Multiple things can be true in the NFL at the same time. Mike Vrabel is a legitimately great head coach. The Tennessee Titans made organizational mistakes. And yet, there’s one thing that can never be true together: Vrabel’s competence and Cam Ward both wearing a Titans uniform.
If Vrabel had stayed and kept the roster hovering around or above .500, Tennessee never bottoms out for Ward at No. 1. The draft pick stays middling, and the quarterback hunt continues.
Sure, it’s possible the stars could have aligned, and the Tennessee Titans may have luckboxed to a Super Bowl with an aging vet at quarterback in a very short window during Vrabel’s tenure.
But look no further than the Pittsburgh Steelers for proof. Ex-head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t have a losing season in 19 years, a remarkable achievement that has also become the franchise’s greatest long-term problem. And just like that, he’s gone, but Pittsburgh’s problems won’t magically disappear.
The Steelers haven’t won a playoff game since 2017, cycling through Mason Rudolph, Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett, Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, and Aaron Rodgers in the nine years since Ben Roethlisberger retired. They’re competitive enough to stay relevant, never terrible enough to land a true franchise quarterback, and perpetually stuck in the AFC’s upper-middle class.
From a glass-half-full perspective, the Titans avoided a Pittsburgh-like fate by bottoming out the way they did. But it wasn’t pretty. The dysfunction was real, the mistakes were costly, and the pain was unavoidable. Yet, the silver lining is Cam Ward.
Again, multiple things can be true at the same time in the NFL.
Vrabel is proving again with the New England Patriots that he’s a high-level head coach; the Titans clearly mishandled parts of his exit and the Brian Callahan experiment, and yet that same organizational chaos is exactly what positioned the franchise to land a 23-year-old potential franchise quarterback and reset the leadership structure around general manager Mike Borgonzi and newly hired head coach Robert Saleh.
The Titans officially hired Saleh this week, making him the franchise’s newest head coach tasked with ending four consecutive losing seasons and maximizing Ward’s development after a rocky rookie campaign. If the pieces finally fit—Ward, Saleh, All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, and over $105 million in cap space—the messy journey might actually deliver a clean destination.
How They Got Here: The Tennessee Titans’ Past, Present, and Future
Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans’ run isn’t revisionist history. He took Tennessee to three straight postseasons from 2019–2021, reached an AFC Championship Game, and rode a physical identity that fit the roster and division. The 2021 group earned the AFC’s No. 1 seed. That all happened.
But context matters.
When Vrabel arrived in 2018, replacing Mike Mularkey, he inherited a playoff roster built by Jon Robinson—one featuring Marcus Mariota, an emerging Derrick Henry, and veteran leadership. The foundation was already competitive, even if it needed better coaching to maximize it. Vrabel’s early success reflected both his ability to galvanize a locker room and the talent already in place.
The back half of the tenure told a different story. Vrabel’s teams went 7-10 in 2022 and 6-11 in 2023, finishing with a 54-45 overall record across six seasons. Tennessee fired him in Jan. 2024, ending an era that featured two playoff victories but also back-to-back losing campaigns for the first time since 2015.
There was also a staff-construction issue that the team never fully solved. Vrabel was widely respected as a CEO-style head coach, but he had a tendency to stick with coordinators based on relationships and trust more than results. That’s manageable when the coordinator pipeline stays elite. It’s harder when both sides of the ball need fresh ideas, and the head coach isn’t consistently upgrading the chairs around him.
Once Vrabel was out, the Titans didn’t just flip a switch into stability. Brian Callahan’s short-lived tenure exposed how fragile the infrastructure really was. Callahan was fired in October, just six games into his second season after a 1-5 start. He finished with a 4-19 record as Tennessee’s head coach.
The team churned through more change, and all the while, Vrabel resurfaced in New England and did what great coaches do when they land in the right situation. He inherited second-year quarterback Drake Maye—an MVP finalist who threw for 4,394 yards and 31 touchdowns while completing 72% of his passes—paired him with arguably the best offensive coordinator in football in Josh McDaniels, and rode a strong defense to a 14-3 record and a trip to the AFC Championship Game.
