Music City Miracles
The Tennessee Titans have interviewed, or requested interviews, with 16 total head coaching candidates. If a 17th candidate officially emerges, it’ll almost certainly be former Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Harbaugh is the best coach on the market after leading the Ravens for 18 seasons, including a Super Bowl win and 12 postseason appearances.
Harbaugh will apparently begin interviewing with teams this week. He has loosely been connected to the Titans’ vacancy. Harbaugh was allegedly watching tape on Titans quarterback Cam Ward (among others) over the weekend before narrowing down his list of potential suitors.
There were some immediate rumors regarding Harbaugh’s “demands.” Tony Grossi of ESPN Cleveland was reporting that Harbaugh wanted a $20 million/year salary, total authority over the roster, and to hand-pick his GM. That would obviously be a problem for the Titans for a number of reasons.
Who knows what Amy Adams Strunk would be willing to pay Harbaugh, but Brian Callahan earned nowhere near $20 million per year. The bigger issue is the control over the roster / and hand-select the GM rumors. The Titans obviously aren’t firing GM Mike Borgonzi, nor are they about to take full control of the roster away from him when they just shuffled the duties between him and president Chad Brinker.
Well, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports recently debunked those rumors.
“Reports of Harbaugh’s demands are inaccurate, according to a source with knowledge,” Jones wrote in a recent column. “Harbaugh will command a high salary based simply off his resume, and some level of roster say is inherent in attracting a coach of that caliber. But a demand of $20 million in salary and full roster control are not required to land Harbaugh’s services.”
That would be great news for the Titans. If Harbaugh’s demands are reasonable, then the Titans could be considered realistic contenders. It’s worth noting Jones says the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons are perceived favorites, however.
“Two sources on interested teams said their belief is [that] Harbaugh’s top choices among the vacant jobs are the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons in some order. Those sources added the Tennessee Titans are in third place.”
We’ll see if Harbaugh agrees to interview with the Titans this week.
