Mike McDaniel’s firing props up not one, not two, but many Titans head coach candidates immediately

An eighth team has fired their head coach, and he’s immediately an attractive candidate.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Black Monday used to mean something around here.

Now the infamous coach firing day after the final Sunday of the year has experienced the same sprawl that Black Friday has in American society, with NFL teams firing their coaches anywhere from Sunday night all they way through (at least, so far) the first Thursday of the offseason. The latest victim of vicious coaching turnover is Mike McDaniel, who went from being involved in the Dolphins’ GM search earlier this week to fired as of Thursday morning.

McDaniel immediately jumps near the top of everybody’s shortlist of candidates to interview this month, both as a potential head coach retread and also, more notably, a high-level offensive coordinator.

McDaniel is a really good ball coach if you ask me. And the idea of him coordinating a Cam Ward offense is very, very exciting. His offense is defined by wide zone, a sophisticated screen game, and aggressive downfield concepts. Imagine McDaniel with a QB who can process post-snap! I can already see Ward attacking down the middle of the field as he’s naturally inclined to do, talented young receivers running tunnel screens with great success, and maybe even players like Tyjae Spears being maximized in unique roles that emphasize their movement ability.

That’s all a daydream though. How could McDaniel ever land in Nashville in the first place? Well as it turns out, there are a handful of connections between the fired Dolphins signal caller and prospective Titans head coaches.

Mike McDaniel’s connections to Titans head coach candidates

I count four direct coworker connections between McDaniel and potential Titans candidates, with the help of my friend and expert on coaching relationship webs Zach Lyons. And there are at least two others who can be connected via coaching trees and notable relationships. The most prominent connection you’ll see made for McDaniel is the latest candidate to receive an interview request from Tennessee at the time writing: 49ers DC Robert Saleh. Keep track of all Titans requests as they come in right here, by the way.

Saleh and McDaniel have worked together twice before, most recently from 2017-2020 as run game/OC and DC of the 49ers. They also worked as assistants on the same 2006-2008 Texans staffs, so they go way back. If Saleh were to get the Titans gig, McDaniel would be a logical and really high-caliber OC option.

McDaniel also overlapped twice with another Titans interviewee, Packers DC Jeff Hafley. They first were colleagues as WR coach and secondary coach of the 2014 Cleveland Browns, and then reunited from 2017-2018 in San Francisco when Hafley was the DB’s coach there. Both Hafley and Saleh are Titans candidates who were once McDaniel’s equal on the defensive side of the ball, so it would track that he might be willing to work under them in Tennessee as the play caller and “head coach” of the offensive side of the ball.

Speaking of the 2014 Browns, Dolphins DC Anthony Weaver worked on that staff with McDaniel as the DL coach. He of course was on McDaniel’s staff in Miami as the DC in 2024-2025, and has so far gotten interview requests from the Falcons, Cardinals, and Ravens. It would admittedly be a strange power shift for them to swap roles like that, but the relationship is clearly a positive one. Another awkward fit but notable relationship is current Jaguars DC Anthony Campanile, who is a popular young name on a lot of short lists. Campanile was the Dolphins’ LB coach from 2020-2023.

A couple of other relationships beyond explicitly working together include Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak and Rams DC Chris Shula. Kubiak and McDaniel haven’t quite overlapped when they’ve worked for the same head coaches, but they were both molded in the interconnected Shanahan/Kubiak coaching tree. Shula and McDaniel are connected by the McVay offshoot of that tree, both having very good relationships with Rams head coach Sean McVay.

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