{"id":690603,"date":"2026-01-20T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/690603\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T07:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T07:00:15","slug":"robert-saleh-to-be-hired-by-tennessee-titans-in-second-nfl-head-coaching-stint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/690603\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Saleh to be hired by Tennessee Titans in second NFL head coaching stint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Saleh is returning to the main chair, finalizing a deal to become head coach of the Tennessee Titans<\/a>, according to CBS Sports’ Matt Zenitz. Saleh, 46, spent the 2025 season in his second stint as defensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, managing an injured unit that nevertheless advanced to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Titans brass\u00a0spent Monday interviewing<\/a>\u00a0Saleh and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> offensive coordinator Matt Nagy before selecting Saleh, who will get a second chance at helming an\u00a0NFL<\/a>\u00a0franchise. He previously led the\u00a0New York Jets<\/a>\u00a0to a 20-36 record over three-plus seasons, getting fired five games into the 2024 campaign.<\/p>\n

After going 4-12 in 2021, he guided the Jets to consecutive 7-10 seasons on the strength of a defense that finished fourth and 12th in the NFL in points allowed, respectively. In 2023, the Jets’ season was quickly derailed by Aaron Rodgers<\/a>‘ Achilles injury, sustained during the team’s first offensive series of the season.<\/p>\n

Similar to his start with the Jets, Saleh is linking with a Titans team that has not had much success in recent years. The Titans finished 3-14 this season, last in the AFC South. Tennessee got an up-close and personal look at Saleh in a 37-24 loss to San Francisco on Dec. 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Titans do have several promising young players, though, specifically quarterback Cam Ward<\/a>, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. It’ll be up to Saleh and his staff to help Ward and the rest of the Titans’ young core realize their potential in the years to come.<\/p>\n

Tennessee is slated to have the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft this April.<\/p>\n

Saleh is the fourth head coach to land a job during this cycle. John Harbaugh recently came to terms with the New York Giants<\/a> after he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens<\/a>. Former Cleveland Browns<\/a> coach Kevin Stefanski was hired by the Atlanta Falcons<\/a>, where he will succeed Raheem Morris, who was fired after leading Atlanta to consecutive 8-9 campaigns. The Miami Dolphins<\/a> hired<\/a> former Packers<\/a> defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley on Monday afternoon after somewhat-surprisingly firing Mike McDaniel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Saleh heading to Nashville, there are now six remaining head coaching vacancies. The Buffalo Bills<\/a>‘ job opened up Monday morning after Sean McDermott was fired<\/a> despite going 98-50 during his nine seasons as the team’s coach. The Ravens, Browns, Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> and Arizona Cardinals<\/a> continue to conduct interviews as they look to fill their respective coaching vacancies in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the notable head coaching candidates are Nagy, McDaniel, former Packers and Cowboys<\/a> coach Mike McCarthy, Seahawks<\/a> offensive coordinator Klint Kubiac, Rams<\/a> defensive coordinator Chris Shula, Vikings<\/a> defensive coordinator and former Dolphins coach Brian Flores, Chargers<\/a> defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, Rams pass game coordinator Nate Sheelhaase, former Giants coach Brian Daboll and Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Saleh is returning to the main chair, finalizing a deal to become head coach of the Tennessee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1586,390,254,117,53,127,54,257,7,345,110,393,262,58,251,259,56,255,6,57,100760,100761,100759,252,261,394],"class_list":{"0":"post-690603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-baltimore-ravens","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-cam-ward","14":"tag-cleveland-browns","15":"tag-dallas-cowboys","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-green-bay-packers","18":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","19":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","20":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","21":"tag-los-angeles-rams","22":"tag-miami-dolphins","23":"tag-minnesota-vikings","24":"tag-new-york-giants","25":"tag-new-york-jets","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","28":"tag-robert-saleh-49ers","29":"tag-robert-saleh-jets","30":"tag-robert-saleh-titans","31":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","32":"tag-seattle-seahawks","33":"tag-tennessee-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}