The Tennessee Titans officially announced their new head coach late on the 19th of January, and the choice ended up being San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh. The former Jets head coach is excited to coach this team and has big plans for them.

Saleh is a defensive guru, so that leaves one early responsibility for him: hiring an offensive coordinator. This will be one of the biggest decisions he will have to make for a long time, as he needs to get the best candidate to foster the development of quarterback Cam Ward. In his interview with the Titans, he apparently laid out his plan for finding an offensive coordinator, which helped bring ease to Mike Borganzi. Let’s dive into who may get the job.

Mike McDaniel

UPDATE: Mike McDaniel is set to take the Los Angeles Chargers’ OC job. RIP

The biggest name floating around for this job is former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel. Saleh and McDaniel worked together in San Francisco from 2017 to 2020, where they worked on opposite sides of the ball, with Saleh being the defensive coordinator and McDaniel working as the run game coordinator before being promoted to offensive coordinator.

There were reports that, if Saleh becomes a head coach again, he would want Mike McDaniel to be his offensive coordinator. This would be a great move for the team, as McDaniel led the Dolphins to the best offense in the NFL in 2023 and made the playoffs in two out of the four seasons that he coached for them. He was able to make an offense led by Tua Tagovailoa thrive with big plays and a fast team. He is more than capable of helping develop Cam Ward and lead a great offense for the Titans.

If Saleh is able to make this happen, I think it is the best choice. McDaniel also just withdrew from the Cleveland Browns head coaching job.

Brian Daboll

Another great name that Saleh could recruit to help develop Ward and lead an offense is former New York Giants head coach Brian Daboll. During his tenure in New York, Daboll made the playoffs once and even managed to win a playoff game.

That alone may not be impressive, but it is important to keep in mind the roster that he was dealing with, including having Daniel Jones as the quarterback with a poor line and bad offensive weapons outside of Saquon Barkley.

What may be the most attractive about Daboll is that he was a main factor in the development of quarterback Josh Allen. While many of his early coordinator gigs were not overly impressive, he managed to take that offense to multiple playoffs and playoff wins, which is what would help him become the head coach of the Giants.

Daboll has proved to be capable of leading an offense and developing a quarterback, so if he is interested in the job, it may be a great hire for Saleh.

Kliff Kingsbury

Another former head coach who could be a candidate for the Titans' offensive coordinator job is former Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury.

If we want to develop Cam Ward, this man may be the best option. Over his coaching career, he had some of Kyler Murray’s best seasons that helped earn him the big extension, worked with Caleb Williams at USC, which helped him become the number one overall pick, and worked with Jayden Daniels, helping him earn the rookie of the year award and make it to the NFC championship. He even worked with Case Keenum in 2009 at Houston.

Kingsbury doesn’t have a ton of offensive coordinating experience, but his resume speaks for itself. In his two-year tenure with the Washington Commanders, he made an NFC championship, and then lost the next season due to a plague of injuries.

Kingsbury may be my favorite pick for the job, and I think both sides may be interested in each other.

Matt Nagy

One of the finalists for the Titans' head coaching job was Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy. While there were not many fans who supported that hiring, he would not make a bad offensive coordinator.

It would be an upgrade for the former Bears head coach to come to the Titans, as he would get the opportunity to call plays - something he is not currently doing in Kansas City.

Nagy has spent a long time in the Andy Reid system, so he should have plenty of ability to lead an NFL offense, and if he wants to return to being an NFL head coach, he may want to take this step towards it.

Mike LaFleur

Another current offensive coordinator who doesn’t currently get to call plays in Los Angeles Rams coordinator, Mike LaFleur.

Saleh and LaFleur worked together in San Francisco, and Saleh hired LaFleur as the offensive coordinator for the Jets when he became the head coach.

That experiment already failed once, so it would not be very inspiring to see it happen again. He does have the blood of Matt LaFleur in him, though, so maybe that counts for something.

Arthur Smith

Oh, Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator who led the Tennessee Titans to the AFC championship game in 2019, how the mighty has fallen.

While he was an incredible coordinator at one point, Smith was unable to keep up that talent when he became the coach of the Atlanta Falcons, going 7-10 three straight seasons despite having incredible offensive talent. He also would not perform great in his role as the Pittsburgh Steelers' offensive coordinator these previous seasons.

At the very least, Smith has been a successful coordinator in the past, so if he ends up coming back to Tennessee, there could be some level of bittersweet hope, but overall, this doesn’t excite me.

Klay Kubiak

This is an interesting one to end off on - the 49ers' current offensive coordinator. They have obviously worked together in San Francisco for the last two years, and Kubiak has not been terrible. Kubiak’s father, the legendary Gary Kubiak, also provided Saleh his first NFL job.

This is another coordinator that does not currently call plays, so this could be a good opportunity for Kubiak to get some experience in that department.

I would not hate this move, as Kubiak is a young offensive mind who could develop just like his brother. At the very least, this would be trying something that could do great.

Top Titans OC Candidates under Robert Saleh!