While that type of talk resembles the all-gas-no-brakes mentality he’s well known for, Saleh disclosed one big change that will happen under his direction in Tennessee: calling defensive plays, which is a different than the set up he had in New York.
“When I didn’t call plays, I felt like I was the timeout and red flag guy,” he said candidly. “I had the greatest seat in the house as a fan.”
Saleh is tasked with turning around a Titans defense that finished in the bottom half of the NFL in most categories, most notably points allowed per game (28.1, ranked 28th), takeaways (14, tied 29th). His aggressive defensive scheme has a stellar player to build around in All-Pro defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons.
But the focus in Nashville is centered around quarterback Cam Ward, last year’s No. 1 overall pick.
“Cam, from everything that I’ve gathered, just all the discussions I’ve had throughout the building and throughout the league, comes with an elite work ethic, elite character, and (is) an elite person,” Saleh said. “The biggest thing that we’re gonna work with Cam is just going all the way back to the beginning. We’ve got a whole off season to work with them, take him back to the very, very beginning, both on the field, off the field, the process, what it looks like to not only be a professional with regards to preparation in his body, but as a professional with regards to preparation in his body but as a professional in regards to preparing from a game planning standpoint or a playbook standpoint.”
Brian Daboll, who was Giants head coach during a majority of the time of Saleh’s tenure in New York, will be tasked with directing the offense and furthering the Ward’s development in Year 2.
Saleh believes Daboll is the “perfect” coach for Ward, referring to the coach’s successful past of developing quarterbacks, including that of Josh Allen in Buffalo.
“Talking with Dab’s over the course of the last few weeks, he is the perfect man to match up with Cam and to maximize who he is,” Saleh said of his offensive coordinator. “So, again, we’re really pumped to get to work with Cam and get him to where we all know he can be.”
Ward suffered a right shoulder injury in the final game of his rookie campaign and his rehab has been going “well” according to Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi, who was flanked to Saleh’s right during the news conference.
Borgonzi has a big offseason ahead of him with plenty of salary cap room and the No. 4 overall selection come April, inevitable moves that figure to help the overall cause. Tennessee’s struggles the past two seasons include consecutive three-win campaigns and a big head-coaching whiff after parting ways with Mike Vrabel. The Titans haven’t made the playoffs since 2021 and the club’s last first-year head coach to make the postseason was in 1990 when the Titans were Oilers in Houston.
But Saleh isn’t yet worried about on-field results at this point, first aiming to build his program from the ground up in order to set up the Titans for success.
“Obviously, every team wants to win a Super Bowl,” Saleh said. “Every team wants to achieve the pinnacle of sports, everybody does. But the realistic expectation is that this team understands what a proper process looks like; attacking every moment, attacking every day, finding ways to get better every single day. And I know that’s kind of cliche and kind of boring, but at the end of the day, we don’t have control over the result of a football game. It’s an oblong football. You don’t know how it’s gonna bounce. But what we have control over is the way we attack our moments, the way we attack our day-to-day operation. The way we build confidence in our preparation so we can attack the heck out of Sunday to put ourselves in best position to get the result we want. And so from a successful standpoint, being successful, what that looks like, I’ll leave it up to you guys. But in this building, it’s gonna be about how we attack our moments.”
Saleh’s newfound vision for a successful club appears to be a process that will be built from the ground up, but the fiery coach maintained that it will be an effort that brings the Titans back to forefront.
“This is gonna be freaking fun,” Saleh said looking at the players in attendance, one of them being Ward. “We’re gonna get after it day after day. We’re gonna get better. We’re gonna bring a championship home. And it’s gonna start with you guys.”
