Titans OC Search Heats Up: Brian Daboll seems to know exactly where he wants to go if he’s not the Bills’ head coach

Titans head coach Robert Saleh is attempting to reel in a big fish in a crowded pond.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans completed the most important step of their coaching search already when they landed Robert Saleh for the head coaching job. Now, their second step is only slightly less important. They’re hunting for the best possible offensive coordinator to pair with Saleh’s defensive mind.

The success of Cam Ward depends on it.

Saleh has made it clear that, unlike his first time around with the Jets, he will be calling defensive plays in Tennessee. This is something he has roughly a half-decade worth of experience doing for the 49ers, and frankly, in today’s NFL, your play-calling upside is half the reason most of these guys get hired in the first place. It’s only later that teams tend to panic and want it delegated.

So finding a CEO-type OC who can call plays and pick up the baton of Ward’s development is absolutely vital to the success of the Saleh era. They must get it right. And in what might be the most tumultuous offensive coordinator cycle we’ve ever seen, reports Wednesday morning indicate the Titans might be close to landing a very big fish.

Head coach Robert Saleh hunting OC candidates, including Brian Daboll

If you have to boil down what went wrong for Saleh as the head coach of the New York Jets, it’s fair to point to the fact he never had the offensive coordinator/quarterback duo clicking at the same time. He started his tenure with now-Rams OC Mike LaFleur in charge, but they were working with Zach Wilson and a collection of bad backups.

Then, when he finally got a QB in Aaron Rodgers, but that package included Nathaniel Hackett as OC. Not only did Hackett not bring much to the table, but of course, Rodgers’ Achilles gave out on the first drive of the season, and the rest is history.

Needless to say, Saleh is laser-focused on lining those two positions up this time. And the belief is that he’s already got the quarterback in hand.

The Athletic’s Dianna Russini gave the strongest indication yet that former Giants head coach Brian Daboll could be headed to Nashville to join Saleh’s staff on Wednesday morning. She claimed her sourcing indicates Daboll is expected to be the next OC of the Titans if he does not land the Bills’ head coach job.

After former Dolphins HC Mike McDaniel unsurprisingly landed with the Chargers Tuesday night — what was widely understood to be the best OC opening, now taken by who was widely regarded as the best available OC — Titans fans have turned their attention to Daboll, among others.

You can find a full list of offensive coaching connections to Saleh on this hot board. Daboll is included near the top of the list, with the other high-caliber options who are on everybody’s radar because of the Titans’ decision to go out of their way to interview them for the head coach job. Plenty of Tennessee’s initial HC interviews were clearly coordinator interviews and/or fact-finding missions, and the recently fired Daboll was among them.

Daboll and Saleh don’t have a working history outside of being the head coaches of both New York City (New Jersey) franchises at the same time. In 2022, they held joint practices together in the summer and spoke highly of one another. Daboll would be a real departure from the Shanahan tree from which Saleh comes, but his stable of quality options was widely regarded as deep and reportedly a big selling point for Titans brass.

Daboll was widely reported to be a huge fan of Ward during the draft process last spring, and the Giants were the team most aggressively pursuing a trade with Titans GM Mike Borgonzi at the time. At least a framework of an offer existed early during the NFL Combine, and Giants GM Joe Schoen even half-jokingly called Borgonzi on draft night to make sure there wasn’t a change of heart.

Daboll ended up landing the second QB off the board in the class, Jaxson Dart, later in the first round. Despite being fired before the end of the season, his work developing the young passer was widely praised, except for his failure to tame Dart’s inner demons as a dangerously reckless runner. Ward isn’t nearly the scramble-minded QB that Dart is, so we can cross that particular bridge if we get there.

The 2026 head coach carousel is beyond ridiculous, with a whopping ten openings, but lost in the madness is how the offensive coordinator cycle is somehow even more off the rails. At least half of the league is going to have a new OC in charge this season!

So if the Titans and Saleh can land Daboll, pairing a former and a current head coach candidate to create a super duo, it would be hard to overstate how big a win that could prove to be.

Their biggest obstacle seems to be the Buffalo Bills, who joined the head-coach carousel extremely late and are just now starting initial interviews. Daboll earned his first head-coaching stint after he was Josh Allen’s OC from 2018-2021.

He’s often credited with the mold-breaking development Allen underwent to transform from a tools-y project into one of the best quarterbacks the league has ever seen. Allen and Daboll maintain a strong relationship, so there’s no doubt the MVP QB will be lobbying to bring his guy back to Buffalo.

Titans fans should be rooting hard to see him land in Nashville instead.

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