Titans WILL Earn #1 Pick in NFL Draft AGAIN + Coaching Search Updates | MCA Titans Podcast

Titans WILL Earn #1 Pick in NFL Draft AGAIN + Coaching Search Updates | MCA Titans Podcast

The Tennessee Titans are in position to once again land the number one overall pick in the NFL draft. Football power index gives them the best odds of any team in the NFL to get the number one pick. So, we’re going to talk about how that might happen and also an update on the Titans coaching search. Candidates who are currently coordinators elsewhere, how are they looking halfway through the 2025 season. This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. Uh, welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City Audible podcast presented by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits, and beer store in East Nashville in partnership with 440 Sports. I’m Justin Graver. With me, as always, Justin Melo and Justin, we were talking about this at the end of the show yesterday. What were we going to do on today’s podcast? We asked the people, the audience, the regular listeners of the Music City Audible to give us some suggestions and uh respond to what we thought might be a good topic and we got two pretty good ones. We got plenty of people interested in an update to the head coaching search. A few people thought maybe it was a little too early, but for those people, we have another topic on today’s show. We’re going to talk about the Titans odds to land the number one pick. currently at 1-7, the same record as two other teams in the NFL. So, we’re going to talk about those teams and the Titans rest of season schedule briefly and sort of talk about what we think needs to happen for the Titans to get the number one pick. That’s today’s show. How’s it going, Justin? I am doing well. Doing well. We are man men. We are men of the people. We went into the comments and we decided to take you guys seriously. Uh we didn’t even talk about the odds of the draft on yesterday’s show. I don’t think, but a couple of those comments suggested. I’d love to know what you think about the Titans chances getting to number one pick. So, we’re going to address both topics today. I believe we’re starting with the NFL draft part of this discussion. Now, I’m going to te you back up first, but just to, you know, context, Titans are one and seven, like you said, tied for the worst record in the league with the New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets. Um, I’m not going out on a limb by saying I sort of feel like this is a three-team race for the number one pick. I could see the Cleveland Browns getting in that mix, too. They’re a two- win team. They’re losing a lot with Dylan Gabriel at quarterback. So, I could still see the Browns maybe having something to say about that. But, I do think the three teams with the worst record right now are the three worst teams in the NFL. Yeah. Other teams that have two wins right now, there is a number of them include the Miami Dolphins who, you know, they could go winless the rest of the year. The Giants, the Cardinals, the Raiders, all of those teams are struggling. And then the Baltimore Ravens, who get their starting quarterback uh back most likely tomorrow night, and I expect them to not finish with only two wins. So, uh those are the teams that are in the mix outside of these real bottom three. And you know, the two teams the Titans are are tied with, it’s not the worst case scenario because both of those teams we expect are going to be targeting a quarterback at the top of next year’s draft. So even if the Titans end up with the third pick, they will basically have their choice of the non-quarterbacks in this class. Um, but obviously when you’re a rebuilding team, draft capital is very important and getting the number one p pick could allow them to trade down maybe only a handful of spots, acquire an extra first next se the following year or extra day two picks in the 2026 draft and and still wind up with the player that they want. So, it would be quite beneficial to the rebuild. And how much sexier is it when you’re trying to entice a new head coach to be able to say, “Yeah, you’re also coming into a team that has the number one overall pick.” Look no further than last year. Can you imagine if the Titans get the number one pick in this draft, the number three team, who was the Giants last year, want to move up for a quarterback? They made an offer to the Titans. They wanted to take Cam Ward at number one. How much would you love to recreate that scenario this year now that you have your quarterback trading down to three with the Saints or the the Browns or the Jets, whatever, and get still getting the best non-quarterback in like a Ruben Bane for example, the same guy you probably would have taken at number one, but you add draft capital. I mean, that would be the dream come true for the Titans. It’s a little early to start forecasting that scenario, but right, um, I’m going to tee it back up to you because I have thoughts on these three teams, but before I give my thoughts, I think, you know, you dug up some of the analytics. I think we have two different models that we’re presenting today. One is the FBI, probably one of the more popular ones, the football power index. The other one is a really good model that’s maybe less known about from Pro Football Network, I believe it is, that simulates the regular season a 100,000 times and has their own odds uh for the number one pick. And what’s interesting is they differ from the Football Power index one. So, we’re going to give you guys both of them right now. Yeah, the Football Power Index, if you don’t know, it’s an ESPN like analytics stat. It’s a me, this is directly from the