Ray Horton has been hired as the new defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans. Despite all of the fluff that was spun about this story by various outlets, the Titans never even requested permission to interview Keith Butler. As I wrote on Monday, the hype around Butler didn’t really make too much sense, but the story grew legs quickly. One prominent Steelers blogger actually “guaranteed” he would interview wherever Whiz landed. Anyway…

The Whisenhunt/Horton relationship makes perfect sense, and the two joining up in Tennessee seemed very likely. It wouldn’t surprise me if Whiz had his mind set on him as DC while he was interviewing for head coaching jobs. Horton is highly regarded as a defensive coordinator in the league, and was Whisenhunt’s coordinator in Arizona 2011 and 2012.

Horton joined the Steelers in 2004 as an assistant defensive backs coach, before being promoted to defensive backs coach in 2007. Horton runs a 3-4 defensive base, so it will be interesting to see how, and to what extent it’s implemented in Tennessee.