John Oehser

JACKSONVILLEThis was about getting better, and having options.

Liam Coenlikes how the Jaguars addressed one of the NFL's notable offseason trends tight end during the recent2026 NFL Draft, and the Jaguars' head coach discussed that topic this past weekend during the team's '26 rookie minicamp.

The idea was to strengthen a strength, which Coen says the Jaguars did.

The Jaguars late last month selected two tight ends in the same draft for the first time in franchise historyNate Boerkircherof Texas A&M in Round 2 andTanner Koziolof Houston in Round 5. They were among 27 Jaguars rookies 10 draft selections, 17 undrafted free agents participating in minicamp.

All rookies begin working with Jaguars veterans Monday as the '26 offseason program continues at theMiller Electric Center.

Boerkircher and Koziol give the Jaguars six tight ends, along with starterBrenton Strange, veteranQuintin Morris, veteranHunter Longand first-year veteranPatrick Herbert. The Jaguars, like multiple NFL teams, addressed tight end in this year's draft to have the option of playing more multiple-tight end packages moving forward.

Coen said tight end was "definitely up there" in terms of his draft priorities.

Coen, too, said he liked not only what Boerkircher and Koziol bring, "but also what it then allows the other guys to do, like what that allows Strange to do differently or more frequently, whether that's running or blocking or catching."

The Jaguars played much of the 2025 season with essentially four tight ends Strange, Long, Morris and Johnny Mundt with Herbert on the practice squad much of the season. Three of their four regular-season losses came during a five-game stretch Strange missed with a quad injury sustained in a Week 5 Monday Night Football victory over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Coen on Saturday also discussed the advantages of playing two or three tight ends. These are known as "12 and 13" packages, with many teams moving forward expected to follow the lead of the Los Angeles Rams, who had notable success with such personnel groupings last season.

"If your tight ends have the ability to spread out and do different things in the pass game, you can present 13-personnel pictures or even 12," Coen said. "I like 12 a lot personally, but you can also present 11-personnel pictures, 10-personnel pictures, spread open, empty formations.

QUOTABLE

• Coen on the growing number of young NFL players who have transferred schools in college: "It's just life now. It's pretty normal now. It's weird for us because you do have to figure out why. Why are they moving from school to school? Typically, we like to see the guys that have maybe ascended throughout their transfers and they're going to maybe go play in better competition or what they deem is putting them in a position to be successful and leveling up.[General Manager] James Gladstone]has said that a number of times and I think that's something that a lot of these guys have done that that we ended up bringing in here. But the transfer world we're living it, man."

QUOTABLE

• Boerkircher on his first impressions of Coen's offense: "There are a lot of options. The one thing that's great about it is everything correlates. Everything makes sense. That makes it easier to go out and execute. You can think through it a lot more clearly. It correlates and makes sense."