Titans' Robert Saleh Defended by Solomon Thomas Ahead of Jets Revenge Game, Firing Was 'So Wrong'

Tennessee Titans head coach Robert Saleh will be opening his first season with his new team against his old team, the New York Jets, on Sunday in Nashville. The Jets fired Saleh five games into his fourth season in 2024, capping a 20-36 stint in New York. However, Titans defensive tackle Solomon Thomas has been a staunch defender of Saleh, having played under him for nearly his entire 10-year career. Thomas had this to say on the matter in an exclusive interview with Nick Suss of the Tennessean: "I've been with Saleh eight out of my 10 years. I have a lot of love for him and I've been around him a lot. How that ended was so wrong. We were tied for first in our division and our head coach gets fired. In no situation would that ever make sense. I'm sorry. I will talk about that. Just the fact that he has so many former Jets here just shows that guys love playing for him. They know what he's about to do here and they want to be a part of it." The 2024 Jets bounced back from a season-opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers by beating the Titans and New England Patriots to move to 2-1. However, the offense stalled in back-to-back losses to the Denver Broncos and Minnesota Vikings, dropping the team to 2-3 and a game back of the first-place Buffalo Bills. Saleh was fired two days after the Vikings game, but he excelled as the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator last year and returned as a head coach in 2026. Thomas played under Saleh as the 49ers' defensive coordinator (2017-2020, 2025) and the Jets' head coach (2022-2024), and now he's with him in Nashville. "I think there was such a disconnect based on what was portrayed from the front office to the locker room," Thomas said of Saleh's Jets tenure. "I don't really like talking about anything other than football. But I've never really been in a place where more was said out of the front office than out of the locker room. And said as a distraction. And it was really unfortunate because our locker room was really the opposite of what was going on in the front office." Regardless of the opponent on the other sideline, it's crucially important for the Titans to get the Saleh era off to a victory against a beatable opponent in the Jets, who are coming off a 3-14 season. Tennessee just went 3-14 itself but overhauled the coaching staff and invested around second-year quarterback (and 2025 NFL draft top pick) Cam Ward, so there's hope for improvements in town.