The Tennessee Titans are reportedly leaning toward retaining Mike Mularkey on a permanent basis.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk confirmed an earlier report from ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that the team may simply strip the interim tag from Mularkey’s title.
Such a position is understandably baffling to many around the league. One source told Florio that the message Tennessee would be sending by making such a move would be “we’re for sale, or we don’t care.”
Mularkey hasn’t really shown anything to warrant this. The team has gone 2-5 since he took over from the fired Ken Whisenhunt, dropping his career coaching record to 18-37. Even more curiously, Tennessee would, by all accounts, be an attractive job for prospective head coaches, as Florio notes. They can offer Marcus Mariota, a potential number one draft pick in April, a chance to win in a bad division, and a desirable place to live with no state income tax. It seems like they could do much better than settling for Mularkey. In fact, it’s already been speculated that they could reunite Mariota with Chip Kelly.
Of course, things are being complicated by the ownership situation in Tennessee. Florio hears from another source that team president Steve Underwood spends much of his time convincing the league that the team’s ownership group meets the NFL’s rules.
General manager Ruston Webster is in the final year of his deal, and he may be retained as well, especially if the team may be sold.
