Tennessee

Titans

Another domino falls in the 2026 coaching carousel as Saleh gets his second crack at head coaching duties, this time with the Titans. Long heralded for his aggressive and unrelenting defensive tendencies, Saleh will look to improve upon his .357 career win rate as a head coach after a tumultuous tenure in New York after peaking at a 7-10 record in 2022 and 2023. He steps into a near full rebuild after the Titans unloaded numerous key pieces at the trade deadline.

Saleh was initially set to meet with the Titans virtually on Sunday, but instead pushed his interview to Monday so he could hold an in-person meeting with the team. His interview comes shortly after the team wrapped things up with former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, who is believed by some to be the front runner to land the position. Schultz reported earlier that Saleh, Nagy, and Jeff Hafley were believed to be the top three choices for the Titans, who recently saw Hafley get taken off the market by the Dolphins. If there’s any truth to Saleh and Nagy being the Titans’ top options, they’ll likely move quickly to close the deal with their preferred candidate as they look to find the coach best fit to lead the franchise and No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward into the future.

“It doesn’t make a ton of sense for him to go into a total rebuild” per Pelissero, who rules out Arizona and Las Vegas as landing spots for McDermott. Pelissero mentions that McDermott would be outside of the normal bucket the Steelers hire from, and says Baltimore “makes a lot of sense” while the Titans brass has mutual ties to McDermott from his work with Andy Reid. Seeing McDermott coach Lamar Jackson might be the funniest idea we’ve ever heard of, so of course we’re for it. The Titans also seem like a reasonable landing spot.

It was reported over a week ago that McCarthy would interview with the Titans on January 17th, but according to Schefter, the team also spoke with McCarthy “once in late December in Green Bay,” while the season was still going on. This certainly throws a bit of a wrinkle in how we should view the Titans’ head-coaching vacancy, as the early decision to speak with McCarthy in-season could hint at him being the favorite in the clubhouse. McCarthy is also expected to speak with the Steelers in the coming days, giving him another potential suitor if things don’t work out with the Titans.

One of the most requested head coaching candidates this coaching cycle, Saleh now adds the Ravens to the list of teams he has officially spoken with regarding their head coaching vacancies. He will follow up his interview with the Ravens with a trip to Tennessee to speak with the Titans about their opening.

The Titans already conducted a virtual interview with Nagy. They will now meet him in person later this week. They are also pursuing Packers DC Jeff Hafley, who is likely their first choice. If Hafley doesn’t take the job, Nagy could get a second chance at leading a team. He went 34-31 with the Bears after a successful run as the Chiefs’ quarterbacks coach and eventually offensive coordinator. His latest stint as the Chiefs’ OC has not gone as well. With the best quarterback on the planet at his disposal, Nagy’s Chiefs have topped out at 15th in points per game over the past three years. It’s hard to see him doing better with Cam Ward under center.

Hafley will meet with Miami brass on Monday before talking to the Titans on Tuesday. He has already met with both virtually. These meetings will be in person. Schefter added, “As was the case with Kevin Stefanski in Atlanta, a deal could come together quickly.” It sounds like these two teams will have a bidding war early in the week before Hafley makes his decision. Hafley does have a connection to Miami via Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan. The latter was just hired by the Dolphins after spending over two decades in Green Bay’s front office. We suspect that’s where he winds up, but this is still an open race between the Titans and Dolphins.

Over the last few hours, multiple reports have indicated that the two sides are still expected to come to an agreement. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said it “seems like something was lost in translation” during early negotiations, specifically regarding the “reporting structure” and decision-making powers. He adds that the Titans are still “interested and waiting” to find out what happens, while noting that former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski could be “the one” for the Giants if things fall through with Harbaugh.

Stefanski said he believes the Titans, Falcons, and Ravens “are all potential landing spots” for the two-time coach of the year. Stefanski has been highly sought after since being fired by the Browns following a 5-12 season marred by problems at quarterback. Stefanski lost out to John Harbaugh for the Giants’ head coaching job, but with eight more openings, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to land elsewhere if he wants to continue his career elsewhere as a head coach.

He’ll interview Sunday, per Ian Rapoport. Saleh has drawn requests from Miami, Baltimore, and Arizona this offseason. The 49ers DC has done an admirable job holding down the fort this year while missing stars Fred Warner and Nick Bosa for most of the season. For the Titans, he is one of 19 different interviews they’ve conducted so far. They’ll move past the initial round after this one and try to nail down a list of finalists.