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Afternoon Edition

January 24, 2025

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The NFL coaching carousel is winding down, but it featured some stunning moves Friday. From the Jaguars’ surprising hire of Liam Coen to the Raiders’ decision to bring back 73-year-old Pete Carroll, we break down the latest twists.

— David Rumsey [[link removed]] and Eric Fisher [[link removed]]

Jaguars Land Coen in Stunning Move As NFL Coaching Carousel Nears End [[link removed]]

Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The NFL’s coaching carousel [[link removed]] is finally winding down, but not without some unexpected—and expensive—drama.

The Jaguars announced the hire of Liam Coen and the Raiders are expected to hire Pete Carroll, leaving just the Cowboys and Saints as the final two teams still searching for their next head coaches. At one point, seven clubs were looking for head coaches—including the Bears, Jets, and Patriots.

Jumping Ship

Coen’s departure from the Buccaneers, where he was the offensive coordinator for just one season, has quickly become the most extraordinary move of this hiring cycle.

Earlier this week, Coen turned down the Jaguars and verbally agreed to an extension with Tampa Bay that would have made him the highest-paid coordinator in NFL history with a salary of nearly $4.5 million [[link removed]].

But then, the Jaguars fired GM Trent Baalke [[link removed]] and asked Coen to reconsider. Jacksonville reportedly offered a contract similar to the one the Bears gave Ben Johnson [[link removed]] (who also passed on the Jaguars, citing “the setup”), which is believed to be in the range of $13 million per year [[link removed]]. Coen went to Jacksonville to meet with Jaguars owner Shad Khan without telling Bucs coach Todd Bowles or GM Jason Licht.

Khan is making his third head coaching hire since 2021, and Coen is set to join a different team for the sixth straight season. The Bucs will end up with a fourth offensive coordinator in as many seasons, following Dave Canales becoming head coach of the Panthers last year and Byron Leftwich’s firing the year before.

A Jagged History

Coen’s hire makes him the eighth head coach in Jaguars history [[link removed]] (not counting interim coaches):

Tom Coughlin: 1995–2002 (68–60) Jack Del Rio: 2003–2011 (68–71) Mike Mularkey: 2012 (2–14) Gus Bradley: 2013–2016 (14–48) Doug Marrone: 2017–2020 (23–43) Urban Meyer: 2021 (2–11) Doug Pederson: 2022–2024 (22–29) Is Age Just a Number?

Pete Carroll, who will turn 74 in September, is returning to the sidelines on a three-year contract with the Raiders that includes a fourth-year team option. He spent the 2024 season out of coaching after the Seahawks fired him following a 14-year run that included winning Super Bowl XLVIII.

Tom Brady, a minority owner in Las Vegas, was believed to be very involved in the coaching and GM hires (the Raiders hired Buccaneers assistant GM John Spytek) alongside owner Mark Davis. The process came under scrutiny after the Raiders interviewed both Lions coordinators, Aaron Glenn and the aforementioned Ben Johnson, ahead of Brady calling Detroit’s divisional playoff matchup [[link removed]] against the Commanders on Fox.

SPONSORED BY TICKPICK

The NFL’s Best QB Clash

Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen make up the NFL’s best rivalry. Allen’s Bills have dominated regular-season matchups, but Mahomes and the Chiefs [[link removed]] have won all three playoff games. The fourth takes place this weekend in the AFC championship game, as the most anticipated clash of the 2024 season.

For all the hype, this isn’t even the most expensive AFC championship [[link removed]] on record, according to TickPick [[link removed]]. In fact, it barely cracks the top five. Its $500 average purchase price is 72% less expensive than last season’s Ravens-Chiefs game ($862).

As Mahomes chases an unprecedented Super Bowl three-peat, this weekend will be his 20th postseason game. TickPick indicates it is the third-most-expensive non–Super Bowl game he’s played in, with the first being the Chiefs-Bills game in this same round four years ago ($705 average price).

For more NFL ticketing trends and insights, check out our Big Ticket Trend Report [[link removed]], presented by TickPick, and get $15 off your first purchase [[link removed]] of $99+ with code FOS15.

EA Sports Stumbles: Stock Plummets As Soccer Game Misses the Goal [[link removed]]

EA Sports

A banner fall has quickly turned into a brutal winter for prominent video game developer Electronic Arts.

The longtime maker of games such as Madden NFL just weeks ago was basking in the glow of the runaway success of its resurrected franchise [[link removed]], College Football 25, which quickly became the best-selling sports video game in U.S. history [[link removed]]. Success in the hypercritical world of video games, however, can often be fleeting and a more recent, downbeat report from EA has sent the company’s shares tumbling.

