Robert Saleh confirmed that he would be calling the plays as Titans head coach, as many had anticipated he would in Music City.
The ex-Jets head coach was introduced as the new man in charge in Tennessee on Thursday after news first broke that Saleh would get his second head coaching chance early last week.
Saleh didn’t call plays during his time with the Jets, which NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo had reported was something that Saleh had wished he’d done there, and the new Titans coach joked that he felt like he was just the “timeout and red flag guy.”
“I didn’t call plays in New York and I just kind of gave it all to the coordinators,” Saleh said. “Even though we were still part of the game planning and all that, I joked on game day when I didn’t call plays, I felt like I was just the timeout and red flag guy. I had the greatest seat in the house as a fan.
“Calling plays for me, it’s not necessarily about control. It’s about connecting with the players. When you are a play caller and you are calling plays, you feel the strain that you’re putting on them with each call. You’re feeling the connection, you’re feeling what each one is going through, and I can feel the weight of the play call on individual players in those moments.”
The play-calling decision was one that was just one of many changes that Saleh hinted were too long to name every single one of them during Thursday’s news conference.
Saleh isn’t the only former New York football coach headed to the country music capital of the world, with former Giants head coach Brian Daboll joining his staff.
“When you play the Tennessee Titans, it’s going to be different,” Saleh said. “There’s going to be a lot of game planning that’s going to have to change when you play the Tennessee Titans. … There’s a lot of benefits to what he does. As a defensive guy game planning against [Daboll], I can tell you he’s always going to strain you both run and pass. He’s going to attack the s–-t out of it. He’s special in that regard.”
Saleh had spent three-plus seasons with the Jets as their head coach before he was fired following a 2-3 start during the 2024 campaign.
Saleh had returned to the 49ers as their defensive coordinator for this past season, a role that he had served in for four years in San Francisco from 2017-20.
