Assuming both head coaches are successful, the Titans’ Robert Saleh and Jacksonville’s Liam Coen — AFC South rivals — will see plenty of one another in the years to come.
Robert Saleh is seen during a Fanatics Flag Football Classic practice at BMO Stadium on March 20, 2026, in Los Angeles.
Photo: Getty Images/Kevin C. Cox
Those twice-yearly meetings looked last season as if they might become mighty spicy, as Saleh and Coen delivered profanity-peppered comments towards one another on the football field following the Jaguars’ 26-21 win over San Francisco on Sept. 28, 2025.
At issue were comments Saleh — then the 49ers’ defensive coordinator — had made earlier in the week about Jacksonville’s ability to legally steal opponents’ signs.
“They’ve got, legally, a really advanced signal-stealing type of system where they always find a way to put themselves in an advantageous situation,” Saleh said at the time. “They do a great job with it.”
Coen took offense at the sign-stealing comments, which is why he approached Saleh after the game and — in a moment caught on tape — told Saleh “Keep my name out of your mouth. Keep my name out of your f—ing mouth.”
Saleh’s response, in part: “I will f— your world up.”
When Saleh was named head coach of the Titans in January, it seemed to offer — at least — the promise of some entertaining postgame handshakes.
But neither Saleh nor Coen seemed interested in heating up any kind of personal rivalry when the two spoke with reporters at the NFL’s annual league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday.
“We’re good,” Saleh said. “I know the NFL probably wants more of a story, but there’s no story. I have an appreciation for Liam. Like I’ve said, I used the wrong word when I was trying to give him a compliment, but all that’s water under the bridge.”
It was actually at least the second time Saleh had tried to explain himself, as he offered similar comments in the days following the incident with Coen.
“In my heart … I was trying to give a compliment, and I own the fact it was the wrong choice of words,” Saleh said in September. “But however you want to word it, [the Jaguars] are really good at putting their players in position to be successful.”
The passage of time seems to have mellowed Coen as well.
In fact, Coen told reporters Tuesday that the verbal exchange between himself and Saleh had become a topic of good-natured jokes from other coaches.
“It was fun,” Coen said, per ESPN. “I have a ton of respect for [49ers coach Kyle Shanahan], for Robert, and [the San Francisco coaching staff].”
But Coen didn’t seem to rule out using the spat to fire up his Jaguars either.
“We’re all finding those edges in those different ways of trying to motivate your team, motivate yourself, motivate your community,” Coen said. “I mean, we’re all doing that on a constant basis.
“And so when those things may happen, we joke on them after the fact and when we’re here, but we can all appreciate because we all respect what we’re doing and how we are all doing [it] in different ways.”