Robert Saleh Makes Bold Prediction on Titans Remaining Games

Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh probably didn't foresee the 2026 season playing out as it has. 

After a lot of hype and excitement in the offseason, the Titans are still one of the worst teams in the NFL. Only one team has a worse record than the Titans. 

The Los Angeles Chargers are still searching for their first win of the season in what has been a devastating campaign for Jim Harbaugh. 

The brutal thing is that the Titans have been competitive in most of their games so far. Outside of the losses to the New York Jets and Houston Texans, the Titans have lost their games by seven points or fewer. 

Sunday's game with the Cincinnati Bengals was especially heartbreaking. The Titans were finally able to put a solid outing together in the passing and running game. 

Cam Ward had the first 300-yard outing of his career. Tony Pollard went over 100 rushing yards for the second game in a row. The Titans even led the Bengals 36-29 with under five minutes to go. 

The defense once again gave up a late-game touchdown, and we went to overtime. The Titans ran out of gas and couldn't keep up with the Bengals, falling in overtime, 43-36. 

The Week 8 loss gave fans a reason to hold on to hope for the future. Robert Saleh made a prediction on a recent episode of "The Official Titans Podcast" about the final nine games of the Titans' schedule that was worth noting. 

He believed that these nine games were going to have massive implications for the next 10 years of the franchise. 

"And I'll just tell you what I told the team, you know?" Saleh said. "The next nine games are gonna define the next 10 years of Titans football. And the expectation is that we come back, we play with the effort and tenacity of everything we got in every single game, and we lay it all on the line, and we continue to build on what we're trying to get done here. You know, whatever happens, happens. I do think we are getting better. I hate our record, but eventually the tides are gonna turn." 

The Titans are playing what's supposed to be a last-place schedule. The reality is that a lot of these teams that struggled last year have started to turn things around.

You can even look back at the Cleveland Browns a couple of weeks ago. The Browns now have Deshaun Watson as their starting quarterback and a new head coach in Todd Monken. They are currently third in the AFC North at 5-3 and are one win away from surpassing their win total from last year. 

The New York Jets were a much better team than anticipated. 

That all goes to say that it's not going to get easier for the Titans with this schedule. Aside from the remaining divisional games, the Titans are still going to have to play the Dallas Cowboys, Las Vegas Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Commanders and Detroit Lions. 

Those are by no means easy games to close out the year. However, the Titans have continued to put pressure on teams better than them all year. 

The difference is that they haven't been able to close out these tight games. The only time they've done that was against the struggling Indianapolis Colts; otherwise, they'd be just like the Chargers and searching for their first win. 

Time will tell if this season is one that defines the franchise for the next decade. Tennessee recently stockpiled draft picks with the Jeffery Simmons trade. They still have promising young pieces like Ward, Carnell Tate, Fernando Carmona, Anthony Hill Jr. and others. 

Hopefully, this is something we'll look back at as a defining moment in Titans history.