Robert Saleh returns to the sidelines seeking to maintain a perfect record for coaches debuting against former teams while snapping Tennessee’s decade-long drought in home openers.
We are just days away from the Tennessee Titans kicking off their season against the New York Jets on Sunday.
Even though head coach Robert Saleh says he doesn't hold any ill will towards the Jets, there's still history there.
Saleh was the Jets' head coach from 2021-24 and was fired five games into his final season with the organization.
He then went back to the San Francisco 49ers for a second stint as their defensive coordinator last season. Saleh was previously in the same role from 2017-20.
Now, he's getting another chance to be a head coach in this league and will face his former team in the season opener.
Saleh has a chance to compete for an NFL award in year one. Five percent of voters on Kalshi picked him to win the NFL Coach of the Year.
Considering how bad the Titans have been, the bar is low. Even a winning season could be enough for Saleh to get into the conversation.
There's another part of NFL history that Saleh can become a part of, and it wouldn't take very long.
CBS Sports' Jordan Dajani shared a post on X detailing that Saleh is the sixth head coach to debut at his new job against his former team. He's already going to keep that history alive, but there's more on the line.
Hamp Pool (1947), Curly Lambeau (1952), Lou Saban (1967), Jerry Glanville (1990) and Pete Carroll (2025) have all done the same.
All five previous head coaches have won their debut games. Carroll is the most recent head coach to achieve the feat.
Even though he is associated with the Seattle Seahawks for his many years with them, one of his first head coaching jobs was actually with the New England Patriots.
He was their head coach from 1997-99. When Carroll became the Las Vegas Raiders' HC in 2025, his first game was against the Patriots, and he won 20-16.
Unfortunately, the rest of the season wasn't as special. The Raiders went 3-14 and secured the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Carroll was fired after one season and is now out of coaching.
Saleh is already going to make NFL history just by facing his former team. With a win, the Titans could really start moving in the right direction.
The last time that the Titans won a season opener was in 2020 against the Denver Broncos.
The last time that the Titans won a season opener at home? That would be in 2010 versus the Oakland Raiders.
We'll see if the Titans can snap both losing streaks on Sunday when they face the Jets at Nissan Stadium.
Kickoff is at noon CT on CBS.