Even the best coaches need a village. New England had the pieces in place for Vrabel to maximize, and Tennessee is trying to build that same kind of foundation now. Titans fans now live in that tension: Vrabel is still really good at this, but his last two Tennessee teams weren’t heading in the right direction, and the current reset wouldn’t have been possible without the fall.
Jon Robinson’s Final Moves Accelerated the Decline
The organizational dysfunction that led to this moment didn’t begin with Brian Callahan’s firing or even Mike Vrabel’s exit. The seeds were planted during Jon Robinson’s final years as general manager, when a series of high-stakes decisions backfired and accelerated the franchise’s decline.
The most glaring mistake came in the 2022 NFL Draft, when Robinson traded star wide receiver A.J. Brown to the Philadelphia Eagles and used the 18th overall pick acquired in that deal to select Treylon Burks.
Brown went on to sign a multi-year extension with the Eagles and has posted four-straight 1,000-yard seasons, including a Super Bowl appearance in his first year in Philadelphia. Burks, meanwhile, struggled with injuries and inconsistency before being waived by Tennessee in 2025.
Robinson’s problems extended far beyond his major trades. His final draft classes were catastrophic. The 2020 draft class, in particular, stands as one of the worst in franchise history. First-round pick Isaiah Wilson, a Georgia tackle selected 29th overall, played just four snaps before being traded away after his rookie season due to off-field issues and lack of commitment.
Second-round pick Kristian Fulton and third-rounder Darrynton Evans both left the organization quickly. The dysfunction continued into 2021 and 2022, with cornerback Caleb Farley and tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere all failing to live up to draft investment.
According to Pro Football Reference, the Titans were by far the worst drafting team in the NFL from 2020-2022. Robinson wasn’t just making headline-grabbing mistakes in trades—he was constantly whiffing on draft capital.
Robinson also let future Hall of Fame running back Derrick Henry walk in free agency after the 2023 season and traded away All-Pro safety Kevin Byard during the 2023 season. Both moves were made under the premise of a rebuild, but the lack of a coherent plan left the roster in no-man’s-land—too depleted to compete, but without a clear foundation to build around.
To be fair, Robinson’s tenure wasn’t all missteps. He drafted multiple Titans legends, helped construct the teams that reached the 2019-20 AFC Championship Game and earned the 2021 No. 1 seed, and made the bold trade for Julio Jones that season (even if it didn’t pan out). But his final 18 months in charge left the organization scrambling to rebuild relationships, talent, and culture all at once.
Owner Amy Adams Strunk fired Robinson in Dec. 2022, midseason, signaling her willingness to make changes when the direction wasn’t clear. That decision, like many others during this stretch, has been scrutinized as reactive rather than strategic.
But the front-office dysfunction didn’t end there. In Jan. 2023, the Titans hired Ran Carthon as general manager, expecting a fresh start and modern thinking to accelerate the rebuild. Instead, Carthon’s tenure lasted just two years and produced a failed roster-building experiment.
Desperate to fix everything at once, Carthon went on a free-agent spending spree in March 2024, handing out massive contracts to wide receiver Calvin Ridley ($92 million over four years with $50 million guaranteed) and cornerback L’Jarius Sneed ($76.4 million over four years with $55 million guaranteed).
Both moves were meant to signal a win-now mentality. Both proved to be colossal busts. Ridley battled injuries and inconsistency before falling out of favor, while Sneed, despite his pedigree from Kansas City’s defense, struggled to replicate his Super Bowl form in Tennessee’s secondary, and mounting injuries have caused him to appear in just a dozen games as a Titan.
The Titans invested over a quarter-billion dollars in new talent in 2024 and finished 3-14. By January 2025, Carthon was gone, fired after compiling a 9-25 record across two seasons. The organization had managed to dig deeper into the hole—rock bottom beneath rock bottom. It took yet another reset to finally put a capable front office in place.
