After ending with an NFL-worst three wins in 2024, the Titans’ 1-5 begin this yr was sufficient to value Brian Callahan his job. Tennessee turned the the primary staff of the season to fireside its head coach when it gave Callahan his strolling papers on Oct. 13.
Nearly two full months since Callahan’s ouster, the Titans have logged even worse outcomes. They’re 0-6 underneath interim head coach Mike McCoy, who probably has little to no likelihood of incomes a full-time promotion after the season. That ought to put president of soccer operations Chad Brinker and first-year basic supervisor Mike Borgonzi in place to discover a new sideline chief from outdoors the group.
With the hiring cycle nonetheless weeks from getting underway, Brinker and Borgonzi in all probability received’t make their decide till someday in January. In the event that they prioritize hiring an skilled candidate, Albert Breer of SI.com factors to Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and former Packers and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy as names to observe.
Nagy has an apparent connection to Borgonzi, beforehand a longtime member of Kansas Metropolis’s entrance workplace. He additionally has some previous success as an NFL head coach, having gone 34-31 with the Bears from 2018-21. Nagy took the Bears to the playoffs twice in that span.
McCarthy coached the Packers from 2006-18, successful one Tremendous Bowl alongside the best way, and Brinker was of their entrance workplace for many of that span. With a profession .608 successful proportion over 18 seasons, it wouldn’t be a shock to see somebody give McCarthy a 3rd alternative.
As established coaches on the offensive facet of the ball, both Nagy or McCarthy might help within the improvement of quarterback Cam Ward. The primary total decide in final spring’s draft, Ward is a very powerful participant within the group. If Ward finally lives as much as his draft inventory, it could go a great distance in serving to the Titans orchestrate a turnaround. Ward’s profession has gotten off to a tough begin, although, which isn’t a shock when contemplating the dearth of teaching stability and the Titans’ dearth of expertise.
Whereas the Titans want extra from Ward, they aren’t essentially locked in on hiring an offensive alternative or somebody with head teaching expertise. Two defensive coordinators, the Chargers’ Jesse Minter and the Rams’ Chris Shula, are among the many “big selection of candidates” the Titans have thought-about up to now, Breer experiences. PFR’s Sam Robinson beforehand highlighted Minter and Shula as ascending defensive coaches to observe throughout the hiring cycle, which is able to lack apparent slam-dunk picks on the offensive facet.
The 42-year-old Minter and Shula, 39, don’t have head teaching expertise at any degree. Nevertheless, they’ve drawn rave evaluations in coordinator roles, which is able to result in curiosity from different organizations.
Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh introduced Minter with him to LA after a nationwide championship-winning season with the Michigan Wolverines in 2023. The transfer has labored out for the Chargers, who’ve boasted upper-echelon defenses underneath Minter.
Shula, the grandson of legendary head coach Don Shula and the son of former Bengals HC Dave Shula, can be in his second yr as a coordinator. Taking part in its first season of the post-Aaron Donald period, the Rams’ protection ranked an underwhelming seventeenth in scoring and twenty sixth in yards in 2024. It’s a much more spectacular second and thirteenth in these classes this yr.
Whereas Nagy, McCarthy, Minter, and Shula all look like affordable prospects to finish up because the Titans’ subsequent sideline chief, there are absolutely extra selections into account. The Titans are working to slender down the listing by season’s finish, per Breer.
The subsequent rent will herald a brand new workers, however administration will “likely” ask that particular person to strongly take into account retaining first-year sspecial groups coordinator John Fassel, in line with Titans reporter Paul Kuharsky. Fassel beforehand led ST models for the Raiders, Rams, and Cowboys. He was on McCarthy’s workers in Dallas from 2020-24. It might work in Fassel’s favor if the Titans rent McCarthy.
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