website, is a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor, meant to be the best predictor. Come on, ESPN, own it. Call yourselves the is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of their season. Uh, FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI results to date and the remaining schedule. and they update their ratings and projections on a daily basis. So, what does the ESPN FBI say? Well, their predictive model gives the Titans the top chance to land the number one pick of any team in the NFL, despite the Jets taking longer than the Titans to get their first win. Um, the Saints, I don’t know if you think the Saints are better or worse than the Titans based on your own, you know, opinions, but according to this metric, the Titans are the worst team. I think having the worst point differential in the NFL by a large margin probably uh contributes to this. But the chances that FBI gives the Titans to earn the number one pick 27.9% that’s over five full percentage points higher than the New Orleans Saints at number two who sit at 22.5%. The Jets 20.4%. So the three teams we’re talking about that’s those are their odds and that five 5.4% 4% gap between the Titans and the Saints is larger than the gap from two to four. When you get to the number five team, though, those odds plummet to just 3.8%. The Browns are the number four team. So, according to FBI, the Titans have the best chance to get the number one pick. Over one and four chance. And then you talked about the other one, the Pro Football Network playoff meter is what they call it. They give the Jets the top chances to earn the number one pick at 25.1% and the Titans closely behind 23.0% with the Saints third at 21.6%. And again, after those top teams, it plummets. The Dolphins are next at just 6.6%. So based on like these models and you what you and I said at the top, it’s likely going to be one of these three teams, these models strongly agree. you know, over 60% of the odds that of who gets the number one pick are totaled by these three teams. It’s like over 50% chance that one of these three teams gets it. Now, we want to talk through like the remaining schedules, but I also think, you know, we talk about this in May when the schedule comes out. I think it’s still true. It’s a bit of a fool’s errand to try to predict based on the schedule because we still don’t know what teams are going to, you know, what injuries are going to pop up and are going to completely change the outlook of certain teams or teams that are just going to be improving or getting worse throughout the season. You never know. The Saints have made a quarterback change. Tyler Shook will start apparently the rest of the season. Spencer Rattler’s been benched and the Titans play the Saints in week 17. So, that is going to be a huge game that could determine which team actually ends up with the number one pick. And the thing I’ll say about Chuck Justin is he’s probably worse right now today than Spencer Rattler who wasn’t playing that poorly overall really if you watch the film. And uh the other thing about Tyler Shuck though is that in college at least he appeared to be sort of made of glass, sort of a bit brittle. And I would just say that there’s not there’s not a low chance like there’s a decent chance that Spencer Rattler is the quarterback for the Saints again by the time the Titans played them in week 17. Yeah, that’s a good point. He had a lot of injuries in college. I think he was there for like six or seven years because he got a bunch of, you know, red shirt medical all things of that nature and he switched transferred programs a bunch of times. But um interesting cuz I mean you took I don’t want to say you took the words out of my mouth but when I look at these models where I slightly disagree is none of them have the Saints to be the likeliest to get the number one pick. And I kind of I I slightly lean towards the Saints, but I have the Titans a pretty close second in all honesty. And I guess where I mostly disagree is I have the Jets least likely of these three. one- win teams. And I’m going to give you a couple reasons why. As an outsider who has no like doesn’t care about the New York Jets, I don’t like them. I don’t hate them. I feel no way about the New York Jets. Uh I find them to be a hilarious football team in the sense that they were the last team to win the game. Yes. On Sunday when they beat the Bengals 3938, they had 502 yards of offense. Do you think the Titans are going to have a single 500 yard? You think the Titans are going to have a single? Have they had a 400 yard game yet? I imagine they haven’t. Like, can you imagine the Titans having a 500 yard game like the Jet? In week one, I know week one’s a liar. It wasn’t a liar for the Titans, but in week one, the Jets lost to a pretty good Steelers team like 3432. They then lost to the Bucks a couple weeks later, 2927. Now, that included a special teams touchdown for the Jets. I don’t know if you remember. They like blocked that Bucks field goal and ran it back. It was miraculous. They’ve also had a bunch of games where Justin Fields has had like 32 passing yards. Like, they are either pretty productive on offense or the worst offense in the NFL. So, like, don’t get me wrong, there are still going to be a lot of ugly weeks for the New York Jets on offense, and they’re going to lose a lot of games the rest of the way, but of these three teams, they feel the most competent and the most likely to have a random offensive explosion because Justin Fields runs the ball well or Bree Hall explodes like he did on Sunday. Both of those things happen. Like, Justin Fields played really well. Yeah, Bree Hall also had a big game. They also have the best