Tennessee Titans new HC Brian Callahan has been excellent so far

When the Tennessee Titans hired Brian Callahan, the first few weeks were always going to be an interesting challenge.

First and foremost, there are a lot of people in the national media who insist on talking about the Tennessee Titans even though they don't pay attention to the Titans during the regular season. Those are the same people who keep spreading the myth of what they believed Mike Vrabel was as a head coach instead of paying attention to what was actually happening.

So Callahan had to walk into a situation knowing that he was going to be compared against the idea of Mike Vrabel, but to his credit, he has been authentic, open, and willing to answer any question he has been asked.

Whether that means going on the radio tour like he did immediately after he was hired, or answering questions with his new coaching staff today in their introductory press conference, Callahan has given clear and comprehensive answers.

The other big challenge was to hire a coaching staff. That might sound simple, but there were 8 head coaches and 33 OCs or DCs hired during this coaching cycle, which means that it was extremely competitive to identify and hire quality coordinators and assistant coaches.

Despite that, Callahan finished by adding or retaining:

-A highly coveted DC in Dennard Wilson.
-The best or second-best OL coach in the NFL in Bill Callahan.
-One of the better DL coaches in the NFL in Tracy Rocker.
-One of the most underrated WR coaches in the NFL in Tyke Tolbert
-Chris Harris as the passing game coordinator/CB coach.
-Justin Outten as the TE coach.

What is next for the Tennessee Titans?

The staff is nearly complete and the only major position with a vacancy is Special Teams Coordinator which is important, but while a lot of other coaching jobs are measured in degrees of success (think A-F grading scale), the STC is more about not getting stuck with a bad one (think pass-fail).

All of this came together well when Brian Callahan and his coordinators spoke to the media today. Everyone did a great job clearly laying out what their roles were, what they were looking for in players, and what their plan was for the upcoming season.

Tennessee Titans fans are going to have a lot of ups and downs this offseason, and it is going to be important to compartmentalize the different parts of the offseason. Callahan has aced his tests on assembling a coaching staff and communicating effectively, and now all eyes are shifting to team-building.

Can Ran Carthon and Brian Callahan work together to turn this roster into a competitive group this offseason? Time will tell, but for the first time in a long time, Tennessee Titans fans can go into free agency and the draft with a measure of confidence that both the GM and the HC are working towards the same goal.