales] is doing a great job with that team and that organization. So, that’s the one that we’ve obviously circled at the moment," Coen said.

"Like you said, they’re all hard. They’re all tough. Any given Sunday, anything can happen. We just have to kind of take care of ourselves at the moment and get better each day.”