Nobody around the Tennessee Titans expected Robert Saleh to fix everything in a month. The quarterback is in his second year, the offense is under a new coordinator and last week’s 12-7 loss to the Giants looked like a team still learning how to finish. What makes the slow start awkward is where Saleh and the Titans both show up on a list of the NFL’s quickest coaching firings.
The Athletic’s Mike Jones ran through the league’s hot-seat coaches this week and left Saleh out of the group in real trouble, noting that expectations were low for a rebuilding franchise. In the same piece, Jones listed the earliest in-season firings of the past six years. Bill O’Brien went after Week 4 in Houston in 2020. Saleh was fired by the Jets after Week 5 in 2024 with a 2-3 record. The Titans dismissed Brian Callahan after Week 6 last season at 1-5.
Titans have started 0-3 three straight years
Steve Roberts - Imagn Images
The September losing predates Saleh. Tennessee opened 0-3 in 2024, with one of those defeats coming 24-17 against Saleh’s Jets, and dropped its first four games in 2025 before Callahan was let go. This year’s team is averaging 12.3 points per game, which ranks 30th in the league. Saleh’s defense has held up its end, allowing 19.7 points per game to rank 10th.
Saleh has not sounded like a coach worried about his job. “This team’s going to learn how to win these football games,” he said after the Giants loss, via The Associated Press. “We’re right there. Unfortunately, it’s the NFL, we’re two plays from being 2-1, but we stand here 0-3. And so you are who you are.”
There is little reason to think ownership would move on from a coach it hired in late January, and Jones’ read points the same way. The numbers are still hard to ignore. Saleh’s career record as a head coach sits at 20-39, and the offense has a quarterback problem to solve with Cam Ward. Tennessee is an 11.5-point underdog Sunday at Baltimore. A loss there would make it 0-4 for the second year in a row.
