The first wave of interviewees for the Tennessee Titans head coaching position has started to emerge, and they range from underwhelming to nightmarish.
While it is true that no one knows it is difficult to assess a hire before games are played, it certainly seems like the Titans are starting with the worst names first and working their way up to the quality prospects. Or at least, that is the way it seems at first glance.
Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture here, you could make the case that the Titans are doing something sneaky and brilliant. When you break down the list of known interviewees, it looks like the Titans are actually conducting three coaching searches at once.
Could the Titans be conducting interviews for offensive/defensive coordinator during their head coaching search?
Prospective head coaches
Technically, every coach on this list is a prospective head coach, but when you examine closely, the coaches that seemed destined to be finalists for head coaching jobs this year are: Vance Joseph, Lou Anarumo, Kevin Stefanski, Robert Saleh, and Chris Shula.
The overwhelming trend there is that nearly all of those candidates are defensive-minded coaches, with the exception being Stefanski and potentially Saleh if you want to assume that he takes a step forward in his maturation and becomes a CEO type head coach.
Every defensive-minded head coach needs to come in with an immediate answer to how they will help develop Cam Ward on the offensive side of the ball. A great way to do that would be to have an experienced offensive coordinator waiting in the wings, someone like the coaches being interviewed in the second coaching search that the team is conducting.
Future offensive coordinators
Matt Nagy has gotten a lot of buzz, but he feels as likely to get fired/not re-signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as he is to be hired for a head coaching job this offseason. It seems most likely that he will be leaving the Chiefs to go somewhere else to be an OC in 2026. Speaking of fired offensive coordinators, Kliff Kingsbury was fired by the Washington Commanders on Tuesday and may get an interview with the Titans soon. Considering how well he and Ward would mesh, connecting him as a future Titans OC is easy.
A smart person would say that the Titans are interviewing both candidates and giving them a chance to blow their socks off, but if they fall short of that, the Titans could have a good idea of whether they would be good fits for the offensive coordinator role.
Ending up with a pairing like Shula and Nagy or Saleh and Kingsbury could be a very fun combination for the Titans that gives the franchise the right blend of experience and excitement.
Future defensive coordinators
If the Titans do get their socks blown off by one of those offensive coordinator candidates, or if they go with Stefanski, then names like Steve Spagnuolo and Raheem Morris make a lot of sense as potential DC pairings for the Titans.
There seem to be around a dozen coaches that the Titans want to interview during the process, and more names will come out, but don't be surprised if at least one (but maybe more than one) of the coaches that the Titans interview ends up on the staff as a coordinator.