The Tennessee Titans dropped a bombshell while the NFL world was sleeping on Monday night, as they hired San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator and former New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh to be the next leader of the franchise.
Things tend to flip-flop in the NFL, so after a failed stint with a first-time, offensive-minded head coach, the Titans zagged and chose a retread coach from a defensive background this time around in Saleh.
With a young franchise quarterback in Cam Ward, however, Tennessee still needs an innovative offensive mind in the building to help him out. Nailing the offensive coordinator hire will now be paramount for Saleh, and luckily, a dream candidate may already be lined up.
Titans should look no further than Mike McDaniel to pair with Cam Ward
Mike McDaniel, a wunderkind from the Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay coaching tree, was fired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins earlier this month. Many believed that he needed some more seasoning before taking another head job, but McDaniel is considered an ideal offensive coordinator.
He did interview for the head coaching vacancy in Tennessee before the job went to Saleh, but there is still a strong chance that McDaniel could join the Titans and rectify his career as an offensive coordinator under Saleh.
Saleh and McDaniel have spent so many years coaching together, including stints with the Houston Texans from 2006-2008 and the San Francisco 49ers from 2017-2020. The two are closely connected, and analysts like Benjamin Allbright are already connecting the dots.
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McDaniel was dealt a tough hand in Miami with Tua Tagovailoa being his franchise quarterback, but his offenses were incredibly difficult for defenses to grasp. His high usage of motion and misdirection gave his speedy skill-position players tons of space in the open field to make guys miss.
Plus, it was a relatively quarterback-friendly offense with QB-friendly reads and spacing. Ward is certainly incredible at making plays off-script, but if the game can be made simpler and easier for him, then that superpower of his will be an even deadlier weapon.
Perhaps part of the Titans' plan all along was to get two great coaches in the building, like Saleh and McDaniel, leaving the former to run the defense and the latter to run the offense. If McDaniel doesn't get a head coach job in this cycle, he should buy a one-way ticket to Nashville.