Titans conduct head coaching interview with Mike Macdonald, Antonio Pierce

The Tennessee Titans have completed an interview with Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald per a team announcement Saturday night, getting the opportunity to talk to one of the NFL’s youngest and brightest defensive minds.

The interview with Macdonald comes after the Titans have also completed interviews with Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan, New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and Las Vegas Raiders interim coach Antonio Pierce. The Titans have reportedly requested the opportunity to speak to as many as nine candidates to fill the vacancy left after firing former coach Mike Vrabel on Jan. 9.

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Get to know Mike Macdonald

At just 36 years old, Macdonald has quickly risen through the coaching ranks thanks in large part to his relationships with famous coaching brothers John and Jim Harbaugh. Macdonald’s first NFL coaching gig came in 2014 when he landed with the Ravens as a coaching intern. Over the next six years he rose through the ranks in Baltimore from defensive assistant to defensive backs coach to linebackers coach.

He gained his first experience as a coordinator when he jumped to the college ranks in 2021 and took over as defensive coordinator at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh. Michigan improved from 95th in scoring defense in 2020 to eighth in 2021, with Macdonald’s defense helping lead the Wolverines to a Big Ten title and College Football Playoff berth.

Macdonald returned to Baltimore the next year as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator and has experienced even more success. In 2022, the Ravens ranked top-five in the NFL in points allowed, third down conversion rate allowed, red zone defense and rushing yards allowed per game and per play. The unit was arguably even better in 2023, allowing the fewest points per game and yards per pass attempt in the NFL while leading the league in takeaways and ranked top-five in sack rate.

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One thing that made the Ravens’ defensive success in 2023 so remarkable was the caliber of opponent it came against. Miami, San Francisco and Detroit all had top-five scoring offenses in the NFL this season; Baltimore went 3-0 against them, holding those teams to 19, 19 and 6 points respectively. The Ravens constricted Detroit’s high-flying offense by holding it to its second-fewest number of yards and first downs on the season and turned the normally efficient Dolphins and 49ers offenses into mistake machines, forcing eight turnovers across two games.

Just like at Michigan, Macdonald reinvigorated a Ravens defense that had struggled prior to his taking over at coordinator. The 2021 Ravens ranked 19th in the NFL in points allowed, 25th in yards allowed per game and last in the league in yards allowed per play.

Get to know Antonio Pierce

The Raiders promoted Pierce to interim head coach with nine games left in the 2023 season and Pierce led the team to a 5-4 record, including a win over the Kansas City Chiefs and a dominant 63-21 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers. 

Before his interim stint, Pierce had been the Raiders’ linebackers coach since 2022. Prior to that Pierce worked at Arizona State for four seasons, serving as linebackers coach, recruiting coordinator, defensive coordinator and associate head coach at various times. He began his coaching career at the high school level, working as the head coach at Long Beach Poly in California, the school famous for churning out future NFL stars such as DeSean Jackson, Willie McGinest, JuJu Smith-Schuster and Titans legend Jurrell Casey.

Pierce played linebacker in the NFL from 2001-09, starting his career in Washington before gaining notoriety playing for the New York Giants from 2005 through the end of his career. Pierce helped lead the Giants to a win over the unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII and earned a Pro Bowl berth in 2006. Pierce started 94 games in his nine pro seasons, logging 691 tackles, including four years where he surpassed 100.

The Raiders averaged 7.1 more points and 40.1 more yards per game and allowed an average of 7.4 fewer points per game and 7.7 fewer yards per game after Pierce took over as interim than in the first eight games of the season under previous coach Josh McDaniels.

The Titans are the only team other than the Raiders who have reportedly reached out to interview Pierce.

About the Tennessee Titans coaching search

Per NFL rules, the Titans may only conduct virtual interviews with all coaching candidates employed by another organization until the end of the second round of the NFL playoffs. The Titans are free to interview any candidate not currently employed by an NFL organization at any time and have been able to conduct virtual interviews with employees of teams that missed the postseason since three days after the completion of the regular season. The team will be allowed to conduct virtual interviews with coaches on teams that made the playoffs three days after their first playoff game ends.

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This is the Titans’ first coaching search in six years. Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk dismissed Vrabel citing a want for the franchise to improve its collaboration and alignment between ownership, the front office and the coaching staff.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.