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Turron Davenport
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans are finalizing a deal to hire San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh as their next head coach, sources told ESPN’s Adam Schefter on Monday night.
Saleh, the former New York Jets coach, spent Monday in Tennessee with the Titans, and the sides impressed each other enough to move forward together, sources said.
Tennessee also had completed an in-person interview with Matt Nagy on Monday.
Saleh is set to become the 20th coach in Oilers/Titans history and the seventh since the team moved to Nashville in 1997. He’ll take over a team that fired Brian Callahan in mid-October and finished 3-14 but has a young quarterback in Cam Ward, the No. 1 pick last year.
Aaron Rodgers in hopes of jumpstarting the coach’s third season. Rodgers ruptured his left Achilles in the 2023 season opener, and the Jets finished 7-10. The next season, with Rodgers back, Saleh was fired after five games. He finished with a 20-36 record in New York.
Among the lessons Saleh said he learned in New York was to better connect with the whole roster, which is what he worked on during his second stint with the 49ers despite being the defensive coordinator. That coincides with some of the traits Borgonzi has said he wanted in the next coach.
«That person ultimately has to connect everybody in the building,» Borgonzi said. «You have to have that balance of being demanding, connecting people in the building and just bringing people together.»
The Titans have not made the playoffs since 2021 when they were the AFC’s top seed and lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the divisional round under former coach Mike Vrabel.
The first order for Saleh, a defensive-minded coach, will be to find an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach who can help Ward develop into their franchise quarterback.
The Titans also are set to move into a new stadium in 2027.
