Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh has made one thing clear through a rough start to the 2026 season: The burden of this team’s failures belongs to him.

He alluded to it after Sunday’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens, such as when he took accountability for the zone coverage that matched linebacker Cody Barton up on WR Zay Flowers for a Baltimore touchdown. He also alluded to it last Monday, last Wednesday, last Friday. And he said it again Wednesday at the podium to open this week of practice. You get the picture: he keeps saying it.

Before I dive in on what I find fascinating about that, I rarely tell anybody to go listen to a Titans press conference at this point if I’m being honest. If you’re a Titans sicko who already does, God bless you (that was me too before this became my full-time job). But if you pick and choose, you should pick this Wednesday. Saleh and QB Cam Ward went back-to-back, and it was the best 30-ish minute stretch of Wednesday pressers from a head coach and quarterback that I’ve sat through at this facility in a long time. The conversation happened organically, and I appreciate both of them for that.

Robert Saleh is hand-painting the target on his own back

The theme of Saleh’s time at the podium is often consistent. Boiled down, Saleh isn’t shying away from a message that sounds something like this:

“Hey, this might not be good right now, but my scheme will fix it. Hey, this group may not have developed in the way that they should have at this point, but my coaching staff will get them there. Hey, we may not have won a game yet so far this year, but that’s on me.”

In a funny way, it’s the earnest version of what offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has been doing at the podium every Thursday (that we keep grumbling about): “It begins with me.” Saleh is saying it begins with him too. He’s just giving us more substance around it, which I appreciate.

That’s not to say the coaches who were fired here before him weren’t this way. But every coach takes a different approach when things go sideways, especially right out of the gate. Saleh isn’t ducking it at all. Every chance he gets, he’s hand-painting the target on his own back for the fans, for upper management, and for ownership.

Based on the way he sells it, if you believe in Saleh, it’s easy to wrap your arms around this team getting where they think it’s going. If you don’t believe in Saleh, it would be easy to say, “Well, I know who’s getting the axe first.”

To be fair, former head coach Brian Callahan was a good “it starts with me” guy at the podium as well. But then we’d catch him on a hot camera on Sunday doing the, “What the F are you doing?” to Will Levis. I wouldn’t call that scapegoating, but it showed a willingness to say, “Hey, you messed this up” in public.

Saleh isn’t doing that publicly. From a PR standpoint, he is putting everything on himself very effectively so far.

My colleague Austin Stanley pointed out on the Titans Locker Room Report that he thinks there’s a clear reason for the difference. Saleh has been a head coach before, and he learned from it. Callahan was drinking out of a fire hose on the fly. Being a head coach is hard (just look at the before-and-after photos of head coaches and presidents).

So what’s the leash for patience here? If Saleh is the one telling the people who hired him, “Look, I’m the problem, but I’m also the solution. I just need time and PR and your trust. It’s going to work. You hired me to do what I do. It’s going to take time, but it will work”… that’s a lot of faith to put in a coach with a losing record as a head coach.

Why the message works, and when it stops working

That message is comforting only for so long. Then you wake up one day, the switch flips, and that dam breaks.

Here’s the thing about Saleh’s Jets tenure that he can sell, though. In his first year in New York, the Jets defense was not good (by his own admission Wednesday). After that, it was very, very, very good. That’s why the messaging works. As bad as his overall record is, he can say with a straight face to owner Amy Adams Strunk and GM Mike Borgonzi, “Guys, look, I literally did this with my defense last time. And I have hired an offensive staff and have better players who will handle that side of the ball differently.”

So if you’re inclined to believe in his process (as the people who just hired him obviously are), that’s a digestible explanation. But if we get to the point where his Titans timeline and Jets timeline start to diverge, that patience will run dry very quickly.

The quarterback situation is ultimately what sank things in New York. Zach Wilson stunk, Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles four plays into his Jets debut, the search for answers at the position started all over again, and Saleh was fired midway through the 2024 season.

The Titans’ version of this is different so far. Ward is in a big growth year in Year 2 of his career and Year 1 with Daboll, while Saleh takes the defense through Year 1 of his system at the same time. There will be painful stretches this season, and they might just stink from start to finish. In that case, the QB carousel could fire up and all bets are off for Saleh’s system.

But if Tennessee can figure some things out by November and December, build momentum, and sell some real progress, that would be Saleh’s ticket.

The bottom line is that the Titans are pointing toward 2027. That’s when the new stadium opens, Ward hits Year 3, and Saleh’s defense hits Year 2. That’s when the standards, goals, and opportunities become real. Until then, Saleh is betting that his own shoulders can carry the weight to the finish line.