As Salaries Growth, It’s a Good Time to Be an NFL Coach

The Jacksonville Jaguars, after 72 hours of intrigue, adopted this template and employed Tampa Bay’s offensive coordinator, Liam Coen, 39, for greater than $11 million a season. At first, Coen turned down the job and accepted a increase from Tampa that will have made him the highest-paid coordinator within the league at greater than $4 million yearly. When Jacksonville fired its common supervisor, nevertheless, Coen modified his thoughts.

“As you proceed to do extra analysis and achieve extra info as you go, it began to change into extra clear with each hour that this was a possibility that you just simply can’t go up for therefore many alternative causes,” Coen stated at his introductory information convention. “In the end, you wish to do what’s greatest for you and your loved ones. That’s what this got here all the way down to.”

Within the faculty ranks, issues are just a little extra sophisticated. The brand new period of identify, picture and likeness, often called N.I.L., has meant extra money for gamers, however a few of that has come on the expense of head coaches. Certain, Georgia’s Kirby Good makes greater than $13 million a yr, and Ohio State Coach Ryan Day just lately signed an extension that pays him a mean of $12.5 million yearly. However with participant payrolls for School Soccer Playoff-caliber groups starting from $13 million to $20 million, athletic administrators are deploying their sources extra strategically.

Ohio State paid Chip Kelly, a former head coach on the faculty {and professional} ranges, $2 million final season to be the Buckeyes’ offensive coordinator. They received the nationwide championship. Penn State, which misplaced within the semifinals, has since employed Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, Jim Knowles, and pays him $4 million a yr in hopes that he may help the Nittany Lions do the identical.

“It’s simpler to be an N.F.L. coach now,” stated Paul Finebaum, host of his personal present on the SEC Community. “You may have a set roster, a wage cap and an low season. For school coaches, it by no means ends. You’re recruiting year-round, watching the switch portal, retaining your guys out of the switch portal.”