O line of these three teams. And that might be a silly thing to point out. Justin Fields was not hit once in Sunday’s game. That’s not sacked. He was not hit. The Bengals did not have a single quarterback hit in that game. So yes, like I I acknowledge the other side of that coin. They are so bad on occasionally that they’re going to have 30 passing yard games, but I also think they’re likelier to win with the Saints moving to Tyler Shuck. like this is a team that’s going to lose a lot with this rookie quarterback the rest of the way assuming he’s healthy in plays and uh and I think like I think they came into this year tanking in all honesty like they hired Kell Moore I think they’re going to give him a long leash they’re in fact finding mode I’ve loved that term for the Titans lately that’s why they’re making this quarterback change because you’re right Spencer Rattler hasn’t been that bad although he’s been worse over the last two games I I think this is more to do with we’ve got to find out what we have in Tyler Shuck before uh we potentially take a quarterback at the top. And maybe Tyler Shuck plays well and takes him out of the quarterback market. I give that a less than 5% chance of happening. He did not look good in relief of Rattler on Sunday. And I I think they’re just going to continue losing and struggling. I hate to boil this down to Titans versus Saints in week what is it 17 you said? I think. Wow. That’s the second last game of the season. I mean, there’s a really good chance that it’s going to be incredibly decisive. I think both of these teams do a lot of losing up until then. I mean, Titans play like the Chiefs before that, the Chargers this week. Like, the T I know you say the Titans are probably I don’t think you’ve said it yet. You said it off error, but I I know you feel the Titans might put Well, let me let me get to that point and then you can respond to it. How about that? So, here Yeah, here’s where I come down. I totally agree that that week 17 game, I mean, simplistic as it is, like that’s most likely going to be the deciding factor. Even if one of these two teams wins before that point because as long as they’re within one game of each other, that game will be a tiebreaker decider. Um, the Titans do have a number of difficult games leading into that one though. The Chargers, the Texans, the Seattle Seahawks, the Jacksonville Jaguars, they just played the Colts and the Patriots. That’s six games in a row against teams that are either playoff teams this year or were playoff teams last year when you throw Houston into the mix. And Houston could easily work themselves back into the playoff field. And when I say playoff teams this year, I mean currently if the playoffs started today, they would be in the playoffs. So that’s six consecutive games against that caliber of opponent. All of those teams also have been at least somewhat known for either having a great defense this year or good defensive performances at certain times this year when healthy. I mean, the Texans, the Seahawks, the Jags, like the Jags were leading the NFL in turnovers for a while. Those are your three games coming up after the Chargers whose defense was performing very well before injuries really started to set in. And we still believe Jesse Mter is, you know, one of the top head coaching candidates. We might talk about him in a little bit. and uh has been a great coordinator for that team. So, really tough defensive slate coming up for the Titans. Then they play the Browns who that could be the game where number one, it could be the game where Miles Garrett sets a record for most sacks in a single game in NFL history, but it could also be a game where the Titans finally put something together after the Browns. They play the Niners and the Chiefs, and then it’s the Saints game. So, it’s really tough and they close the year at Jacksonville. So, yeah, really tough slate for the Titans. The only two games that are like really winnable are Cleveland and New Orleans. Now, something crazy could happen and they could beat the Chargers who again have been dealing with a lot of injuries and are traveling to play an early window game as a West Coast team. Like, there are reasons you could talk yourselves into this being the surprise result. And now, I don’t think that’s going to happen. And we’ll talk we’ll preview that game tomorrow. And I don’t I don’t think either you or me will be predicting a Titans win by any stretch. But we’ve seen teams sort of fail to show up in those kind of travel situations in the past. Um, and then like their next winnable game would be Cleveland. Cleveland’s defense is so good. I struggle to see how the Titans offense puts anything together, especially as bad as the Titans offense has been. And then New Orleans. And I like Houston is technically a winnable game just because they’ve struggled at moments this year. I struggle to see Jacksonville, San Francisco, Seattle or Kansas City being winnable games. like Jacksonville they may split with just because of the division stuff, but again, I’m not expecting that. All that said, I do think there will be a game at some point this year where the Titans put it together and surprise us greatly and they win like that. Like it’s just going to happen at some point. And maybe not 500 yards of offense like the Jets did, but similar to the Jets where, you know, they’re big underdogs. The Bengals were six-point favorites in that game and the Jets just offense just like clicked and put it together and surprised us. Like the Titans offense may not be capable of putting it all together for four quarters and scoring 38 points. Like I don’t expect that to happen, but they are potentially capable of putting it together