{"id":698185,"date":"2026-01-23T05:47:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698185\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T05:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:47:18","slug":"robert-saleh-signs-five-year-deal-with-titans-officially-leaving-49ers-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/698185\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Saleh signs five-year deal with Titans, officially leaving 49ers \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASHVILLE (AP) \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/01\/19\/titans-robert-saleh-49ers-head-coach\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Robert Saleh<\/a> is getting another shot at turning around a struggling franchise.<\/p>\n<p>The Tennessee Titans are betting it goes better than the first.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans signed Saleh, the former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/01\/20\/49ers-offseason-pass-rush-free-agency\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">49ers defensive coordinator<\/a>, to a five-year contract on Thursday, tasking the 46-year-old with guiding Tennessee back into contention following back-to-back 3-14 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRobert embodies the fundamental values of what we believe a Titan should look like and represent,\u201d general manager Mike Borgonzi said in a statement. \u201cHe\u2019s smart, tough, dependable, and values working with people. His innate ability to lead and respond to adversity is what makes him the right person to lead our football program back to one whose identity embodies sustainable success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saleh went 20-36 while coaching the New York Jets from 2021-24 before returning to San Francisco for a second stint as defensive coordinator. He takes over a team that has a talented young quarterback in rookie Cam Ward, the top overall pick in the 2025 draft, but plenty of holes elsewhere on the roster. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2025\/12\/14\/instant-analysis-of-49ers-37-24-victory-over-the-titans-for-10th-win-of-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">49ers beat the Titans 37-24<\/a> in December.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh met with Ward on Tuesday night after reaching a tentative agreement with the Titans and will formally be introduced as the 22nd coach in franchise history \u2014 and eighth since the club left Houston for Tennessee in 1997 \u2014 next Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe right people are here,\u201d Saleh said in a statement. \u201cAnd any time you can surround yourself with the right people you know you are in the right spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saleh was sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/titans\/status\/2014438076743860582?s=46\" rel=\"nofollow\">thank the 49ers in his official statement<\/a>, too:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to make sure that I recognize and thank the San Francisco 49ers, The York Family, Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch for five special seasons, where I grew not only as a coach, but as a husband and father. The relationships I built during my time there have made me better and given me the opportunity to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE (AP) \u2014 Robert Saleh is getting another shot at turning around a struggling franchise. The Tennessee Titans&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,7,1921,929,6,1161,252,2624,2623,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-698185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-inside-sports","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","15":"tag-sanfrancisco","16":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115942840679566094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698185","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=698185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}