Brad Biggs at the Chicago Tribune quotes Tampa Bay head coach Liam Coen talking about motiivating his team. He uses Bears quarterback Caleb Williams as an example.
“This is the best part of coaching the Jacksonville Jaguars: You don’t have to make up (bulletin-board material),” Coen said on the air on WJXL. “You don’t have to make up the fire. It’s given to us every day. It’s a gift from the heavens.
“I just go pull out my phone, look up the NFL Network website and just pop it up here, and I’m curious if I see any photos, or anything, about the Jacksonville Jaguars. I think I’ll just scroll right on through.”
Coen pulled out his phone and scrolled the website during the live spot.
“I think I’ll see 40 pictures of Caleb Williams and I won’t see a single thing about any (Jaguars) players on here,” he said. “So it’s beautiful. I’m going to tell these guys how much you all think they suck, and we’ll keep going.”
Cohn has a point. In fact, Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lavrence had very similar stats compared to Williams last year but gets nowhere near the attention. Even Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, who was taken in the same draft as Williams, made the Super Bowl and had better stats last year, gets less attention.
Williams is a very dynamic, clutch athlete and that helps. But the primary reason why he gets more attention is that he plays in Chicago, the biggest single team media market in the NFL.
It really isn’t lack of respect. Most of us who pay any attention to what is going on in the NFL know how good the Jaguars are. It’s just that the mainstream media aren’t going to concentrate on the talents of a small market team like Jacksonville. If that’s a source of motivaiton for them, more power to them.