for three quarters, two and a half to three quarters and putting up 28 points. And if they happen to do that against a team whose offense happens to struggle of their own regard that day, shoot themselves in the foot, fumbles, similar to the Cardinals where the Titans defense is really bad. I don’t expect them to stop anybody, but like a team just has a bad day at the office. That could happen at some point and the Titans win a game because that happens. Now, the most likely opponent for that to happen against is the Saints, a team that might beat themselves on offense where the Titans offense gets hot against their defense. That seems like the most life I had to if you told me the Titans are going to win one more game, look at their schedule and pick that win, I think everybody would pick the Saints. So, if FPI has simulated it 10,000 times and they believe that the Titans will lose that game, I guess based on the 27% chance to get the number one pick, but um long spiel there for me. All that to say, like would I bet on the Titans getting the number one pick right now? I’m not sure because if I think they’re going to win one more game, like it’s most likely going to be the Saints game, but I think I lean the Saints as well, but for me, it’s fairly close between the Saints and the Titans. They just feel like the team that came in tanking the year on purpose, rookie quarterback change. Now, that’s a mid-round pick or second round pick, but a lot later than Cam Ward, right? So, uh, but that game will probably be pretty decisive and we’re going to keep monitoring this the rest of the way. I’m sure we’ll do another episode a couple of weeks from now when this race starts to get real legitimate. You know, week 12, week 13, there’s four or five games left. We’ll we’ll revisit where these teams are at and and and certainly I’m sure we’ll talk a lot about it going into that Saints game. And last thing on this topic just so that like we we this the comment that suggested this which by the way came from uh Yangsty King appreciate the suggested um episode here topic and we are doing it but looking at the remaining schedules and I think if people are curious like I’ll just quickly go through how many winnable games do I think the Jets have. Well they play Cleveland uh week 10 they are on by week nine or they play Cleveland that’s a potentially winnable game but again Cleveland’s defense is very scary. I mean, one of those two teams is getting a win. Jets or Browns. Then they play New England, Baltimore. They also have Jacksonville and New England again and Buffalo on the schedule. Those are all extremely tough games for the Jets. The Jets do play the Dolphins, which is a winnable game. They play the Falcons, which it depends on which version of the Falcons shows up because that could either be a blowout win or blowout loss for the Jets. And week 16, the Jets play the Saints. So, the Saints have to play the Jets and the Titans. that makes it more difficult for the Saints to end up with the number one pick or it makes it easier for them to end up with a number one pick if they lose both those games. And on the Saints front, um the Saints also play the Falcons. Obviously, they’re in the division with the Falcons. They have two games against the Falcons. They still have two games against the Panthers. Now, I think the Panthers and Falcons are better teams than the Saints, but it’s divisional games. You never know, some wild stuff can go down. They also have to play the Rams and the Bucks. Those are very tough games. But then they have again the Jets week 16, the Titans week 17. So the Saints like the Saints whether or not I mean it’s it’s just kind of crazy that within two weeks these three teams like there’s multiple games between these three teams. So ultimately this is going to come down to those two games week 16 17 Jets Saints Titans Saints and that’s just sort of like we it’s fun to talk about now but it’s also like we don’t we have no idea how it’s going to shake out and those games are going to be massively important. All right let’s move on Justin. Next, we’re going to talk about head coaching search updates on some of the candidates that we’ve gone over. You and I did an early look at candidates. Then went the week you were out, Connor or came on and we went through 21. Actually, he wrote an article about 20 and I asked him about one more candidate. So, if you missed those episodes, you can go back and watch them. They’re pretty evergreen, I think. Um, they’re in the feed, but we are going to sort of update where we’re at on some of these candidates who are coordinators currently. Um, before we do that, let’s remind everyone that this podcast is brought to you by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits, and beer store in East Nashville. Sinkers has a super knowledgeable staff that is proud to help you with large parties, themed events, or just finding something unique for a special occasion. They have an exclusive membership club called the In Crowd, which is completely free to join and and gives you access to allocated wines and spirits, exclusive events, early access to barrel releases, and more. Plus, Sinker Beverages is available on Uber Eats. All right, Justin. So, when we say these head coaching candidates are currently coordinators and we’re sort of tracking their stock, right, whose stock is up and whose stock is down through eight weeks of the season, that’s going to exclude some of our I would say top level candidates like a Mike McCarthy who’s not currently coordinating for anybody. He’s taking the year off. I still think Mike McCarthy would be an excellent choice for the Titans as the next head coach. We’re not gonna talk about him