The Tennessee Titans need a new head coach after they announced Monday they fired Brian Callahan, and they reportedly have their eyes on two potential candidates.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith are “a couple names to watch” in the early stages of the process.
That Tennessee would be looking at offensive coaches comes as no surprise.
After all, it selected Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NFL draft. His ability to live up to expectations and become a franchise quarterback will go a long way toward determining how successful the Titans are in the immediate future, so they will want to hire a coach who could help maximize his ability.
Yet Nagy and Smith don’t exactly have long track records of success as head coaches.
Nagy went 12-4 as the Coach of the Year in his first season with the Chicago Bears in 2018 but then went 22-27 during the next three seasons. His play-calling was consistently questioned during those last three years, which was notable since he was hired as an offensive coach.
As for Smith, he went 21-30 during his three seasons as the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2021 through 2023. His offense finished 26th in the league scoring in two of those three seasons and 15th in the other, which raised concerns since he was an offensive coach.
This is also Smith’s second season as the offensive coordinator for the Steelers, and the AFC North team was 23rd in yards last year and sits in 29th in the early going this year.
Smith is at least a familiar name for the Titans, as he was their offensive coordinator for two seasons in 2019 and 2020. That is also when he found the most success, as the offense finished in the top 10 in the league in scoring in each of those two years.
Tennessee is sure to conduct a wide-ranging search and could very well wait until the season ends and more candidates emerge. But Smith and Nagy are early names to watch as the AFC South team searches for the coach to pair with Ward.
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