Plenty of Blame to Go Around for Titans’ Woes
Amy Adams Strunk is the easiest target when pointing fingers at organizational chaos, and some of that criticism is fair. The decision-making over the past three years has felt reactive at times—firing Robinson mid-season, moving on from Vrabel after back-to-back losing campaigns, elevating and then restructuring front-office roles, and cycling through coaches faster than most franchises cycle through coordinators.
But Strunk also deserves credit for recognizing when things weren’t working and pulling the trigger on changes, even when they were painful. She empowered Borgonzi to rebuild the roster his way, gave him final say over the 53-man roster, and allowed him to lead the coaching search. Those are not small moves for an owner who has been criticized for meddling.
The reality is that everyone involved shares a piece of the blame for how messy this got:
- Robinson’s final moves gutted the roster.
- Vrabel’s coordinator retention issues limited the ceiling.
- Callahan never established a clear identity.
- Strunk’s reactiveness created instability.
Jeffery Simmons’ Comments Exposed the Callahan Problem
Jeffrey Simmons was vocal about the lack of recent Titans’ culture.
Simmons was blunt during his appearance on Bussin’ With The Boys earlier this month regarding Callahan’s tenure. He didn’t take cheap shots, but he didn’t pretend everything was fine, either.
From a player standpoint, Simmons essentially said the team never truly understood what it wanted to be under Callahan. When your star defensive tackle is talking publicly about searching for identity, that’s a red flag about messaging and leadership, not just scheme.
“We learned, with Vrabel, not to compare,” Simmons told hosts Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. “But when you look at it from a player standpoint, it’s like, what is really our identity? I feel like this is something I was trying to help find.”
The late-season shift to leaning on the run game, with Tony Pollard putting up multiple big rushing performances, reinforced the point. Pollard finished 2025 with 1,082 rushing yards, his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season across his time in Dallas and Tennessee. If pounding the rock and taking pressure off a rookie quarterback was always the right answer for this roster, why did it take months – and a lost season – to fully commit to it?
Simmons also made it clear the locker room needed a culture jolt. According to Yahoo Sports, he told media after a December loss to Jacksonville that the Titans needed “somebody that is going to change the culture around here” with their next coaching hire. When one of your most important veterans is openly saying that, it’s not subtle messaging.
How Tennessee’s Organizational Chaos Opened the Door for Ward
If the Titans had stayed on the 9–8, wild-card-hope treadmill with an aging roster and Vrabel, they almost certainly wouldn’t have ended up in a position to draft Cam Ward at No. 1 overall last year.
The collapse, the misfires, and the coaching churn are exactly what put them there. When one door closes, another typically opens. But for the last few years, the Titans seemed determined to pull on every door that said ‘push.’
Mike Borgonzi stepped in as general manager last January, arriving from Kansas City with championship equity and immediately faced a defining moment.
Multiple teams expressed interest in trading up to the No. 1 pick. Edge rusher Abdul Carter, viewed by many evaluators as a blue-chip prospect who could transform the defense, was sitting right there as an alternative. Plenty of voices—from scouts to analysts to observers—urged Borgonzi to trade down, move back, and build the defense first.
Borgonzi stuck to his guns. He believed in Ward and stayed put at No. 1. That decision—in a vacuum where one wrong move sets a rebuild back years—might be the most important call Borgonzi makes in his entire Tennessee tenure. His first real test as a GM, and he passed it.
Ward’s rookie season line on a 3–14 team isn’t going to wow anyone at a glance, but the context matters. The 23-year-old started all 17 games, completed 323 of 540 passes for 3,169 yards with 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He did it while navigating a midseason coaching change and a roster that was openly in transition.
Internally, the stories that matter most are the work-habit ones – the first-in, last-out stuff that players and coaches don’t hand out lightly when a season is that rough.
Borgonzi also drew a hard line on Jeffery Simmons, choosing to keep an All-Pro-level defensive tackle rather than cash him in for more picks during a teardown.
