The Titans’ new coaching staff is as dramatic a pivot as we’ve ever seen, but there’s an eye-opening downside risk

Robert Saleh’s new coaching staff is the ultimate Rorschach Test for fans to buy or sell.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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What is the true value of experience in the NFL?

That’s a question we’re about to get a pretty compelling answer to thanks to the Tennessee Titans. They were the first team to fire their head coach in 2025, dismissing Brian Callahan after Week 6 last October. The majority of his staff is now gone too, and in their place is a collection of new head coach Robert Saleh’s favorite veteran options.

Whenever an NFL team fires a coach or GM, we typically see them swing far in the other direction on something. Sometimes it’s going from offense to defense, or young to old, or CEO to schemer. For the 2026 Titans, it could not be more clear that their pivot is experience. But when you lay out all the facts, there’s a glaring devils-advocate argument to be made.

Is all NFL experience valuable experience?

Brian Callahan came into this job in 2024 without ever having been a head coach or a play-caller before. He hired three coordinators who themselves had never been in their new roles or called plays. When things started going south, this was where many began to point. “They’re in over their heads!”

Well, Titans leadership seems to have bought into that too. Or at the very least, they’ve been intentional to avoid it being an issue going forward. Because where the former Titans coaching leadership had zero years of experience in their roles, this new staff has over a decade of combined head coaching experience. Robert Saleh was head coach of the Jets for 56 games, OC Brian Daboll was head coach of the Giants for 61 games, DC Gus Bradley was head coach of the Jaguars for 62 games, and even STC Bones Fassel was interim head coach of the Rams for 3 games.

That’s a lot of reps! And if you ask me, having been around the block like this in the NFL is a positive however you slice it. When you’ve seen a thing or two, you know a thing or two. But when you peek at their records as head coaches, the argument against greatly valuing this experience becomes glaringly obvious. The combined record of Saleh, Daboll, Bradley and Fassel as head coaches is 54-127-1. That’s a 0.299 win percentage!

The Titans aren’t just uber-experienced in the coaching ranks, either. This focus on experience is really just a continuation of the work that began in the front office last winter. Mike Borgonzi assembled a brain-trust with his top two lieutenants being former GM’s themselves: Dave Ziegler and Reggie McKenzie, former Raiders general managers. But much like the coaches, their collective records are brutal. Borgonzi’s first season with the Titans was 3-14, McKenzie’s Raiders were 40-73, and Ziegler’s Raiders were 9-16.

In total, the Titans’ collection of current/former GM’s and head coaches have sat in those seats for 327 games. Their collective record is 10-230-1, a 0.315 win percentage.

Fans of the Titans’ revamped leadership in both the front office and coaching ranks will point to all the experience as a massive boost. Detractors will point and laugh at what looks like an island of misfit toys on paper.

My take? It’s all a net positive. Each of these men’s prior situations requires context. We aren’t exactly talking about juggernaut organizations here. These losses come primarily from the Jets, Giants, Raiders, and Jaguars. That’s one heck of a collection of sadness factories, particularly during the eras in which they were there. And all but two of them are no longer in those top jobs. A lot of people had issues with Daboll as a head coach, but not as a coordinator. He’s now the OC. People have historically had an issue with Gus Bradley as a play-caller and schemer. He’s now running Saleh’s defense, which Saleh will call. And Ziegler and McKenzie are doing Mike Borgonzi’s bidding, who despite a first season devoid of winning, has a lot of goodwill from fans and those around the league for the job he’s doing to save this sinking ship.

So be glad about the new experience the Titans enjoy. Look forward to the pitfalls their wisdom will hopefully prevent them from stepping into. And pray it brings some semblance of stablity to this franchise for the first time in too long. My only caution is to avoid buying into this being a magical fix 100%. Plenty of experienced people have failed in the NFL before.

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