By all appearances, the Liam Coen situation went sideways because his new contract with the Buccaneers was conditioned on a handshake understanding that he wouldn’t travel to Jacksonville for in-person interview with the Jaguars.
When he decided to interview anyway, a day after agreeing to terms on a deal that would have made him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL, Coen had to choose between reneging on the handshake deal or telling the Jaguars he’s already committed to the Buccaneers.
The contract itself couldn’t have prevented him accepting an interview after signing it. Per a source with knowledge of the situation, league rules supersede any and all agreements between teams and assistant coaches that would restrict their ability to interview for head-coaching jobs elsewhere.
Still, the conversations culminating in the new contract were premised on Coen giving his word — even if the underlying agreement wasn’t enforceable.
Did Coen handle things the right way? That’s a matter of perspective. After he decided not to interview for the Jacksonville job, based presumably on the presence of Trent Baalke as G.M., Baalke was out and Coen’s interest was piqued.
Could he have been straight with the Buccaneers about the situation? Yes, but he might have been concerned that the bird in the hand would fly away, forcing him to proceed with the interview in Jacksonville without knowing whether he’d be offered the job or whether he’d want it. Then, if he came back, the offer for a new deal might have been gone. And he might have done some damage to the relationship in the process.
No one can know how they’d handle a situation like that unless and until they’re in it. Things happen fast. Decisions are made quickly. Human beings yield to human nature.
If the offer of a new deal had been presented as a no-unenforceable-strings-attached proposition, with an invitation to fully explore the Jacksonville job and an assurance that the new deal would remain on the table no matter what, maybe things would have happened differently.
That’s not to say the team did anything wrong, either. But the verbal tying of the new contract to not going to Jacksonville for an interview put Coen in a corner. He picked a path out of it that entailed keeping the Bucs in the dark until he decided to take the Jaguars job.