John Harbaugh gives the Titans one advantage with their head coach search in an increasingly competitive NFL cycle

The head coach carousel is a numbers game, and another name added to the mix will help the Tennessee Titans.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The coaching carousel is a game of musical chairs. How many people are playing, and how many chairs are there up for grabs? Those are the questions.

Everybody has their own rankings of the open jobs, and from there it’s a matching game between the most attractive candidates and the best stylistic fits. The shocking firing of John Harbaugh on Tuesday shook the NFL landscape, with the highly-regarded veteran coach leaping to the top of everybody’s shortlist.

There’s no doubt it changed the math for the Titans, who I wrote about needing to run a full-court press on Harbaugh. But as I also said in the piece, I’d be floored if he chose Tennessee. So what’s the real impact here?

How John Harbaugh changes the math for Tennessee

Folks, here’s a little-known fact that’s important to keep in mind during this coaching cycle: the New York Giants can, in fact, only hire one new head coach.

This is something of a running bit at this point. A new sexy coaching candidate hits the market? BANG, another new head coach for the New York Giants! Corner three, count the bucket.

Before people started getting fired, the widespread perception was that Packers DC Jeff Hafley would be the favorite for the G Men. He has geographic and family ties to the area, having bought 30 tickets for nearby relatives to see Packers-Giants in New Jersey this season. He’s also one of the hottest names on the market, so the connection made a lot of sense. But then, Kevin Stefanski got fired.

Boom, he’s a Giant! Why does everybody suddenly become a Giant this year? Well, for starters, that’s the power of New York media, baby. The sadness factories known as the Giants and New York Jets remain the center of the universe for many.

But more legitimately, their roster has real juice. If you’re a Jaxson Dart truther, there are many worse openings in recent history than this one. And despite the decade-plus of ineptitude, it’s still revered as a proud franchise with rich history and attractive stability.

Stefanski’s reign as the next Giants head coach lasted only until Harbaugh was fired, though.

So if I’m following this correctly, leader in the clubhouse Jeff Hafley is actually now HC3 on the Giants depth chart. Life comes at you fast!

Where do the Titans come into all of this? While it feels and sounds unlikely that Harbaugh will consider Tennessee (I’ve heard it’s New York or Tampa Bay), his presence bumps everybody else down a peg. And while you may be reading this with the protest of the Baltimore opening, which cancels out the Harbaugh addition by itself, jumping to the top of the list of attractive landing spots, I counter that all it takes is one.

The Titans do not need to convince every top candidate that they are the best landing spot on the market. They only need to convince one, the one. So whether that’s Hafley, Stefanski, Chris Shula, Jesse Minter, Robert Saleh, or somebody else they’re really bullish on, Harbaugh taking one of the seats out of the picture for all of them bolsters the Titans’ pitch.

One more way it might help: the entire cycle is a logjam until Harbaugh makes a choice. If that takes some time, it allows for a less rushed interview process, with every candidate working through the playoffs. Keep in mind that when the Titans hired Brian Callahan, they cut their second round of in-person interviews short.

They didn’t want to let him leave the building for fear of being poached. If the whole cycle is in a holding pattern, perhaps it leads to a more thorough process.

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