It has been a very eventful offseason thus far for the Tennessee Titans, and Monday was no different, as the Titans secured their new head coach in Brian Callahan, former offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Firing Mike Vrabel, alongside the presumed loss of Derrick Henry, has created a huge rift in the identity of the Tennessee Titans. That made it absolutely critical for Amy Adams and Ran Carthon to find the right guy for the job to create a new identity for this team, and I believe they did just that.
Get to know new #Titans head coach Brian Callahan, who has coached some of the NFL’s top quarterbacks … and now will be working with Will Levis in Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/xiTETEbp3o
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 23, 2024
Brian Callahan is an offensive guru. He started his career as an assistant for the Denver Broncos, where he was praised by Peyton Manning for the role he played in their Super Bowl-winning season.
He then moved on to the Detroit Lions where, he helped Matthew Stafford achieve back-to-back 4,000-yard passing seasons, before heading to the then-Oakland Raiders to assist Derek Carr to his first-ever 4,000-yard season in year five of his NFL career.
Most recently, and most importantly, Callahan became the OC for the Cincinnati Bengals in 2019, allowing Joe Burrow to blossom into the star he is today, throwing for multiple 4,400+ yard seasons in years where he’s fully healthy.
Can you remember the last time the Tennessee Titans had a 4,000-yard passer? If you think you can, I promise you can’t, because they have never had one...ever. The Houston Oilers had two 4,000-yard passing seasons in 1990-91 with Warren Moon, but that was 33 years ago.
Those same Burrow-led Bengals have had 5 30+ point games just this season, and that was with an injured (or missing) Joe Burrow and Tee Higgins missing a third of the season. Comparatively, the Tennessee Titans haven’t had a single 30+ point game since November 2022.
A new era in Tennessee Titans football
But Callahan is here. Gone are the days of the run, run, pass in Tennessee. In comes the West Coast Offense.
Of course, nothing truly means anything until you get on the football field and play (I mean look at the 2023 New York Jets), but Tennessee Titans fans have to feel pretty good about this on paper.
If you read between the lines on the Vrabel firing, despite what he may have said in the subsequent press conference, clearly Carthon and Vrabel had some philosophical issues either related to roster management or coaching hires.
Although I was very critical of the Vrabel firing at first, and I still don’t like how Adams handled the press, in retrospect, it is good that it ended when it did. If Vrabel and Ran didn’t share the same vision, dragging both of them kicking and screaming into the next season only seems like wasted time on a young and talented roster. Now Tennessee has a coach and general manager that are truly in lockstep.
The potential staff as a whole that will come along with Callahan also looks very promising, starting with Oilers/Titans Legend and HoFer Mike Munchak seemingly wanting to make his return. It's also not hard to envision Callahan’s father, former Raiders head coach Bill Callahan joining the roster to be an offensive assistant as well. In addition to that, there have been some rumors floating around of Carolina Panthers OC Thomas Brown potentially coming to Nashville to be the OC, although all of that is too early to call.
What is not too early to call, however, is that the Tennessee Titans believe they’ve got the guy that’s going to take them all the way. With so much cap space and a high draft pick to work with, this is certainly going to be an exciting offseason for the Tennessee Titans. Only time will tell exactly how everything pans out.