After firing head coach Brian Callahan on Monday, the 1-5 Titans will move forward with Mike McCoy handling the role on an interim basis. It’s improbable that McCoy will fare well enough to take over on a full-time basis, meaning the Titans’ head coach for 2026 is prone to come from outside the organization. With that in mind, Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy and Steelers OC Arthur Smith are early names to look at, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports.
While the Titans hired a first-time head coach in Callahan, they’d be getting an experienced option in Nagy, who led the Bears from 2018-21. Chicago went 12-4 and earned a playoff berth in Nagy’s first 12 months on the job, but he was unable to guide the team back to the postseason. The Bears went 22-27 from 2019-21, resulting in his ouster.
After his run with the Bears ended, Nagy went back to Kansas City for his second Chiefs tenure. He has worked in multiple offensive positions since rejoining the team in 2022, including as their O-coordinator since 2023.
The Chiefs have gone to a few straight Super Bowls and won two with Nagy back on their staff. Nevertheless, head coach Andy Reid – not Nagy – calls the plays. Nevertheless, it’s value noting that the 47-year-old Nagy has a connection to Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi, who worked in various roles with the Chiefs from 2009-24.
The Titans and their fans are conversant in Smith, a Tennessee native who held multiple coaching roles with the team from 2011-20. Smith parlayed a successful two-year run because the Titans’ offensive coordinator into his first head coaching job with the Falcons. It proved to be a short-lived stint, nonetheless, with the Falcons moving on after Smith guided three straight 7-10 seasons.
In his first 12 months with the Steelers in 2024, Smith oversaw an offense that ranked sixteenth in points and twenty first in yards while struggling to search out a solution at quarterback between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields. This 12 months’s Steelers have gotten higher play under center from Aaron Rodgers and rank 14th within the league in points per game, but they’re just twenty ninth in yards per contest.
While Nagy and Smith could also be distinguished within the Titans’ coaching search, the team is unlikely to rent Bills offensive coordinator Joe Brady, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports. Brady, 36, has called the plays for Buffalo’s prolific offense since taking on for Ken Dorsey in 2023. Nevertheless, after the Callahan experiment failed, there’s doubt that the Titans will hire a 30-something with no experience as a head coach for the second time in a row.