New Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen was introduced on Tuesday, and he was asked for his thoughts on quarterback Baker Mayfield, who is a pending free agent.
Coen served as the offensive coordinator for the University of Kentucky in 2021 and 2023, but in between, he worked with Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams as offensive coordinator. He didn’t call plays then, but he’ll get that opportunity in Tampa Bay for 2024.
Coen looked back at that time with the Rams, when Mayfield came to the team at the end of the year to fill in at quarterback. Coen called that a “tough year,” but he mentioned that Mayfield completely changed the energy within the team when he came to Los Angeles.
“Baker, as you guys know, he’s an igniter,” Coen said. “That’s the type of guy that you want to be around. He came into our organization at a really difficult time. A time [when] we weren’t having a lot of fun. He came in and made football fun for a lot of people at that time. He came in and made football competitive again at practice, and he’s jawing at Jalen Ramsey, and they’re going at it.”
Coen told reporters that he while he doesn’t know whether Mayfield will return next season, he certainly is hoping that is the case and that he knows Mayfield feels very positive about the organization as a whole heading into free agency.
“He’s obviously a reason that I’m here,” Coen said. “I want him to be here. I think he wants to be here, he wants to work with me and do this with Coach [Todd Bowles] and the organization — he has nothing but good things to say about this place, so hopefully that can get done.”
That being said, if Mayfield doesn’t return to Tampa Bay, Coen will be ready. He mentioned working with Bucs backup QB John Wolford with the Rams in 2022 and that he’s watched film on Kyle Trask, particularly praising his throw to the back of the end zone to Chris Godwin during Tampa Bay’s game against the Indianapolis Colts (a throw that ended up being incomplete).
“I think [Trask] has got some accuracy and some ability, and if you have to pivot, you have to pivot,” Coen said. “And I do think college does prepare you a little bit for some of those things.”
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