The Tennessee Titans were the first team to make a change at head coach during the 2025 NFL season after firing Brian Callahan following a 1-5 start. For much of the season, the team and its fan base have been looking forward to the offseason.
Tennessee won two of its last five games and will have a top-five pick in the upcoming draft once again. Callahan’s firing did not affect general manager Mike Borgonzi, who remains with the team for a second season.
The question now is who Borgonzi and No. 1 overall quarterback Cam Ward will work with as head coach. Per multiple reports, the franchise has narrowed its search down to three candidates: Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.
The team is scheduled to meet with all three candidates over the next 48 hours, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, starting with Nagy tomorrow morning. Saleh will be interviewed again in the afternoon and Hafley on Tuesday.
Tennessee Titans head coaching candidates
Matt Nagy
Nagy is one of two candidates for the position with previous head coaching experience. He spent four years as the head coach of the Chicago Bears from 2018 through 2021. He went 34-31 in that time and 0-2 in his two playoff appearances in 2018 and 2020.
He’s spent the last three seasons as the offensive coordinator with Kansas City. In that time, the Chiefs finished 15th in scoring in 2023 and 2024 and 21st in 2025.
Borgonzi and Nagy are familiar with each other due to their time in Kansas City. They overlapped there from 2013 to 2017 and 2023 to 2024.
Robert Saleh
Saleh also has head coaching experience with four years at that position with the New York Jets from 2021 to 2024. He was fired after Week 5 of the 2024 season with a 20-36 record in his time in New York.
Saleh specializes on defense and his units in New York played well on that side of the ball. He oversaw a top-five defense there in 2022 as the Jets finished the year fourth in yards and points allowed per game.
They took a slight step back in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the Jets defense finished third in yards allowed but 12th in points allowed. Similarly, New York’s defense was third in yards allowed and 20th in points allowed in 2024.
He returned to San Francisco in 2025 where he’d been the defensive coordinator from 2017 to 2020. That unit finished 13th in points allowed in 2025 despite losing multiple key players to injury.
Jeff Hafley
Hafley is the only first-time head coach of the trio. He spent time with three NFL teams (Tampa Bay, Cleveland, San Francisco) as a defensive backs coach before heading to the college ranks. He spent a year at Ohio State before taking the head coaching job at Boston College.
Hafley spent four years with Boston College before coming to the Packers in 2024. The team improved on defense with him in the building. Green Bay went from 10th in points allowed in 2023 to sixth in 2024. The Packers went from 17th in yards allowed to fifth.
Green Bay didn’t fare as well on that side of the ball even after trading for Micah Parsons. They were still a top-12 unit in points and yards allowed.