The Tennessee Titans are certainly preparing like a team that is getting ready to select Miami Hurricanes quarterback Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft. General manager Mike Borgonzi has overseen an offseason that has prepared for the arrival of a young quarterback.
There was a heavy focus on boosting the offensive line in free agency with the signings of Dan Moore Jr. to play left tackle and Kevin Zeitler to play right guard. Sophomore first-round pick JC Latham will be sliding over to right tackle to replace Nicholas Petit-Frere. The team also added veteran quarterbacks Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle, who feel like Will Levis replacements as backup mentors for a rookie QB.
Head coach Brian Callahan boasts an exciting resume when it comes to working with quarterbacks despite the failure of Tennessee's 2024 season. Before taking over the Titans, Callahan worked with Joe Burrow, Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, and Derek Carr, to name a few. His work with Burrow in Cincinnati is particularly intriguing as he was tasked with helping craft an offense around a No. 1 overall pick quarterback. History is about to repeat itself with Ward.
Callahan recently spoke with ESPN's Kevin Clark for an exclusive interview. In that highly enticing sit-down, Callahan offers a peek into how he's potentially preparing to build an offense around Ward by rehashing the process he oversaw with Burrow. His comments are incredibly telling.
I asked Brian Callahan how working with rookie Joe Burrow would help how he'd handle a *hypothetical* rookie quarterback. He was so so good on it. He recently went back and watched the recorded zoom meetings he had with Burrow during his rookie year. Awesome This Is Football. pic.twitter.com/ns8Rokdqd6
— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) April 2, 2025
"I actually went back and watched, because it was Covid [during the pandemic], so I had all these Zoom [interactions with Burrow] and we recorded all of them," Callahan said. "I went back and watched all of those first handful of meetings for more perspective. I see Joe [the same way] I saw him when I left [Cincinnati]. He's this top of the league, best quarterback in football, arguably.
I went back and watched all of those [rookie Zoom meetings] just to see where he was in that process. It was good for me to see that because you don't remember it sometimes. The amount of work that it took to get where he was. A lot of that's a credit to Joe, but there was definitely things we did developmentally, both in how we taught the scheme, how we introduced it, what we asked of him, how we structured game plans that first year. Those are the things I've been revisiting."
Callahan goes on to say the Bengals treated Burrow's first year at Cincinnati like another season at LSU, inserting concepts into their playbook they knew he was familiar with. Callahan is certainly speaking like he's preparing to do something similar for Ward in Tennessee. Based on his past experiences, he sounds like the ideal coach to oversee Ward's rookie-season development.