By: Nate Peters
Staff Writer
Recently, the Tennessee Titans hired San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as the franchises next head coach. New head coach Robert Saleh will replace former interim head coach Mike McCoy, who replaced former head coach Brian Callahan about halfway into the season last season.
A lot of people are probably asking the question, “Who is Robert Saleh?” Saleh began his coaching journey with the 49ers as their defensive coordinator from 2017-2020. With his time with San Francisco, he helped lead them to the Super Bowl in 2019 after a season record of 13 wins and just 3 losses.
During his time as defensive coordinator, his defense was a top 5 defense in the league for 2 out of the 4 seasons he coached there. He left the 49ers after the 2020 season to take the New York Jets head coaching job, and was head coach from 2021-2024. It is no secret that his time in New York did not work out, due to the terrible situation he inherited when he took the job. The Jets have not been a good football team in a while. For example, the Jets have not made the playoffs in 15 years, with their last playoff appearance coming in 2010.
When Saleh took the job in 2021, the Jets quarterback was Zach Wilson, who they picked with the 3rd overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Out of college, Wilson looked like a promising prospect coming out of BYU. Ever since then, he has struggled to be an average quarterback in the NFL. Wilson is currently the Miami Dolphins 3rd string quarterback. Due to the Jets’ inability to stabilize a winning culture with the players they have, they wanted a fresh start, so they parted ways with Saleh in 2024.
In 2025, Robert Saleh returned to the 49ers as their defensive coordinator. During the 2025 season, the 49ers have had injuries nonstop on both offense and defense. Even with all of the injuries during the season, they still found a way to make it to the playoffs. Even though their playoff run ended in the Divisional round after a 41-6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, it is still impressive that they made it that far with all the injuries they endured.
One of the reasons they fell to the Seahawks was because they had more injuries in that game. A couple of weeks after the 49ers’ loss, the Tennessee Titans head coaching search continued with them interviewing 15 different candidates. They ultimately narrowed down their candidates to 3 finalists. Which were Robert Saleh, Matt Nagy, and Jeff Hafley. The entire Titans fandom was petrified that they would end up hiring Kansas City Chiefs Offensive Coordinator Matt Nagy because of his well-known friendship with Titans General Manager Mike Borgonzi (who was leading the head coaching search). Nagy has built an infamous reputation as a head coach in the NFL. He only had one opportunity with the Chicago Bears, and it did not go well for him. With his time in Chicago, you could see that he could not develop a young quarterback, which was Mitch Tribisky. And that was one of the biggest things the Titans needed in a head coach, which was someone to develop the 2nd year quarterback in Cam Ward.
Ultimately on January 22, 2026, the Tennessee Titans announced Robert Saleh as the team’s next head coach. With this hire it brought on a lot of questions such as, “since Robert Saleh is a defensive minded coach, who would he bring in as the offensive coordinator to lead the team’s offense?” and “What has he learned since his first time as a head coach in New York?” One of those questions got answered pretty quickly. On January 27, 2026, the Tennessee Titans announced that they have hired Brian Daboll as the team’s next offensive coordinator. Just 2 days after hiring Brian Daboll, the Titans had Robert Saleh’s introductory press conference. One of the questions that he was asked was, “What do you want this team to look like and feel like on Sundays?” Saleh replied, “Fast and violent, man, play in and play out, we are going to play with speed, we’re going to play confident, we’re going to have some swag, talk a little trash, I want them to show who they are.”
Another reporter asked him if he called plays in New York, and if he will here, and he replied, “I never called plays in New York as the head coach, at times all I felt like was a timeout and red flag guy.”
Someone then asked, “Do you know what the new offense will look like under Brian Daboll?” He said: “As a defensive minded guy, all offenses looks the same after a while, but with Dabes (Daboll) and the Titans, we will look different every week of the season.
Another reporter asked, “What is the biggest key for leadership on this team?” Saleh replied with, “Authenticity.” Just off the answers Saleh gave during his press conference, it showed that this team will look a lot different this season.
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