Titans Shift from Tradition as Family Ties Strengthen Coaching Staff
In a franchise once defined by a hardline stance against nepotism, the Tennessee Titans are clearly charting a new course. Under the late Bud Adams, family connections were more of a red flag than a résumé booster.
He famously blocked coaches from hiring their own sons and even required one half of a married couple to leave the organization-twice. But in recent years, the Titans have loosened those long-standing restrictions, and the latest coaching hires are further proof that times have changed in Nashville.
Back in 2018, the shift began to take shape when then-head coach Mike Vrabel brought in veteran defensive coordinator Dean Pees-and with him, Pees’ son, Matt, as a defensive quality control coach. That move marked a clear departure from the Adams-era policy and signaled a philosophical pivot within the front office.
Amy Adams Strunk, who now leads the organization as controlling owner, acknowledged the contrast at the owners’ meetings that spring. “I don’t know where he got such a strong feeling on it,” she said of her father’s anti-nepotism stance.
“But he did have a strong feeling on it.” Strunk, for her part, made it clear that she sees things differently.
Her approach? Evaluate each situation individually.
That case-by-case mindset has now greenlit two more familial hires on the Titans’ coaching staff.
The team’s head coach has brought in his own cousin, Ahmed Saleh, to serve as a defensive assistant in an entry-level role. At the same time, the new linebackers coach is none other than the brother of the head coach’s boss-another internal connection that would’ve been a nonstarter under Bud Adams’ watch.
While the hires raise eyebrows for their family ties, they also reflect a broader trend across the league. Coaching trees have always been about relationships and trust, and sometimes those roots run through bloodlines. The Titans’ current leadership appears to be leaning into that reality, trusting that the right people-regardless of their last name-can help build a winning culture.
It’s a notable evolution for a franchise that once drew a hard line between family and football. Now, it seems, the Titans are more focused on fit and future than on following the old rules.