{"id":724457,"date":"2026-02-02T19:54:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/724457\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T19:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:54:20","slug":"could-gus-bradley-be-the-titans-next-defensive-coordinator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/724457\/","title":{"rendered":"Could Gus Bradley be the Titans\u2019 next defensive coordinator?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.musiccitymiracles.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tennessee Titans<\/a> head coach Robert Saleh has not named a defensive coordinator yet. It\u2019s essentially a caretaking position. Saleh plans to call defensive plays in Tennessee. He\u2019s looking for his version of Nick Holz on defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Sports Illustrated\u2019s Albert Breer offered some potential insight into the process over the weekend. Saleh\u2019s old team, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ninersnation.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, hired Raheem Morris to succeed him as DC. By doing so, they passed on promoting Gus Bradley, who was a natural candidate to succeed Saleh as Kyle Shanahan\u2019s assistant head coach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Breer now claims Bradley is a candidate to become the Titans\u2019 defensive coordinator. He\u2019s also being linked to the same vacancy with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.revengeofthebirds.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Arizona Cardinals<\/a>. The Cardinals may possess the upper hand given that their role is a play-calling one under new offensive-minded head coach Mike LaFleur.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bradley and Saleh have a far closer relationship than what Arizona\/LaFleur can offer, despite the play-calling advantage. Saleh was an entry-level assistant coach with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fieldgulls.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> when Bradley was coordinating the early Legion of Boom defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bradley then became the head coach of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigcatcountry.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a>. He eventually hired Saleh as his linebackers coach. They spent three seasons together in Duval, up until Bradley\u2019s firing. They then reunited in San Francisco this past season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Saleh probably prefers to hire Bradley, given his experience. Breer claims the alternative candidate is Mike Rutenberg. Rutenberg already interviewed for the Titans\u2019 DC gig. He\u2019s also worked with Saleh on three different occasions. This past campaign, he worked under Jeff Ulbrich in Atlanta, Saleh\u2019s old DC with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ganggreennation.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Jets<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Bradley\u2019s situation with the 49ers possibly caused a delay in Saleh\u2019s process. Now that Shanahan has hired Morris as DC, Saleh is possibly waiting for Bradley to decide between Tennessee and Arizona. The Titans appear down to two defensive coordinator candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh has not named a defensive coordinator yet. It\u2019s essentially a caretaking position.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[7,6,526,394,88576,87013,2413,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-724457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-tennessee","11":"tag-tennessee-titans","12":"tag-tennessee-titans-analysis","13":"tag-tennessee-titans-coaching-staff","14":"tag-tennessee-titans-news","15":"tag-tennesseetitans","16":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116002794270379263","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724457","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=724457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}