Robert Saleh adds more fuel to the viral fire of ‘no injuries or no turnovers’ debate: Titans head coach didn’t hesitate
Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh was tasked by us at A to Z Sports to settle an internet and internal debate: no injuries or no turnovers?
Robert Saleh kicked off the day Friday ahead of Tennessee Titans OTA practice with his media press conference, and we at A to Z Sports had to use this opportunity to settle an internet (and internal) debate.
Over the last few days in A to Z Sports group texts, live streaming shows, twitter threads and elsewhere, Titans reporter Easton Freeze causally presented a topic that fits perfect in the NFL offseason. He didn’t expect this to be as polarizing at it has become.
The question: If you could turn off one for a whole football season… would you rather turnoff injuries or turnovers?
FREEZE: What began as a random listener-submitted question on The Athletic Football Show turned until an offhand comment by me on A to Z Sports Primetime. I was so sure that people would agree with me on what I feel is the definitively correct answer: turning off turnovers is a better choice than turning off injuries.
Apparently we really, really disagree!
Titans coach Robert Saleh offers up his ‘no injuries vs no turnovers’ take
Easton and I debated this on our morning show Friday ahead of Saleh’s press conference before practice. Believe it or not, we very much disagree with each other. As Easton was set to miss practice as he was leaving town to officiate a wedding (in Maine), I said I would ask the head honcho for the Titans.
“Turnovers…” Saleh said after a brief thought. “Turnovers, to me, is the number one indicator to wins and losses in all of football through the history of time.”
“Shoot, in San Francisco last year we were one of the most injured teams, and we still won 13 (games). If you don’t turn the ball over you’re probably going to win a lot of football games.”
Easton immediately went on a victory lap in group texts and on Twitter.
FREEZE: I cannot fathom turning down the opportunity to win the turnover battle by default every weekend. There is nothing more directly correlative to winning than turnovers. That was Robert Saleh’s justification when he joined me on team #NoTurnovers, despite being the perfect candidate to choose no injuries after being personally crushed by them just last fall.
He is one of three active NFL coaches we have gotten an answer from on this, each of which did not hesitate to choose no turnovers. The bottom line is that no turnovers means many wins. It’s too good to pass up.
Is a trend forming?
I, at that point started to wonder if a trend was starting to form in my mind about who answers which…
In multiple social media polls on A to Z Sports, we’ve seen the answer of “turn off injuries” win the head to head by around 60-65% of the votes.
As Titans media mingled about before practice began, the conversation continued. Paul Kuharsky sided with me and the public vote. Nick Suss leaned towards the side of Easton and Saleh.
I asked former 11 year NFL offensive lineman, Ramon Foster, the new Titans radio color analyst, about his thoughts. No injuries. “I, we can overcome some turnovers.”
Ramon’s thoughts as a player went to his personal experience as did Saleh’s coaching experience, but on opposite sides. Ramon mentioned some of the most talented Pittsburgh Steelers teams he was on came up short because too many of the higher level players went down with injuries.
Saleh made his way BACK to me on the practice field during team stretch to follow up with more thoughts. It was clearly an entertaining, thought provoking exercise to him.
He wanted to make it clear: quarterback injuries don’t count, he said with a laugh.
Everyone in football knows how detrimental losing a franchise quarterback can be to a team. Just look up the 2023 New York Jets, head coached by Robert Saleh.
“No injuries or No turnovers” categorized into four buckets of different football people
I had now started to gather more thoughts from others and saw how this was exploding on social media, snagged out of the air by everyone’s favorite aggregator accounts like Carnell Tate catching a football.
Four buckets of people started to form. This doesn’t fit everyone, obviously. We have a young sample size, but in it’s simplest form, here are the four buckets:
- Coaches: more likely to pick “no turnovers” because of its tie to wins/losses
- Players: more likely to pick “no injuries” because it involves them and they don’t wanna lose “their guys” they trust most to win games
- Consumers/fans/media: who are winning at all cost focused are more likely to choose “no turnovers”
- Consumers/fans/media: who watch the game of football to see best vs best, may the best win are more likely to choose “no injuries”
All four are represented, in order, by Robert Saleh, Ramon Foster, Easton Freeze, and me.
Saleh and Easton have nearly the same exact philosophy on why they choose “no turnovers”. The difference between the best players in the league and practice squad players is not about talent. It’s about opportunity. It’s about experience when getting that opportunity and knowing how to seize it. Coaches, at their core, believe they can help support a backup level player elevated due to injury if they know the ultimate disaster play of a turnover is eliminated.
Ramon and I see it similarly too. With his actual NFL experience, it comes down to knowing and trusting the player beside you and believing your best players give you the best chance to win.
In my opinion, if both teams have their best players and other team’s get the best of me, they force our team into a mistake, then tip of the cap. I’m more accepting of losing best vs best than losing with the unknown of “what if our best player(s) were healthy?”
There are many examples that expose each answer. I’ll pick the easiest ones.
Saleh isn’t wrong. San Fran was beat up bad, limping its way to a 12-5 regular season record with a road playoff win in Philadelphia. However, the next week was it. The soon-to-be Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks took the 49ers out of their misery with a 41-6 obliteration. All because the 49ers were the most injured team in football.
The 2021 Titans set the NFL record for most total players to be on the roster in one regular season, because Mike Vrabel’s squad was the most injured team in NFL history that year. STILL the Titans won 11 games and earned the top seed in the AFC Playoffs. In that first playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals the Titans were back to full (roster) strength. QB Ryan Tannehill threw three back breaking interceptions. The Titans were toast.