Hiring Bill Callahan changes everything for the Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans were lucky enough to identify and hire two very promising coaches in head coach Brian Callahan and defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson.

Despite those two remarkable hires, the most exciting coach that the Tennessee Titans have hired this offseason is 67-year-old offensive line coach, Bill Callahan.

It is incredibly rare to have the chance to hire an elite coach without giving him a promotion or asking him to do something that is outside of their comfort zone. That is why Tennessee Titans fans need to stop and appreciate just how remarkable it is that they were able to land Bill Callahan. There is no way that the Cleveland Browns would have let Bill Callahan go anywhere if not for the historic opportunity to coach for his son in Tennessee.

Bill Callahan is in a special tier of offensive line coaches, and the only other coaches in that pantheon of greatness are coaches like Mike Munchak, Russ Grimm, Jeff Stoutland, and Dante Scarnecchia.

It is important to say that Brian Callahan was absolutely qualified to be the Tennessee Titans head coach because of the success that he has had in developing or working with quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, Derek Carr, Matthew Stafford, and Joe Burrow. However, it was no secret that the team hiring Brian Callahan might be able to land Bill Callahan as well, and that made him exponentially more enticing.

Early in the coaching search, I wrote an article outlining the perfect coaching staff for the Tennessee Titans, and I picked Brian Callahan to be the head coach and Bill Callahan to be the offensive line coach.

At one point I outlined the guys that he had coached and developed during his time as an offensive line coach:

"Starting with his background, his father (Bill) is one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL and he has been for decades. During his time in the NFL, he coached and developed All-Pros and Pro Bowlers like Nick Mangold, Alan Faneca, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, Travis Fredrick, Brandon Scherff, Jack Conklin, Joel Bitonio, and Wyatt Teller."

I can't think of another offensive line coach in modern history who has been able to coach and develop Pro Bowlers and All-Pros like that. That doesn't even take into account the dozens of linemen that he has turned into serviceable starters who might not have made it otherwise.

That brings me to the impact that Callahan could make on the Tennessee Titans.

Bill Callahan is a game changer for the Tennessee Titans

This year is going to be a year of transition for the Titans, and no one is safe. Every starting job is going to have to be earned for the first time in six years, and it doesn't matter if the head coach recruited you in high school, or if you are tougher than a $2 steak, or if he didn't like you coming out so now he is going to make you ride the bench until you somehow prove your worth on special teams.

Before the players can compete for those jobs, the coaching staff will have to comb through the 2023 film and figure out which players need to be replaced and which ones might be salvageable with the right coaching.

From a big-picture standpoint, that means guys like Treylon Burks, Kyle Philips, Rashad Weaver, and Elijah Molden. All of those guys have a chance to turn into starters with this coaching staff based on flashes they have shown in the past.

However, with Bill Callahan in the fold, suddenly some players on the offensive line could look salvageable, specifically, Dillon Radunz, Jaelyn Duncan, and Nicholas Petit-Frere.

Put aside any preconceived notions you have about them based on what they did with Keith Carter and Jason Houghtailing "coaching" them. All three players were consensus 2nd or 3rd-round talents coming out of school, which means that there were plenty of things to get excited about when you watched them in college.

I'm not saying that any of these guys are going to be Pro Bowlers, but if Callahan believes that any of them can be a starting tackle in the NFL next season, it would be a tremendous help for the Titans this offseason.

Let's say that Callahan believes that Dillon Radunz can be a right tackle and that Peter Skoronski and Daniel Brunskill are solid guards. Fixing the offensive line in one offseason becomes a real possibility when you look at the draft picks and the money that the Titans have at their disposal.

Playing a little fantasy GM here, but imagine if Callahan brought in Tyron Smith. The future Hall of Famer played under Bill Callahan early in his career and he is going to be a free agent this offseason. An offensive line with Smith, Skoronski, a free agent center, Daniel Brunskill, and the winner of that right tackle battle, would be a big upgrade to what we saw last season.

That would leave the Titans free to do whatever they wanted in the first two rounds of the 2024 NFL Draft, whether that means going after a blue-chip receiver, trading down for more picks, or drafting Joe Alt/Ola Fashanu to learn and develop like he Tennessee Titans did with Taylor Lewan a decade ago.