Brian Callahan‘s first season at the helm in Tennessee clearly hasn’t gone well. The Titans are positioned to have their fewest wins since the 2015 season, and despite Callahan’s offensive pedigree, quarterback Will Levis has failed to take a step forward during his sophomore campaign.
Naturally, pundits have started to question if the head coach could be one-and-done in Tennessee. However, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport write that Callahan and most of his staff are expected to return next season.
The Titans made one of the surprise firings of the 2024 offseason when they moved on from long-time coach Mike Vrabel. It was always going to be difficult for the successor to immediately match Vrabel’s run; the former Patriots linebacker had winning records in four of his six seasons and made three-straight playoff appearances. However, following a pair of underwhelming showings, the Titans decided to move on.
They pivoted to Callahan, who had a reputation as one of the league’s best offensive minds. In Cincinnati, the former offensive coordinator helped guide Joe Burrow to superstar status. He also coached a trio of 1,000-yard receivers (Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd) and one of the league’s most consistent RBs in Joe Mixon. Callahan was going to be a natural choice for HC-needy teams, and he ended up finding his next gig in Tennessee.
As mentioned, things haven’t gone particularly well. Levis struggled under center before his benching, and the Titans’ special teams unit was a “major liability” at the beginning of the year (as Pelissero and Rapoport point out). Still, as the NFL Network duo note, the Titans have shown improvement despite their 3-12 record, and there’s a sentiment that Callahan has shown “long-term promise” in the role.
Team brass obviously won’t tolerate another dismal season, but it sounds like they’re willing to give their first-year head coach a relatively long leash. So, barring some unanticipated development, it sounds like Callahan will be staying put for the 2025 campaign.
Why Ben Johnson is no guarantee to be a successful HC
No one is a guarantee, but this isn’t similar. Callahan didn’t call plays. Johnson is an elite play caller.
And Levis is not an elite quarterback, or even a good one like Goff
Johnson also has an elite offensive roster to call elite plays with. The idea that a good OC can magically make a good QB is fiction.
Goff was dumped by the Rams and Johnson has completely revitalized him. They have the most dynamically schemed run game in football. They absolutely have a strong roster, but Johnson has done fantastic work as an architect and play caller while Callahan didn’t even call plays, so it’s very different. And Callahan had Burrow, who’s having a phenomenal year without him.
Correlation isn’t causation. Are you sure BJ gets all the credit for Goff? I don’t know, maybe Goff figured it out? Aside from Shanahan and Reid, are there any more HCs you’ll give credit for making a QB? Do we give BB or Josh McDaniel credit for TB12? Not arguing that BJ won’t be a QB whisperer, but there are 2 other departments in the store to manage (D and ST) that he probably has no experience with. I’d agree he’s a good architect and play caller, but he’ll need a cooperative GM that gets the pieces for him to accomplish what he did in DET, wherever he goes.
I didn’t say he deserves all the credit for Goff, but he’s put these players in a position to succeed with his scheme and play calling that, for example, Trevor Lawrence would kill to have had at any point in his career.
You did say Johnson “completely revitalized him (Goff)”. Johnson’s schemes, best OL, and alot of offensive players also revitalized him too. Just making an argument that hiring today best coordinators isn’t always a great idea.
Jury is still out on Callahan. Levis being awful since week 1 gutted that team’s morale.
Ok. And my point is that Callahan’s body of work as a coordinator didn’t show nearly as much as Johnson’s. But I also think it would be goofy to can Callahan after one year and would bet a tidy sum that they won’t.
The other thing is Detroit has a great GM drafting high end players as well. A great coach is nothing with a bottom feeder roster.
Carthon made a number of bandaid FA signings that never came together or produced what they expected. And the trade for and signing of Snead completely blew up in their faces. Reid sure knows when to get rid of “stars”.
Yeah, I understand the process of events that occurred in Tennessee, and I’m not out on Carthon as an observer, but he should deserve some degree of attention for some of the things that he pushed for. There’s still a lot of time to see if his plans will work out, but there have definitely been a few hiccups that are not Callahan’s doing. In fact, most of the issue in Tennessee has been roster related, not coaching related. The question is how much of that is inevitable in a transition, and much is poor decision making.
Callahan deserves another year as HC because they asked the impossible of him this season; turning a QB (Levis) into something, when Levis isn’t the guy. This is a prime example of why you don’t reach for QBs just because it is a need.
As always, teams fall in love with the tall big armed QB and passed over his actual game film.
At the same time, expecting a 2nd year, 2nd round QB to lead his team to the playoffs is far fetched 90% of the time. Throw in a rookie HC and second year GM to boot. It takes time to develop cohesion.
Yeah, I know he has the size and the arm talent teams want. Even in college, he had poor mechanics and questionable decision making skills, though. Two years at Penn State, he basically did nothing. His numbers at Kentucky were good, but man, you can still see he needed a ton of work. More than anything, he just doesn’t seem like a leader. I could be entirely wrong on that last part, I don’t know.
It’s microwave economics. Everyone wants instantaneous return on investment immediately or send the nukes and start over. I liked Levis coming out of college too but at best dude is a 3 to 5 year project and needs more weapons
The problem with microwave economics is that too often the return on your investment is POPCORN.
Don’t forget about nuked hotdogs in a glass half full of water!
The best type of hotdogs
And then sometimes it’s Tom Brady or Jordan Love or Cooper Kupp.
NFL media and fans really need to stop trying to run every first year HC out of a job when they don’t have immediate success. It is rare that an HC can turn these terrible teams around that quickly for a plethora of reasons. Give him time. Same for Mayo.
It’s not an accident that the team with the worst offensive line in football hired a guy who could bring his superstar line coach father with him. That was never going to be a quick fix.
When the Cowboys entered the league in 1960 they didn’t win a game. Early in Landry’s career as a coach there was a call to replace him. The owners response (Give him a 10 year contract that will shut them up).