Dianna Russini of The Athletic reported this morning that Brian Daboll will be the Tennessee Titans’ next offensive coordinator if he doesn’t get the Buffalo Bills‘ head coaching job. It sounds like Daboll has emerged as Robert Saleh’s preferred candidate to coach Cam Ward and the offense. How long can the Titans afford to wait?
The Bills remain in the early stages of their head coaching process. They only fired Sean McDermott earlier this week. Daboll appears to be a strong candidate in Buffalo due
to his previous experience helping develop Josh Allen into an MVP winner at quarterback.
The Bills only have five head coaching candidates so far. They are Daboll, Grant Udinski, Anthony Lynn, Joe Brady, and Lou Anarumo, per reports. Daboll seems to be a strong candidate in this pool. Udinski is among the favorites in Cleveland, Lynn and Anarumo would be uninspiring, and Brady would be unpopular as an in-house promotion.
Bills owner Terry Pegula also confirmed that the team would like to speak with candidates who are still coaching in the playoffs. That list could include Klint Kubiak, Chris Shula, Aden Durde, Mike LaFleur, Nate Scheelhaase, Thomas Brown, Vance Joseph, and Davis Webb, to name some of the obvious potential choices. If the Bills take this decision through the Super Bowl, the Titans could be placed on hold by Daboll, which would risk losing out on some fallback options.
The Titans will have to be deliberate and methodical if that’s the case. Other offensive coordinator candidates could include Kliff Kingsbury and Arthur Smith. It’s unclear how interested Kingsbury would actually be in the Titans’ OC job since it’s unclear why he never interviewed for the head coaching gig despite receiving an interview request from Mike Borgonzi.
Other options for OC could include Bobby Slowik, Frank Smith, Klay Kubiak, and Adam Stenavich. Saleh has a deep rolodex of contacts. One of the benefits of there being 10 head coaching vacancies this offseason is that lots of quality coordinators and assistant coach candidates are also available.
The Titans must navigate this situation with caution and care.
