History could repeat itself for these two Titans head coach candidates who don’t get the job in 2026

Just because these coaches miss out on the head job doesn’t mean they won’t come to Nashville anyways…

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
Add as preferred source on Google

The search for the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans begins in earnest this week, and all eyes are on the list of candidates. Around a dozen gentlemen will receive an initial interview request, and they’ll whittle the pool down to a group of in-person second interviews beginning after the January 19th requirement.

But two coaches who could lose out on the head job in Tennessee would be strong candidates to land there in a different role in the end.

Matt Nagy or Mike Kafka could repeat history

When the Titans were interviewing candidates for the job that Mike Vrabel eventually won in 2018, current Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was amongst those in contention. Once Vrabel signed on the dotted line, he wasn’t able to get his initial choices for offensive coordinators to break free from their current situations. As the story goes, now-Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was atop that list.

General Manager Jon Robinson recommended LaFleur for the job, impressed with him from the head coach interview process. LaFleur was Sean McVay’s OC with the Rams, but McVay was a play calling head coach. LaFleur’s next career step would be a job where he called plays and ran the offense himself. So the arranged marriage was made, and LaFleur parlayed his continued success as Titans OC into a head coach gig of his own one year later.

Flash forward to today, where the Titans are once again looking for a head coach. This year’s candidate pool is defense-heavy, so the odds the eventual hire will need a playcalling OC are pretty high. If they wind up with a defensive head coach, two prime candidates for a similar OC leap to LaFleur are current Chiefs OC Matt Nagy and Giants interim head coach Mike Kafka.

Nagy’s control of the offense in KC is minimized by Andy Reid’s presence as the play caller and mastermind of the operation. He’s going to be interviewed for the Titans job, and if he doesn’t win the gig, I could easily see him landing here as OC. His contract is up in Kansas City anyways, and it’s been reported that he could look to coordinate somewhere else for this very reason.

Kafka is less of a certainty to get an interview this year, but he interviewed with the Titans two years ago when Callahan was the pick. He was the play calling OC in New York in 2022 and part of 2023 until head coach Brian Daboll took that duty away from him. Kafka reinstated himself as the play caller when the Giants fired Brian Daboll and appointed him to the interim position to finish the 2025 season. I’d imagine he’ll want a job with play calling responsibilities again in 2026, and the Titans are familiar with him already.

Related Articles