NFL ALERT: Tennessee Titans steal Robert Saleh from the 49ers in a blockbuster deal, shaking up the NFL as the top strategist makes his bold move to a new challenge in AFC South.
Mike Stobe/Getty
Former New York Jets head coach and current San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh is among a short list of names to be rumored as potential targets for the Tennessee Titans head coaching vacancy.
Tennessee fired its head coach, Brian Callahan, in just Week 6 after a 1-5 start. Callahan spent just a season and a half at the helm. They have gone 2-7 since moving on from Callahan, but the emergence of Cam Ward as the franchise’s first-ever 3,000-yard rookie quarterback makes the head coach vacancy an enticing one.
After reaching out to the general manager and other members inside the Titans organization, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero expects the organization to leave no stone unturned.
“Expect a wide-ranging and deliberate head coaching search for the Titans that includes, among others, Mike McCarthy, Matt Nagy, Jeff Hafley, Jesse Minter, Robert Saleh and Chris Shula,” Pelissero reported.
Tennessee is also in a unique front office position with several changes coming in preparation for this coaching search.
“Tennessee has restructured its front office to have Titans GM Mike Borgonzi spearhead the team’s head coaching search and control the team’s 53-man roster,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. “He now will report directly to Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk. Chad Brinker will continue to oversee the salary cap, research and development, and analytics. Neither person’s title changes, but there is now a clear delineation of duties and the two men agreed on the adjusted front-office format.”
One thing is for sure: regardless of whether or not Saleh is given a second chance at a head coaching job, it will not be a hasty coaching search.
Tennessee Job Seems Oddly Familiar To Saleh’s Jets Hiring
There are a lot of deja vu moments in this story for the former Jets head coach.
Saleh was hired in New York after Adam Gase led the team to a 2-14 finish in 2020 in, coincidentally, also his second year as head coach. Titans are in danger of falling to 3-14 on Sunday.
Unlike Tennessee, the Jets did not have their young quarterback yet; that was Saleh’s to find. He landed on Zach Wilson. Either way, he would be inheriting a young quarterback with the expectation of developing him into a winner.
The final comparison is that Saleh would be entering a new organization with an existing general manager. Many times when a head coach is canned, the general manager goes with him. This allows for a more symbiotic relationship between the next two people who will operate as the most important hires a team can make.
It’s often considered a disadvantage for a head coaching prospect to enter a new organization and have to adjust to whatever plans a general manager had made before his arrival.
Robert Saleh was a lousy 20-36 as head coach of the Jets, but in the years since his firing, fans have grown empathetic to the stellar defensive mind that was handed a bad deck. He is expected to get another shot at a head coaching role, whether it comes in this cycle or not.
