Shocking firing of John Harbaugh gives the Titans no option in head coach search, the top competition for ex-Ravens coach

Just because something is a longshot doesn’t mean you get to not try.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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Head coaches get fired every year in the NFL. Usually, a whole handful of them. You can set your watch to the rate of turnover in this profession. And it’s easy to grow a tad numb to it all, especially when the writing is on the wall. They’ll go hire another guy, and then another guy after that. Everybody gets fired.

But John Harbaugh doesn’t get fired.

That was the case for the past 18 years, an eternity in NFL coaching. But on Tuesday after the completion of the regular season, the Ravens changed that. GM Eric DeCosta informed the team that they were moving on.

The Ravens are now the seventh head coach opening of this cycle, alongside the Titans, Giants, Falcons, Raiders, Cardinals, and Browns. Harbaugh instantly jumps to the top of every interview short-list, and the Ravens opening becomes the most alluring of the bunch.

Titans GM Mike Borgonzi and President of Football Operations Chad Brinker, in the midst of getting their head coaching search rolling, have no choice but to pivot as a result.

Tennessee Owes It To Their Fans To Pursue John Harbaugh

I will eat my shorts if John Harbaugh decides that the Titans job is worthy of an immediate bounce-back for him. I’d be floored if it happened.

That’s no excuse for Brinker and Borgonzi to forgo a full-court press to convince him anyways.

Very few firings in the NFL feel like such clear nexus points in the history of the league. John Harbaugh can coach. Everybody knows it. Even the least charitable read of his ending in Baltimore is largely a tale of a coach’s message growing stale after nearly two decades preaching it. Sometimes, moving on is just what’s best for everybody involved.

At age 63, Harbaugh has been coaching in the NFL for 28 years. And yet, he’s only ever had three different job titles for two different franchises: Special Teams Coordinator and DB’s coach for the Eagles, and head coach of the Ravens. He’s 193-124 (.609) all-time, and in 24 playoff games he’s won 13 of them. He holds the NFL record for most road postseason victories with 8. He’s only ever missed the postseason six times, and this season was just the second time in the past eight years. A disciple of Andy Reid, it’s impossible not to think of the similarities to how Harbaugh’s mentor ended his time in Philadelphia. Reid’s tenure with the Eagles came to a less-than savory end after 13 seasons, he immediately went to take the Kansas City job, and the rest has been history.

A history, I might add, that Titans GM Mike Borgonzi saw the entirety of. He was in Kansas City through the ugliness that preceded the scooping-up of Andy Reid, and he enjoyed the ride Reid took them on the moment he got there.

Harbaugh is going to be pursued by every team with an opening and probably a handful that don’t, but would gladly kick their guy to the curb for a dance with the decorated veteran. He has that kind of gravity. Ultimately, a year off may be in the cards as he looks to regroup and not rush into anything. And if he does leap back in, the Titans job feels less than likely for a variety of reasons.

None of this changes the fact that the Titans owe it to themselves and to their fans to leave it all out on the field in their pursuit of him. Mike Borgonzi needs to be on the phone with Harbaugh’s people five minutes ago. All the research I’m sure they’ve spent the past couple months doing on him, just in case, needs to be reviewed. And Chad Brinker needs to give Amy Adams Strunk the best sell job he’s every given her on why she needs to write him a blank check with Jim Harbaugh’s name on it.

Stability of this nature doesn’t come around very often.

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