When Brian Callahan was hired by the Tennessee Titans, he thought that he was getting an ascending quarterback in Will Levis who he could hit the ground running with. That misconception made life difficult for everyone in 2024, but that won't happen with Callahan and Cam Ward in 2025.
Unfortunately, Levis has a terrible habit of making back-breaking mistakes at the worst time. When you do that behind a lackluster, offensive line and a group of wide receivers that lack talent outside of Calvin Ridley, bad things happen.
Those catastrophic mistakes can't happen as often as they did with Levis. When they did happen, Callahan fell into a bad habit of losing his composure with Levis (and doing so in front of everyone watching) instead of working to quickly figure out solutions.
Callahan will be a much different coach when the Titans select Ward at No. 1 overall in the 2025 NFL Draft. At the league meetings a few weeks ago, Callahan himself said that he could "write a book" about everything he knows now that he didn't know then. He also inherited Levis as his quarterback, whereas he's been involved in the process to identify Ward as a franchise quarterback.
Now that Callahan knows what it is like to manage the momentum swings that happen in games, you can expect a much different demeanor on the sideline as he coaches his hand-picked quarterback.
Callahan knows he'll be dealing with a rookie quarterback. Personal experience and expectations are different. Callahan has also discussed how his goal is to make a rookie quarterback feel like they are still playing in their college offense. They're going to build the offense around Ward's strengths.
Callahan will adjust the playbook accordingly. As he and Ward collaborate on concepts that work, the offense will spend the offseason going into training camp designing what the Titans version of the Miami Hurricanes offense is going to look like.
With more experience and maturity, and an NFL offense designed around the offense that Ward was lighting up college football with just a few months ago, Callahan should have a much better feel for what this season will look like. That will allow him to focus on doing what got him the job, which is to develop a young quarterback. Callahan will manage in-game reactions better while adjusting the offense in real time.