NASHVILLE — Robert Saleh believes the Tennessee Titans were the best fit for him among the 10 NFL teams looking for a new leader on the sideline at some point during the current hiring cycle.
And the 36-year-old Saleh, who has enjoyed plenty of success as a defensive coordinator but failed in his first stint as a head coach, said he has learned from his experiences leading the New York Jets for three-plus seasons from 2021-24.
“There’s no handbook to a first time at anything you do, you know? … The proper question would be, ‘What didn’t I learn?'” Saleh said during a news conference Thursday, when he was introduced as the 20th head coach in franchise history. “I can sit here and talk to you for the next four hours about all those different things.
“But I can assure you that there was tremendous growth through the opportunities that I had with the Jets, and through that growth, I think I’m more prepared now than I’ve ever been.”
Saleh’s formal introduction in Music City came a week to the day the Titans announced they had signed him to a five-year contract — and that announcement came three days after an agreement between the parties was widely reported by multiple media outlets, so Tennessee’s next coach has already had some time to begin getting things in place, including hiring some of his staff.
Late in Tennessee’s most recent season, All-Pro first-team defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, a seventh-year pro who has spent his entire NFL career in Nashville, said the franchise needed to find a coach who could change the culture of the organization and hold players accountable.
The Titans believe they’ve found that man.
“Ultimately what we wanted was a leader for this football team that could build a winning culture and connect the entire building,” general manager Mike Borgonzi said. “We were looking for a leader with high character, integrity and humility, a leader with a high football IQ and great teaching skills.”
Saleh earned plenty of respect around the NFL during his two stints as defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers from 2017-20 and this past season (after spending 2024 as an offensive consultant for the Green Bay Packers).
During those four years with the AFC East Division’s Jets, he compiled a 20-36 overall record before he was fired five games into the 2024 season, but worth noting is that he’s far from the only coach to struggle to get New York — which had back-to-back 7-10 seasons under Saleh in 2022-23 — over the hump. This year the Jets missed the playoffs for the 15th season in a row while extending the longest such active drought in the NFL.
The Titans aren’t so far removed from their most recent playoff appearance in the 2021 season, when they repeated as AFC South champions, but they were 3-14 each of the past two seasons, and they’re set to pick fourth in April’s NFL draft after having the No. 1 overall selection last year.
As for the on-field work, they’re banking that Saleh can turn around a franchise that most recently had a winning season in 2021 and has fired either its head coach or general manager in four consecutive seasons.
“You know the second you walk into this building there’s going to be a standard,” Saleh said. “I’ll say it a million times that the objective of life is to go to bed better than when you woke up. And if you don’t have that intent, if you don’t have that mindset, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Or doing your teammates a disservice.”
More than a dozen Tennessee players were on hand for the news conference, including Simmons and quarterback Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick last April who started every game of his rookie season and took every snap for Tennessee’s offense until getting hurt in the first half of the finale.
Saleh hired former New York Giants coach Brian Daboll as offensive coordinator and is entrusting him with Ward’s development. Ward finished fourth in passes this past season and tied for most sacks taken, and Saleh said he plans to help Daboll by taking some of the pressure off the young quarterback.
“In terms of just a player, making sure that we support him with the proper defense, proper run game,” Saleh said, citing the New England Patriots’ conservative offensive system during their first few seasons with Tom Brady as their starting quarterback.
It turned out pretty good for the Patriots and Brady, whose 20-year run in New England included all six of that franchise’s Super Bowl championships.
“He was backed by an elite defense and an unbelievable run game and a system that allowed him to just kind of move the sticks on third down, be great in two-minute (offense), be efficient in the red zone and score points,” Saleh said. “And so for Cam, the best way to develop a quarterback is to give him a defense. … Building a structure for him that doesn’t ask him to be Superman (for) 60 plays a game will be at the front of our minds.”