After guiding his team to a thrilling playoff win over the Chiefs yesterday, Titans head coach Mike Mularkey received assurance that he will be back in Tennessee next season, as Jim Wyatt of TitansOnline.com writes.
Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk issued the following statement on the matter:
“Our mantra all season has been to take things week by week and not get ahead of ourselves and it obviously has served us well. I regret that outside rumors gained a life of their own. No one has been a bigger supporter of Mike Mularkey than I have over the last two plus seasons. Mike and [GM] Jon [Robinson] have changed the culture of our team and organization and I am so happy we have been able to bring success on the field to our fans – winning 19 games over the last two seasons, including our first playoff win in nine years. Just to eliminate any distractions moving forward, Mike Mularkey is our head coach and will be our head coach moving forward. We still have work to be done, including this week, but I am looking forward to the journey.”
Mularkey, of course, was rumored to be on the hot seat even though the Titans made the playoffs this year. If his team had lost yesterday, he may have been fired, as the team was reportedly frustrated with the way QB Marcus Mariota was progressing. Mariota did indeed take a step backwards in 2017 after an excellent 2016, but he played well yesterday in guiding the Titans to a comeback victory. Had Mularkey been fired, Patriots OC Josh McDaniels was said to be Tennessee’s top choice to replace him.
Following underwhelming stints in Buffalo and Jacksonville, Mularkey replaced Ken Whisenhunt as the Titans head coach midway through the 2015 season. He went 2-7 during the remainder of that campaign, but he’s led his team to 9-7 records over the past two seasons. He faces exceedingly long odds to take Tennessee back to the Super Bowl, but even if he cannot achieve that goal this year, he will get another shot next season.
ESPN’s Field Yates tweets that the Titans’ players immensely respect and appreciate Mularkey, which certainly helped secure his return.
Sorry Titans
Sorry? I guess you missed the first playoff win in 9 years Larry
*First Win in 15 Years. First appearance in 9.
With all respect to the Titans, their playoff win had more to do with the Chiefs falling apart than Mularkey significantly out coaching Andy Reid. Travis Kelce is good and a huge part of that offense, but his absence shouldn’t cause the offense to completely disappear.
Andy Reid coached against himself.
*Slowly turns the burner down*
Yeah, he had the complete backing of you and other management alright! AFTER LAST NIGHT THAT IS! I love it when a playoff win turns a sure as hell firing into “he’s always been in our future plans”! LMAO, too funny!
Hmmmmm, weird how yesterday’s win made Mularkey “Always part of our future plans”. Lol, pretty sure if they’d been handed there a__, he’d been shown the door! Love it!
How to you get out coached in the playoffs by this guy? IMO Reid needs to be fired the worst playoff head coach ever especially in recent years, was actually surprised when I woke up and saw he wasn’t. It’s painfully obvious he’s showed the past 2-3 years he’s not the man to lead the chiefs past the Steelers Pats and now Titans
Mularkey might be able to be beat Pittsburgh: they essentially haven’t changed their playbooks since he coached there.
Funny how Mularkey couldn’t do it a few games ago. Guess he was saving it for this moment.
Marvin Lewis wants a talk with you, Clark.
Lol I agree. Marvin Lewis holds that title.
Marvin Lewis is horrible I think we all agree on that but at least Bengals fans know they’re gonna lose. Reid gives Chiefs fans false hope, I’m sorry but any coach that has as many 18 point blown leads as all the other coaches in almost 100 years says a lot
Can’t say I really bought in to the rumors in the first place. Just wishful thinking from the fans and writers saying things that would normally make sense. Except for the fact that the owner and head suit are absolutely head over heels for the guy. Can’t say I like him much as our coach but good for him on a personal level.
All you need is to have is a ticked off Tennessee publication writer, and all of a sudden you have a “coach who’s on the hot seat”. It’s got NOTHING to do with fans or ownership 75% of the time. The media can be absolutely reckless in some cases and get coaches who aren’t doing bad at all in a pretty bad situation! Malarkey is no better of coach than he was before last night’s game, but now all of a sudden his job is safe? This is another case of TODAY’S MEDIA = FAKE NEWS
It was national media, not a best writer.