May 22, 2026, 2:40 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
Organized team activities are underway for many of the NFL’s 32 teams. That means football\u2019s annual tradition of overanalyzing every quote, every attendance update, and every future storyline is fully alive. One storyline was always going to surface eventually. The Tennessee Titans<\/a> open the 2026 regular season against the New York Jets<\/a>. You can see where this is headed, right?<\/p>\n Yes, ladies and gentlemen, creating one of Week 1\u2019s more obvious revenge-game narratives<\/a> is an easy line for any good journalist or supportive fan to draw. Robert Saleh now patrols Tennessee\u2019s sideline after previously serving as the Jets\u2019 head coach, so naturally, the question had to be asked.<\/p>\n Was this personal?<\/p>\n As expected, Saleh refused to offer the type of quote that would be screenshot, plastered across social media, and hung inside the Jets\u2019 locker room. That should surprise absolutely no one, but let’s talk about what he did say.<\/p>\n Don’t expect Robert Saleh to offer any bulletin board material for Jets vs. Ravens<\/a><\/p>\n When asked about the revenge-game angle, Saleh kept things measured, professional, and entirely predictable. He spoke appreciatively about his time with the Jets and brushed aside the emotional framing many have attached to the matchup. That\u2019s textbook coach speak. It\u2019s also exactly what good coaches do.<\/p>\n Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n Saleh may absolutely have this game circled privately. He may want this win badly. Anyone pretending otherwise probably isn\u2019t being realistic. NFL coaches are competitive by nature, and facing a former employer in a season opener naturally adds intrigue.<\/p>\n Still, publicly acknowledging that would accomplish nothing. The last thing any experienced coach wants is to hand an opponent extra motivational fuel in May for a game that won\u2019t be played until September, unless you’re Ben Johnson, of course, but honestly, this is to be expected of Saleh. He has always handled himself with a certain level of class.<\/p>\n If anyone expected a dramatic quote dripping with resentment, they probably haven\u2019t been paying attention. That doesn\u2019t mean everyone connected to this matchup is being equally diplomatic.<\/p>\n Former Titans<\/a> defensive tackle T\u2019Vondre Sweat, now with the Jets, already appeared to hint on social media that the Week 1 meeting means something extra to him<\/a>. Other former Jets now wearing Titans uniforms will almost certainly carry their own emotions into the matchup as well.<\/p>\n So yes, Saleh may be saying all the right things. That doesn\u2019t mean the revenge subplot disappears. It just means the head coach is smart enough not to be the one feeding it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"May 22, 2026, 2:40 p.m. ET Organized team activities are underway for many of the NFL’s 32 teams.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[95878,7,6,119735,97197,97198,95882,95898,95896,95888,95895,95899,95975,95883,95889,526,394,2411,527,95881],"class_list":["post-898899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennessee-titans","tag-accessfree","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-sourcejets-wire","tag-sstssportsnfljets","tag-sstsnjets","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagbaltimore-ravens","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnfl","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-neutral","tag-tagrobert-saleh","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtennessee-titans","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tennesseetitans","tag-titans","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116622899546871592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898899","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=898899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}