today. Who are we gonna talk about? Yeah. I mean, nothing’s changed on Mike McCarthy, right? So, it doesn’t make any sense. Couple of guys that I want to quickly hit and I’m going to try to do it in rapid fire uh fashion when I do is Arthur Smith, uh Robert Salah, uh Clint Kubak, and Mike Kfka. I think those are the four that are interesting to talk about right this second. Now, Arthur Smith, I can’t remember who it was. Was this Diana Rousini or someone has kind of linked his name to the job. I mean, I I Diana is starting to get into territory for me where I don’t know that I trust every single thing she says or reports, but I could also see a scenario where Arthur Smith was really liked within the organization when he was here. Uh, particularly by owner Amy Adams Trunk, who as we all know, she wants to make a decision on the head coach. she can make that decision. She owns the football team. So, right, it’s within the realm of possibility that Arthur Smith gets an interview and is a candidate. And I’m a little torn on Arthur Smith. Again, I don’t want to spend a ton of time talking about each candidate individually. I’m not saying he’s top of my list, number one choice, home run higher. But part of me can’t quit Arthur Smith. I I don’t know how you feel, right? Like I really I mean if you didn’t like him as the coordinator of the Titans, I don’t know what the hell offense you’ve been watching for 50 years because like they scored Do you hate scoring 30 points a game and like Arthur Smith coordinated some really good offenses here in Tennessee? And I’m going to say this season right now 2025 I think three things have happened that have been really kind to Arthur Smith. Okay. Number one, the job he’s doing in Pittsburgh. They’ve lost two games in a row, but Aaron Rodgers, in my opinion, is playing really good ball. Like Aaron Rogers having a resurgent year, and you got to give Arthur Smith some credit for that because he’s not supposed to be the Aaron Rodgers of the past. We’ve seen him really struggle with the, you know, the last year in Green Bay, this previous year, uh, with the with the Jets when he was healthy. Like Aaron Rogers is playing better ball than he has in years. That’s one thing that’s really positive about Arthur Smith. Number two, the Atlanta Falcons don’t look that good. Okay? Like, of course, you know, he was three years in Atlanta. He basically went seven and 10 every year. They of course when you’re losing, fans can’t wait to fire a guy. They haven’t gotten better under Raheem Morris and an offensive coordinator they were really excited to hire. and Zack Robinson who was like, you know, again, shook Shawn McVeyy’s hand is the running joke, right? Like they hired him away from the Rams, like they haven’t gotten better. And when I look back at those Arthur Smith Atlanta teams, I almost I’m sorry to bring up Mike Vrabel’s name. I’m sorry, but I almost I I compare it to the end of Mike Vrabel’s run in Tennessee where it’s like he I don’t I think what did Arthur Smith in in Atlanta was he’s a decent enough coach to overachieve. They kept winning seven games. They kept having no answer at quarterback because they were mediocre. They had to try to find their quarterback in the middle of the draft. They drafted Desmond Ritter, right? And it’s like until they bottomed out, that’s when they went and got Michael Penn. And they and he didn’t get a chance to coach Michael Penn. And they’re still not any better since drafting Michael Penn. Like I think Arthur Smith was a victim of being a good enough coach in Atlanta to get them to mediocre every year, which prevented them from solving the quarterback problem. Like, can we talk about the fact that he won seven games with Desmond Ritter and Taylor Hineki as his quarterbacks, right? Like I don’t look back on that Arthur Smith Town. Like I know Falcons fans were thrilled when they fired him. Every fan base is thrilled to fire a coach when they win seven G, right? Like it’s just your typical You could go to like 25 fan bases in the NFL right now and ask if you think the head coach will be fired and like the majority of those fans will say yes. And Baltimore in Pittsburgh, right? Yeah. Like good ones too. So, the third fact that I think reflects nicely on Arthur Smith is that until they benched Justin Fields last year, he was looking like a pretty halfdeent functioning quarterback. And I know we just talked about how well he played this past Sunday for the Jets, but again, Justin Fields has had multiple games this year where he’s been benched, had like 30 passing yards. Like literally like I don’t want to spend too much time on that one, but Fields looked better under Arthur Smith in Pittsburgh than he’s looked in New York this year for the Jets. So to me, when I look at what Rogers is doing, I look at how he coordinated the Titans offense. I look back on that Falcons tenor with hindsight. I I shouldn’t even say hindsight because I never thought the Falcons should have fired him. I actually wrote an article when they did saying they shouldn’t have fired him and I got flack for it. I remember. I can’t quit Arthur Smith. Yeah, I would be uh very intrigued by Arthur Smith. Curious to know what he thinks he’s learned from his, you know, three-year tenure in Atlanta and what he could apply this time around. Um, working with young quarterbacks is an interesting aspect of the job when Cam Ward is the, you know, future we hope of the Titans. And it’s not like Arthur Smith, I don’t know, I don’t want to say he didn’t like obviously Desmond Ritter was a young quarterback. Desmond Ritter is not like I just remember being so low on Desmond Ritter that draft cycle and arguing with people telling them that he was not going to