That decision looks even more important now that the 28-year-old Simmons emerged as a culture driver in 2025, recording 67 tackles and a career-high 11.0 sacks across 15 games. If Ward and Simmons are the two pillars, Saleh’s arrival is supposed to be the structure built around them.
Borgonzi’s 2025 Draft Class Shows Signs of Draft-and-Develop Philosophy
Ward wasn’t the only win from Borgonzi’s first draft class. While the No. 1 pick will always be the headliner, the general manager found multiple contributors who signal that the draft-and-develop mantra isn’t just rhetoric.
The biggest success story came in the fourth round at pick 103, when Borgonzi selected wide receiver Chimere Dike out of Florida.
Dike broke Tim Brown’s 37-year-old NFL rookie record by accumulating 2,427 all-purpose yards in 2025, earning first-team All-Pro honors as a punt returner. His 17.3 yards per punt return tied for the league lead, and he scored two touchdowns on punt returns while adding value as a receiver. For a fourth-round pick to become a first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler in Year 1 represents exactly the kind of hit late-round picks need to deliver.
Borgonzi also landed Stanford wide receiver Elic Ayomanor at pick 136 after trading up in the fourth round. The 6-foot-2 receiver finished his rookie season with 41 receptions for 515 yards and four touchdowns, showing enough flashes to suggest he could develop into a reliable target for Ward.
Texas tight end Gunnar Helm, selected at pick 120, has similarly turned heads with his contested-catch ability and willingness to block, projecting as a potential starter if he continues developing.
The jury remains out on third-round safety Kevin Winston Jr., who was taken at pick 82 despite battling a partially torn ACL that ended his Penn State season after just a few games in 2024. The rookie made a few appearances for the Titans before landing on IR. But make no mistake, the upside is real.
Many evaluators had Winston graded as a first-round talent before the injury, and he showed enough in limited action—10 games, six starts, 34 tackles, one sack—to suggest the potential is still there. A Week 15 hamstring injury that landed him on injured reserve cut short his evaluation period, but Saleh’s defensive background could be exactly what Winston needs to unlock his pre-injury ceiling.
When a 3-14 team gets a franchise quarterback, a first-team All-Pro returner, and three other potential contributors from one draft class, the rebuild timeline accelerates. If Ward ends up being the long-term answer, having Dike, Ayomanor, and potentially Winston and Helm growing alongside him gives the Titans exactly the kind of young core that championship windows are built around.
Titans’ Franchise QB Drought Dates Back to Steve McNair
The stakes for getting this right go beyond just ending a four-year losing streak. The Titans have been starving for a true franchise quarterback since the Steve McNair era ended. Vince Young and Marcus Mariota each had flashes during their respective tenures, but neither delivered the decade-long foundation that separates good franchises from also-rans.
Young made a Pro Bowl as a rookie in 2006 and won Offensive Rookie of the Year, but his career in Nashville lasted only five inconsistent seasons. Mariota earned a Pro Bowl nod in 2016 and showed promise, but injuries and inconsistency derailed what looked like a potential franchise cornerstone. Both left Tennessee without ever establishing themselves as long-term answers.
Ward represents the first legitimate chance since McNair to build around a young quarterback with true franchise potential. The added urgency comes from the rookie contract window. With Ward on his four-year rookie deal, the Titans have a narrow opportunity to maximize cap flexibility while surrounding him with premium talent.
That timeline makes the upcoming offensive coordinator hire one of the final puzzle pieces. Ward’s development, the offensive identity, and the entire trajectory of this rebuild hinge on Saleh selecting the right voice to shape the offense around his young quarterback. Get that hire right, and the Titans accelerate the rebuild. Miss on it, and the rookie contract window closes before it ever really opens.
Why Robert Saleh Fits This Version of the Titans
Saleh lands in Tennessee with something he never fully had in New York: a young quarterback the organization is genuinely built around and a clear mandate to construct a defensive identity that doesn’t have to drag an entire operation by itself.
