Titans HC Robert Saleh Talks Cam Ward, Carnell Tate, Jets & More with Rich

Robert Saleh spent his preseason weekend back in San Francisco with a different logo on his chest, and he did not treat it like a homecoming so much as a measuring stick.

"It was awesome," Saleh told Rich about taking the Titans into the building where he coordinated defenses twice. "To go back to that place and just get a chance to compete with what we feel is a championship caliber roster, and to take our young guys out there, it was really cool."

The football came back mixed. Tennessee's first-team offense opened with a long scoring drive that Tony Pollard finished, and Cam Ward tried to get Carnell Tate a touchdown before it was broken up.

"Felt really good about the first series," Saleh said. "Things got away from us a little bit there in the second and third series with our first group both offensively and defensively, but still a good chance to get out there, go compete, and recognize a lot of things for the first time."

The conversation got genuinely useful on Ward's day-to-day life under offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who has never been accused of softening a message. Saleh called him "a truth teller" and said the two of them share the same philosophy about young players.

"A lot of times in this day and age, these kids are raised to kind of coddle," Saleh said, adding that he and Daboll believe "they'll respect you more if you tell them the truth. Tell them where they are, tell them what they need to get done." Then the line that landed hardest: "We're not trying to make friends."

None of that, Saleh stressed, is about reeling Ward in. "He's a very disciplined kid. He's attacked the heck out of his off-season. He studies relentlessly." The coaching is footwork, eye discipline, progressions and technique, over and over.

Tate, the receiver Tennessee took at the top of the draft out of Ohio State, got the coach-speak treatment, and Saleh knew it. "It's just get better, man. There's really no expectations," he said, before conceding that everyone gets judged on results and adding the caveat: "If you make that your daily process, you're screwed."

Asked to stack Tate up against Garrett Wilson, another first-round receiver out of Columbus that Saleh has coached, he reached for a proverb. "Comparison is a thief of joy," Saleh said, before noting Wilson "has established himself as an elite tier one receiver" and that Tate "has to go do it."

Saleh also planted a flag on the preseason debate. He loves joint practices because "practices are supposed to hurt." He will not trade a preseason game for one, though. Cutting games would do "a severe disservice" to undrafted free agents and day-three picks who need live tackling to prove they belong.

The most revealing answer came when Rich asked what he is doing differently the second time around. Saleh admitted he burned energy in New York trying to steer the story.

"When you win you're a winner, when you lose you're a loser, and the narrative will be whatever that result is," he said. "If you want the narrative to change, you've got to win football games."

Which brings up week one, against the Jets. Saleh did not bite.

"I don't hold grudges, man," he said. "I'm grateful for what the Jets gave me, the opportunity they gave me." He also pointed out that nobody in that building is thinking about him either. "My desire to win week one has everything to do with Tennessee starting one and oh and nothing more."