be good. So I can’t really fault Arthur Smith for not developing him. You can only credit him for again for winning seven games. So it’s like I’m not like I wouldn’t be opposed to Arthur Smith as the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans. I also think like there’s some element of I want to do something different and not go back to the 2019 number one choice. Not my number one choice, but I think there’s no denying what he’s doing. Let’s see what happens to the Steelers the rest of the season because they have an unfortunate recent track record of completely falling off in the back half of seasons. They’ve lost two straight games right now. So, and they’ve lost two straight games. But I like that’s sort of just becoming a Mike Tomlin issue more than like can you really blame the OC for that? Um, so yeah, I like Arthur Smith and I think, you know, keeping an eye on that Steelers offense is just going to keep us more informed. And if you, the listener, want to be informed as well, I would think that’s a a big one to keep an eye on. I’ll throw a candid out candidate out there that I’m super high on for like reasons I can’t fully articulate, and that’s Giants offensive coordinator, assistant head coach Mike Kfka, who, you know, he was under Andy Reid in Kansas City. He was Patrick Mahomes position coach for his first two years in the NFL. Um sort of was in Kansas City when Mike Casco was there. Oh yes, good point. Uh the obvious connection to Mike Borganzi, the Titans general manager was in Kansas City at the time as well. But he was uh he was Mahomes QB coach the year he won MVP. And I think that’s worth noting now, you know, stop me if you’ve heard this before with Brian Callahan coached Joe Burrow and so therefore he’s going to be a good head coach and quarterback developer. And Patrick Mahomes is freaking Patrick Mahomes. And probably, you know, there’s a lot of people who argue that, oh, he’s only that way because he had Andy Reid. And that might be like half true, but he’s also he would have been good. Maybe not Hall of Fame best quarterback of all time, but he would have been a very good quarterback regardless of, I think, where he landed. But there was a lot made about KFKA’s work with Mahomes on things like his footwork, his pocket uh presence and maneuvering, his ability to like read the field and stuff like that. like things that Mahomes may or may not have struggled with in college when he was running an air raid system. Kfka got a lot of credit for. So, I’m not trying to like put that as a major resume bullet point, but you should know that if you are a Titans fan and that you see an a notification that they’re going to interview him or something. Now, more recently, he’s been in New York, called plays for the Giants offense starting in 2022 when Brian Dable took over as head coach and turned the offense around from where they were in 2021. Now, they regressed. If you recall, they made the playoffs that year, 2022. Brian Dable won coach of the year. They regressed a lot in 2023. Brian Dable at some point, it’s unclear when based on reporting and nobody ever really got the full story, took play calling duties away from Mike Kfka in 2023. Brian Table retained play calling duties throughout 2024 when the Giants continued to regress and finished 31st in the NFL in points scored. They looked a lot like this year’s Titans team, only they were a full point per game better than that even. And now this year, Kfka has play calling duties back. This is his second season in New York as also being the assistant head coach. So seeing, you know, the day-to-day of how an organization, if you’re going to be a head coach one day, seeing really what the what the job entails so that you’re not surprised by, you know, some of your responsibilities when you become a head coach. And the offense has taken a step forward this year from where it was last year. They’re 18th in uh total yards per game. I think they’re like 20 something 25th or 24th in points per game, averaging over a full touchdown more points per game than the Tennessee Titans. And this is with, you know, a rookie quarterback playing the at least the last five games for them. and a rookie running back being like your big your lead running back for the for the majority of that stretch as well. Even though I know Cam Scaboo will miss the rest of the year without Malik Neighbors who is your number one receiver and a true game-changing receiver with injuries that have caused a reshuffleling on a week to weekly basis of the offensive line. Um I think what he’s doing in New York is impressive. the offense under Jackson Dart actually is like he’s at Miss still is year wouldn’t make it feel like year three at LSU for Joe Burrow. Uh they didn’t do that. Didn’t make it feel like year two at Miami for Cam Ward. The what’s being run on offense in New York is actually different from what Russell Wilson was running the first three games of the season for them. And it looks a lot like the concepts Jackson Dart ran at Miss. So, all that to say, I know people like people probably don’t really like Mike Kfka because they don’t know much about him and like the Giants haven’t been like particularly good over the last few years since they made the playoffs in 2022, but I think Kfka has a lot of qualities and a lot of people around the league respect him and there’s a obvious connection to Mike Boronzi. So, tracking what he’s doing with Jackson Dart, I think, is like the biggest resume point I could give. I’d be shocked if he doesn’t get an interview from the Titans based on what he’s doing right now with Dart and the fact that he knows Boronzi from their time together. There are a couple things I like about about