NFL Icon Jon Gruden Has High Praise for Jaguars

Coen and Gruden go way back, with the two having several interactions when Coen was the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- the same franchise that Gruden won a Super Bowl with.

"Coach Gruden and I were neighbors in Tampa, so we lived in the same neighborhood and that was great," Coen said on Aug. 5.

"I actually ran into him a few times last year in Tampa and right before I actually got hired here, I ran into him and we were having a conversation about that, so it's great to have him here.

"We're talking some ball. A lot of the evolution of our offense comes from him in so many ways," Coen said.

"When Sean [Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay] was with him in Tampa, Sean was in Washington with his brother [former Washington Commanders Head Coach Jay Gruden], and there's a lot of similarities. It's pretty cool.”

Gruden visited the Jaguars in August during training camp and was able to witness Coen put together the early stages of his Jaguars rebuild. Fast forward two months, and Coen has the Jaguars rolling like few other teams in the NFL.

“Yeah, it's just like, look, we can't rely on anybody else. To come and look for help. Like when we're out there, when we're in preparation, when we are getting our minds ready to go play a game in this league, we've been trying to just talk about it, ‘it's about us. It's about us in this room. If you're looking for help, look to the guy next to you. Look to the other guys in this room because it's not going to come elsewhere and we can't leave it up to anybody else.’" Coen said on Tuesday.

"Whether we win, lose, or draw, we've got to take ownership and accountability for it. We can't put it in anybody else's hands. Don't look for somebody else to go make a play, don't look for somebody else to bail you out. Just we got to go take it and I think that's been something that the players have really voiced and talked about is they’re the ones playing. They're the ones out there and so they do have to go and take what they want in terms of pride and respect.”