His track record in San Francisco speaks for itself – multiple top-tier defenses, players like Fred Warner vouching publicly for his preparation and presence, and a reputation as a guy players want to play for.
Saleh went 20-36 as head coach of the New York Jets from 2021 through part of 2024, but those teams faced constant quarterback instability. Aaron Rodgers played only four snaps before suffering a season-ending injury in 2023, and the Jets cycled through multiple quarterbacks during Saleh’s tenure.
His defenses remained competitive throughout, and he returned to San Francisco as defensive coordinator for the 2025 season before the Titans came calling.
49ers’ linebacker Fred Warner told reporters in January 2026 that losing Saleh “would suck a lot” but acknowledged Saleh deserved another head coaching opportunity.
“Saleh’s just been around the block,” Warner said on Bay Area radio station 95.7 The Game in September 2025. “He’s been there, he’s done it at a high level for a long time. He obviously had a stint in New York, being the head coach. But he knows football through and through, not just defense but offense, and I think that helps with how he prepares for these different offenses week in and week out.”
The early signs suggest Borgonzi and Saleh are on the same page when it comes to building the right kind of infrastructure. Borgonzi moved quickly to replace special teams coordinator Colt Anderson—who had a disastrous 2024 season under Callahan—with John Fassel, a respected veteran coordinator with a strong track record.
Fassel’s hire signals a commitment to upgrading every phase, not just offense and defense, and gives the Titans a credible special teams operation to complement the rebuild. Earlier this week, Saleh retained Fassel to be a part of his new staff.
In Tennessee, Saleh walks into:
- A 23-year-old potential franchise quarterback in Ward
- A blue-chip defensive cornerstone in Simmons coming off a career year
- A front office head in Borgonzi who’s already shown he’ll make conviction plays and keep core talent
- Massive cap flexibility and premium draft equity
- Strong special teams behind one of the league’s best coaches
According to Over The Cap, Tennessee has over $100 million in salary cap space for 2026, among the league’s highest totals. The franchise also holds a top-five pick in the 2026 draft and will open a new enclosed stadium in 2027.
That doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s a cleaner runway than Saleh had in New York – and a more defined structure than what Callahan walked into.
The Titans’ Healing Process Has Already Begun
The Titans have been healing in front of our eyes, even if the 2025 season looked rough around the edges. The people now in positions of power—Borgonzi making personnel decisions, with Chad Brinker by his side, Jeffery Simmons leading the defense, and Cam Ward anchoring the offense—could turn into a stable foundation sooner than later.
Ward, Saleh, and Borgonzi are now hitched together in a way that defines all three careers. If the offensive coordinator hire clicks, if the 2026 draft class contributes, and if Ward develops the way the organization believes he can, all three look brilliant in three years. If it falls apart? They all wear it. That’s the reality of NFL rebuilds—success or failure is rarely individual. It’s collective, and the Titans’ next chapter will be written by how well these three navigate the rookie contract window together.
Saleh’s hiring is one of the final pieces of the puzzle, assuming everything else holds. If the offensive coordinator hire hits, if Ward continues developing, if Borgonzi’s draft classes produce, and if Saleh builds the culture Simmons has been publicly asking for, this franchise has a real chance to capitalize on the rookie contract window and turn chaos into contention.
The lesson Tennessee had to learn the hard way is that even the best coaches need the right village of assistants, talent, and timing to build a championship city. New England has that now with Vrabel, McDaniels, and Maye. The Titans are trying to construct their own version with Saleh, Ward, and Simmons as the foundation.
If it doesn’t work? The conversation will shift quickly back to whether the organizational dysfunction was worth the path they’re currently on. But for the first time in years, the Titans have a young franchise quarterback, a defensive cornerstone, a clear front-office structure, and the resources to build around them.
Multiple things will certainly be true. But only one matters: whether the Titans finally got it right when the dust inevitably settles.
Titans Bank on Robert Saleh After Messy Road Delivered Cam Ward