The company said in a preliminary quarterly earnings report this week that it is changing initial guidance for its fiscal year 2025 from mid-single-digit percentage growth in live service net bookings—a key element of how EA measures its corporate performance—to a similarly sized decline. Underperformance in EA Sports FC, its soccer game franchise that is a key pillar for the entire EA business globally, was cited as a key factor for the switch.

That disclosure led to a nearly 17% fall in EA stock Thursday, the company’s worst one-day performance since 2008. Friday’s trading brought more downward pressure, with another dip of 1.7% to $116.56 per share.

The downgraded corporate forecast “suggests to us that the company was caught off guard by the shortfall and isn’t certain about how to address it,” Wedbush analysts said in a research note.

The company’s full third-quarter earnings report is scheduled for Feb. 4.

EA Sports FC 25, the second installment of a soccer game fundamentally remade without FIFA licensing [[link removed]], had initially received decent reviews upon release last September. Performance issues, however, surfaced later, and EA released last week a game refresh [[link removed]] that it called “the most significant mid-season gameplay overhaul we’ve ever made, based on your feedback.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger’s Pay Soars to $41M As Succession Plans Take Shape [[link removed]]

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

As Disney CEO Bob Iger begins what are anticipated to be his final two years on the job, his compensation is rising to even heftier levels.

A filing by the ESPN parent company with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission disclosed that Iger’s total compensation in 2024 rose to $41.1 million, up 30% from $31.6 million in 2023. In both years, much of that pay came in the form of stock and option awards and incentives, as Disney’s board has sought to tie the compensation package as much as possible to the company’s performance.

To that end, Disney’s stock has increased by 20% in the last year and the company has posted a series of sharply improved quarterly reports [[link removed]]. The rise has happened as Disney has sought to reorient the business to a streaming-based future led heavily by ESPN’s forthcoming “Flagship” [[link removed]]—a difficult, multiyear corporate pivot that involved multiple waves of staff reductions, but one now beginning to bear fruit.

“We have emerged from a period of considerable challenges and disruption well positioned for growth and optimistic about our future,” Iger said in November during Disney’s most recent quarterly earnings call with analysts. The company will next report its financial results on Feb. 5.

Disney’s 2024 under Iger also included a series of notable successes for ESPN, including retaining rights to the NBA [[link removed]] and landing the rights to the newly expanded College Football Playoff [[link removed]].

Turning the Page

Disney, meanwhile, said in the same SEC filing that it still intends to name a CEO successor to the 73-year-old Iger by “early 2026,” the expected timing since last October [[link removed]]. Iger’s departure originally was scheduled for the end of 2024, but a two-year contract extension signed in July 2023 pushed that timetable out to December of next year.

A Disney succession planning committee is active and has “continued to make strong progress over the last year,” company board chair James Gorman said in a letter to shareholders.

ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro has long been part of a group of internal candidates [[link removed]] cited as possibilities to succeed Iger. More recent speculation [[link removed]], however, has also pointed to a pool of external candidates for the role, including Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson.

Regardless of whether the final choice is already at Disney, Gorman said the company board is “engaged in and committed to finding the right leader for the company and we are planning for a smooth leadership transition.” That effort is a key priority as Iger returned to Disney in 2022 after a prior departure when Bob Chapek—his initial, handpicked successor—was ousted by the board.

STATUS REPORT One Up, Two Down, One Push

Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

Colorado ⬇ The school’s football program self-reported at least six minor NCAA rules violations [[link removed]] in 2024, according to USA Today. Most notably, in November, coach Deion Sanders brought up the name of quarterback Julian Lewis, then a recruit, which isn’t allowed. Lewis signed with Colorado in December.

Sports TV ratings ⬆ Viewership numbers for many games and events will soon have the benefit of including Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel TV measurement, which has received accreditation from the Media Rating Council. The extra data, which boosts total ratings, comes from cable, satellite set-top boxes, and smart TVs. For example, Amazon Prime Video’s average Thursday Night Football viewership number of 13.20 million during the 2024 NFL regular season grows to 14.23 million with the Big Data + Panel numbers.

TGL ⬆⬇ The new indoor golf league cofounded by Tiger Woods saw its TV ratings drop to 682,000 for its third match Tuesday night on ESPN—down from 919,000 for the debut match and 1 million for Tiger Woods’s first match [[link removed]] last week. However, the three-match average of 869,000 viewers is up 50% over the various college basketball games that ESPN aired in the comparable broadcast windows in 2024.

Novak Djokovic ⬇ The 24-time Grand Slam winner was booed by fans at the Australian Open on Friday after he retired from his semifinal match against Alexander Zverev after losing the first set 7–6 in a tiebreaker. Djokovic cited a muscle tear in his left leg.

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