The Jaguars’ draft haul at tight end sparked an easy assumption: more 12 personnel, more 13 personnel, more size on the field and a new offensive lean. Liam Coen isn’t buying the idea that Jacksonville is suddenly becoming a team built around heavy packages.
Coen made that clear during a recent appearance on the “Brent & Austen Show,” where he laid out a simple message about how this offense will operate. The Jaguars may have added Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol, but that doesn’t mean the wide receivers are getting pushed to the side.
Jacksonville still has a loaded receiver group with Brian Thomas Jr., Parker Washington, Jakobi Meyers, and Travis Hunter, and the expectations for that unit are high heading into 2026. Austen Lane pointed out just how dangerous that group can be.
"Any given Sunday, any of those guys can get 100 yards receiving," Austen Lane said. "I don't think a lot of NFL teams can really say that in four guys. So the question for you, then, is how come I keep hearing 12 and 13 personnel if you have wide receivers, and a quarterback in Trevor Lawrence who can obviously give them the football?"
Coen’s answer was rooted in flexibility, not a wholesale shift in identity.
"It's going to always be a balance," Coen responded. "It's always going to be players over plays.
We have a philosophy, an identity, but at the end of the day, we're going to play the best 11, right? And so, we're never going to live in just one personnel grouping.
That's just - you become a little bit too predictable. You want to be able to see different defensive structures at times, whether it's in nickel or base defense.
Some of those different personnel groupings elicit maybe structures you want to see more of, or less of. So each week will always be a little bit different.
Right now, we're still an 11 and 12 personnel team. That's why we drafted with tight ends, was to continue to elevate that room, continue to get better players in there in competition, and be able to sprinkle heavier packages in just like everybody else is.
So, our best players and skill players, are still those wideouts, in a lot of ways, so we got to get them the ball."
That’s the key to reading Jacksonville’s offseason moves. The heavier sets will be part of the mix, but they’re not the whole story. Coen said the Jaguars drafted those tight ends to strengthen the room and add competition, while also giving the offense more ways to line up and make defenses react.
So yes, the Jaguars will use heavier personnel at times. But the presence of Boerkircher and Koziol doesn’t signal a new offensive identity. The wideouts still sit at the center of the operation, and Coen made it plain that getting them the football remains a priority.
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