KFC. One that I want to mention that I think is underrated and no one else might mention the NFL tends to know. Okay. and NFL teams were interviewing Mike Kfka for their head coaching vacancies before general fans thought he deserved that. Okay. Like the all that to say I Mike Kfka has been viewed as a rising coaching candidate for a long time before like put it this way. When the Titans inter I’m sorry second one when the Titans interviewed Mike Vrabel the Houston Texans had like the worst defense in the NFL. He was the coordinator of fans were a lot of fans were like why the hell would you interview a guy? They knew right like they saw a rising candidate. I think teams have seen Mike Kfka as a rising candidate four years despite some of the uneven onfield results. I like that he played quarterback in the NFL and where he would differ from Brian Callahan because there are some of those same concerns, but where he could or definitely differs because these are indisputable facts. He’s actually called plays before. So he’s not like Callahan who came here as an offensive coordinator who didn’t call plays. I think that experience now in hindsight’s 2020 was really important because Callahan was very illprepared to be a play calling head coach having done neither of those things. And then you add the assistant head coach thing to Kfka’s resume. Um there are multiple reasons to see why he would probably be better prepared than Callahan was. And to me I’m very impressed by what he’s doing with Jackson Dart right now. I think Dart’s playing good. A lot of people will tell you Jackson Dart’s playing better than Cam Ward. I don’t know that I necessarily agree with that, but a lot of people feel that way. And uh and he deserves credit for how he’s prepared uh Jackson Dart to play these games. I’m going to quickly move on to Robert Salah, who I have less to say about than I think you did about Kfka. But a lot of times when the team fires a head coach, they go in the opposite direction, right? Like Brian Callahan was the anti- Mike Vrabel and teams do that all the time. Not only was he different philosophy side of the ball. They went from defense to offense. Totally different personality. Loves the reporters. Tells you exactly what he’s thinking. Doesn’t play anything close to the vest. Is very friendly with everyone in the building. He’s the anti- Mike Vrael. Well, Robert Salah is more like Mike Vrabel and might be the anti-Brian Callahan, right? He’s a tough sob. He is a culture builder, a leader, a guy. You see that clip between him and Liam Cohen where he said, “I will f your world up.” Yeah. I can’t believe you brought that up so early. Like that’s save the best for last type of stuff because the number one most important reason to hire Robert Salah is that you would get Salah vers Cohen twice a year for as long as they’re both in their head coaches of those two teams. I I am so down on the culture of this team right now and just the vibe in the locker room. It doesn’t have that early Mike Vrabel years vibe, right? It just doesn’t. And to me, uh, Robert Salah is someone who might be able to instill that. I have no doubt that he’s a tough again, holds people accountable, knows the rules, knows when to challenge things, like so many things that I’m intrigued by Robert Salah. And I am way more intrigued. I I hate to do this, but if Mike McDaniel is his offensive coordinator, they were together uh for years in previous stops. And if I I’m projecting that Mike McDaniel gets fired. And I do think Robert Salah is going to be a head coaching candidate. I think he’s doing good work with a San Francisco defense right now that lost Nick Bosa to a season ending injury and is really struggling to like they they they had a wh they they beat someone re who did they beat Atlanta. They beat Atlanta in prime time two weeks ago with a dominant defensive performance. I think everyone sees the Jets firing Salah and be like, “Ah, it’s Woody Johnson in the Jets.” I I think he’s going to be a candidate and probably get an interview some places. Um, I don’t know if you have a lot of thoughts on him. If not, I’ll move on to my final candidate that I want to talk who I have the least amount of things to say, so it’ll be a good one to end the show with. Really impressed with what Clint Kubiaak is doing in Seattle as the coordinator. Go back and read articles about the Seahawks off season. I I’m not going to call anyone out because that’s not my style, but I read a bunch of them that told me that the Seattle Seahawks had a disastrous off seasonason, bringing in Sam Darnold’s gonna backfire, yada yada. They’re one of the best offenses in the NFL. They’re scoring almost 30 points per game. They’re five and two. They look playoffbound and Clint Kubak has this offense firing on all cylinders. This was a bad offense last year under Gino Smith at quarter. What? What? I have questions about Kubak. That’s fine. But to me, the whole I mean, stop me if you’ve heard this with the Callahans, but he comes from a legendary footballing family. He’s but he’s actually calling plays. He’s the offensive coordinator for a defensiveminded head coach and Mike McDonald in Seattle who made this change at coordinator because he hated the last coordinator he hired, Ryan Grub, and the offense was terrible last year. Clint Kubak has come in here. He’s fixed the offensive line. He brought in a really good offensive line coach with him from New Orleans last year in John Benton. They drafted an offensive lineman in the first round, Gray Zabel, who’s playing really, really well. There’s just so many things that are going well in Seattle right now. It starts with the offense. Clint Kubak deserves most like how Sam come on. You’re