Titans’ first official head coach finalist may never reach his second interview in Nashville thanks to another eager team

The Titans second round of interviews is now set to begin on Sunday, but that’s only of Kevin Stefanski makes it out of Atlanta.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The NFL coaching carousel is accelerating.

Ever since the Giants began working on a finalized contract to make John Harbaugh their next head coach this week, you could feel the pressure on the remaining eight teams with vacancies. The starting pistol had been sounded on the race to secure a new head coach. The January 19th start date for in-person interviews with employed candidates out of the playoffs is this Monday, but at least two teams are getting an early jump on their finalist round over Divisional Playoff weekend.

Titans and Falcons scheduled to interview Kevin Stefanski a second time

I reported Saturday morning that former Packers and Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was meeting with Titans brass for a second time this weekend after a previously unknown, informal sit-down early in the process. While he isn’t technically a finalist if and until he has a second official interview, the nature of his first official interview this weekend reads like a particularly in-depth vetting. You can read all the details on that here.

So the first official finalist that we know of for the Titans is former Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski, whose first formal interview with the search committee was in-person on January 10th. He is now scheduled to return to St. Thomas Sports Park this Sunday the 18th.

This news comes in conjunction with the report first from Adam Schefter that Stefanski will be interviewing a second time for the Atlanta Falcons job today, Saturday the 17th. I projected Stefanski to be the Falcons’ next coach in my official head coach landing spots prediction piece, and I was not alone. This has been a perceived fit for some time, and it feels increasingly like the tide is turning in that direction.

The framing of this news from national reporters like Schefter and Dianna Russini certainly reads like the Falcons are intentionally jumping to the front of the line for Stefanski on purpose, perhaps to persuade him “not to leave the building”.

The Titans’ perceived interest in him should not go unnoticed, however. Their plan was reportedly to begin a second round of interviews on Monday the 19th when the rules changed for employed candidates, and the last of their first round of interviews was scheduled to take place on Sunday with 49ers DC Robert Saleh (via zoom) and former Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon (in-person). With the Stefanski interview scheduled for Sunday now as well, it’s unclear how they plan on conducting two initial interviews (which typically take at least 2-3 hours) and a finalist interview as well (which often go for a full work day). Perhaps they’ve moved things around to accommodate their interest in getting to Stefanski promptly.

In the end, they still may never get to him at all.

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