The Tennessee Titans officially have their new head coach in Robert Saleh, who will leave the San Francisco 49ers for a second time as their defensive coordinator and will be coaching in the AFC South. Saleh beat out guys like Matt Nagy and Jeff Hafley, and will now get his second chance at being a head coach. Adam Schefter reported the news late last night.
This was a no-brainer hire that the Titans needed to make. Saleh showed the whole NFL world that he was not the problem with the Jets. Once he left, the organization continued to spiral, while Saleh went back to the 49ers and thrived once again.
Saleh was the head coach of the New York Jets from 2021 to the middle of the 2024 season and he dealt with so much chaos with the Jets. However, the defense that he helped build in New York was always elite and they were never an issue. Defense is what Saleh specializes in and that is huge for Tennessee.
Robert Saleh is a home run hiring for Titans
As far as the offense, Saleh never had a fair chance at having stability at quarterback with the Jets. He now gets this with Cam Ward under center who showed a lot of promise in his rookie season. The expectation is that Saleh will hire an impressive offensive coordinator to help support Ward's growth.
Tennessee needs all the help that they can get if they want to truly compete in the AFC South. Getting someone like Saleh is a great first move to getting back to being competitive. Under Saleh, both San Francisco and New York always played hard on defense and they punished opposing offenses.
Now that Saleh is the official new head coach, the Titans can now focus on the rest of the roster to build around Ward. Tennessee now has a dynamite head coach that players love playing for. It’s time for him to now bring that intensity to Nashville and get the Titans back to the competitive level that they were at under Mike Vrabel.