Mike Mularkey‘s season-ending press conference played a role in his firing. The Titans had announced their two-year head coach would be back in 2018 and given him a contract extension, but reversed course and fired him on Monday morning.
Jon Robinson said that decision was made Monday morning and added Mularkey’s comments Sunday played a role in this ouster (Twitter links via Jim Wyatt of Titans.com and Ian Rapoport of NFL.com). Mularkey did not appear ready to make changes to his offensive staff, and it’s clear Robinson felt they were probably necessary.
Tennessee’s GM made clear Marcus Mariota‘s development will be the “highest priority,” per longtime NFL reporter Paul Kuharsky (Twitter link). Mariota regressed from 2016-17 despite steering the Titans to the playoffs for the first time in nine seasons and giving the franchise its first postseason win since the 2003 campaign. The former Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall pick threw for a career-low 13 touchdown passes — after firing 26 in 2016 — and a career-high 15 interceptions. DeMarco Murray‘s yards-per-carry figure also plummeted by nearly a yard for a Titans offense that ranked 18th in DVOA.
While Robinson made it clear all of Mularkey’s assistants were under contract (Twitter link via Terry McCormick of TitansInsider.com) it’s likely some (if not most) will be searching for new jobs soon. Kuharsky tweets Robinson and team president Steve Underwood informed Mularkey of his firing, not controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk.
Mularkey’s stubbornness regarding tailoring his scheme to Mariota’s talents helped do him in as Titans HC, Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com writes. Mularkey wanted to bring back his offensive staff, Wolfe reports.
The Titans are planning to interview Mike Vrabel and Steve Wilks, and hiring a defensive coach would represent a first since Jeff Fisher. A Josh McDaniels pursuit may have broken down in part because of timing, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe tweets.
A good coach conforms to the talent of the players. Mularkey is not bigger than the team. Adios.
Don’t even understand why they would try to extend him .. throughout the year you could constantly see mariota calling hurry up plays to keep the play calling away from mularkey
I think overall this was the better decision. The team plummeted once Murray regressed and he insisted on using him over Henry even though Henry was clearly the better runner putting more pressure n Mariota. Plus Corey Davis busted or was I hired for most the season and had little supporting cast there after. If he couldn’t see that changes needed to be made then I understand the firing.
Yesterday when I heard they offered an extension I was puzzled…a lot of times an extension isn’t really anything solid as far as keeping them around anyways…they have a lot of talent, whoever steps into the HC job should be able to make some noise with this roster
There is a reason this franchise has been without a winner for so long until recently. The old man’s clueless kids took over and have made one bone head call after another. Don’t tell me that after oooing and ahhhing over Mularkey all last week that they had NO idea that he wanted to keep his assistants until Sunday night? They thought they had Josh McDaniel locked in and couldn’t fire Mularkey fast enough. I’m not saying he’s Vince Lombardi but the OC is the problem with that offense and the owners handled this like amateurs with a complete lack of class.
Considering his background as an OC, one would think he knows the OC would have to go at the end of the year.
The point I was making was about how badly the Titans handled it.
They wanted to extend him and he refused to make staff changes. He should of handled it better and made changes where they needed to be made.