JACKSONVILLE – There's familiarity in the new.

That's by design – and as Liam Coen sees the early days of his tenure as the Jaguars' head coach, doses of familiarity are positives moving forward.

That's true of many new Jaguars players. And it's true of many new Jaguars coaches.

"That's the beautiful part," he said.

Coen, hired in January as the Jaguars’ head coach, spoke to the media Monday at the AFC Coaches Breakfast at the 2025 NFL Annual Meeting at The Breakers Palm Beach. Speaking for about 30 minutes, Coen covered multiple Jaguars topics. Among them: A coaching staff with extensive familiarity with Coen's offensive system – and a roster that has added familiarity, too.

"We've been able to get onboarded so much quicker," Coen said.

Coen's first Jaguars coaching staff has strong connections with his NFL background, with a strong thread of the philosophy of Sean McVay – the Los Angeles Rams Head Coach and Coen's former boss – running through the staff. Coen spent 2018-2020 and 2022 as an assistant with the Rams and this past season as the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Connections to Coen's offense include:

• Offensive coordinator Grant Udinski, who worked the past three seasons for Minnesota Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell, McVay's offensive coordinator in 2020-2021.
• Offensive line coach Shaun Sarrett, who worked last season as assistant offensive line coach with the Vikings.
• Pass game coordinator Shane Waldron, who spent 2017-2020 working with the Rams under McVay as tight ends coach.
• Offensive pass game specialist John Van Dam, who spent the past six seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, working for Coen last season.

"Just look at the offensive staff; they have almost all been in a version of this system," Coen said. "As much as being a head coach for the first time has been amazing, I haven't been able to do as much football as I'm used to, but to hear the conversations that are happening in the building, to be able to go in there and hear the dialogue and the presentations, it's pretty cool because I'm familiar with that flow.

"Just getting protections onboarded and all three – the quarterback, offensive line and running back coach have all been in this protection system. Think about how much quicker that is to be able to onboard."

The familiarity trend extended deep into free agency. The Jaguars signed center Robert Hainsey from the Buccaneers and he is expected to start next season. Tight ends Hunter Long and Johnny Mundt signed from the Rams and Vikings, respectively. Backup quarterback Nick Mullens spent the past three seasons as the backup quarterback with the Vikings.

Backup center Luke Fortner played for Coen at the University of Kentucky in 2021.

"Now you have two O-linemen that have been in your system, some version of it with Luke Fortner and now Hainsey," Coen said. "That'll help spread out to a lot of our players. They'll be able to understand system a little bit quicker."

The presence of Hainsey in particular could help quarterback Trevor Lawrence as he adjusts to a third offense/coordinator in five NFL seasons.

"That's both those guys, as I mentioned, with him and Luke, having a version of the system is going to help those guys, especially Trevor, but we can't use it as a crutch stuff," Coen said. "Everybody's going to have to dive in, learn it at a high level and commit to it, but obviously having that relationship and that communication will help out for sure."

QUOTABLE MOMENTS FROM COEN'S MEDIA AVAILABILITY

• Coen on spending the first few weeks of his tenure assembling a coaching staff: "That was probably what took up the most of my time early on. You're ready for it. You have a coach's depth chart that you've been kind of creating over time. Over the years of doing this, you're ranking them and then finally getting them on paper. You don't just get to pick them. It's not the draft. You have to go get them. So now you're recruiting against another coach at maybe multiple other places – college, NFL, everything. You have to sell. You're back in recruiting mode. I was just in college not too long ago, got in the mode real quick, and we were rolling. That was the hardest part was getting man, but we're really pleased with the staff we were able to put together. That was the most stressful part, though."