gonna give the credit to Sam Darnold. We all said no one should words, but no one should pay Sam Darnold 40 million after how it ended with the Vikings. like they are thriving in Seattle right now. I think the been preparing for for a bigger opportunity. I think you’re overselling what Seattle’s offense has been this year. And like this is I know you like spend time covering the Seahawks as well, but their running game has been mostly struggling in terms of an efficiency and yards per carry type of met. Like they are able to punch in touchdowns with Zack Charbanet, which is really annoying. There’s been it hasn’t been overly they’ve had a couple good games, but they have mostly struggled with efficiency. Yes, they haven’t been able to run the ball. And the reason that they don’t blow teams out and win games dominantly, which they have a couple times, but like the reason they let the Texans back in that game on was that Sunday night or Monday night, Thursday night, whenever the heck the Seahawks and Texans just played in prime time. The reason they let the Texans back into that game is cuz they couldn’t close it out with like a 4-minute style offense. And that’s like, you know, that’s on the offensive coordinator for sure. And uh also Seahawks fans say that if you again were watching that prime time game when Cooper Cup decides to throw a pass while the offense is in rhythm and Sam Darnold is playing well and he throws an interception. Seahawks fans have said that Kubiaak will pull one random WTF moment out of his bag in every game this season. Seahawks fans and obviously I just said you can’t trust what fans think because they all want to fire their head coach, but they’re not like overly thrilled with the job that Kubak has done. I think having an elite defense led by Mike Mcdonald on the other side of the ball is allowing the offense to play a little better. It’s positioning them well with good field position and turnovers. They had that last year. They’re scoring 28 points per game, a full touchdown more than they scored last year with they didn’t have an elite defense last year. They had a defense that was finding itself under Mike McDonald. Now, second year of his system, more of the type of players that he likes have been brought in. those guys that have been there are in the second year and understand better what they’re doing. They’re playing better on defense than they were last year. I’m not saying Kubak’s a bad head coaching candidate. I personally am out and now maybe he’s like one or two or three years away, but and I I understand the arguments for him and I’m not making any of those cuz you did it. I’m I’m devil’s advocate push back on on Clint Kubak. But let’s watch the Seahawks offense for the rest of the season and see where they go. They’re going to score 40 against the Titans in a couple weeks and you’ll feel differently. Everyone scores 40 against I think they will, but that’s not going to make me feel differently. And listen, let me end by saying this. Kubak’s not at the top of my list. Not my number one candidate, but I think he deserves to be mentioned more frequently alongside the Joe Bradys and the Jesse Menters and some of the other hot shot firstear candidates that are getting lots of mentions. I don’t see why Kubak’s any less impressive than they are. I agree with that and I think that that’s the risk of any like all those guys have the same level of risk because at the end of the day they’re all Brian Callahan or they’re all Shawn McVey, right? Like we don’t we just simply do not know and uh I mean maybe Brian Callahan is a bad example cuz he didn’t actually call plays first, but you get my point. First time head coach very very difficult to figure out. That will do it for this episode of the Music City Audible podcast. Thanks again to Sinker Beverages. Thanks again to all of you for tuning in. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. And don’t just hit it, mash it. That’s what they say on YouTube, right, Justin? Mash that subscribe button. And drop your thoughts in a comment below. Will the Titans get the number one pick in the 2026 NFL draft, making it two straight years? Who is your top choice right now for the future head coach of the Tennessee Titans? Someone we talked about today or someone else? And you know what? Yeah, continue suggesting topics for us. We like that. We like responding to you guys and giving you what you’re really after. Justin and I will certainly come up with plenty of topics on our own, but it doesn’t ever hurt to get suggestions from the audience. We appreciate you guys. We’ll be back tomorrow looking at Titans Chargers. Going to talk about some of those offensive numbers that we discussed last week, the play action percentages, the motion percentages, the no huddle percentages because we want to know how much how much is changing under this Mike McCoy regime. We talked about some of the production of the offense under Mike McCoy yesterday. Tomorrow we’re going to talk about tendencies and that kind of thing. So, see you guys tomorrow. Until then, y’all stay safe out there and tighten up. A Broadway Sports Media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back to talk about the number one overall pick in the 2026 NFL draft and which teams have the best odds to “win” that honor (hint: the Titans have the best odds). We compare the Titans schedule for the rest of the season against the Jets and Saints schedules before switching gears with updates on the Titans 2026 head coaching search.

0:00 Titans Favored for 1st Overall Pick Again
5:17 It’s the Titans, Jets, or Saints
20:02 Updates on Titans Head Coaching Candidates
41:08 Wrap Up

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