What Bill Callahan's presence means for Peter Skoronski and JC Latham

Tennessee Titans offensive line coach Bill Callahan enters the 2024 season, the 47th of his illustrious coaching career, with the reputation of an offensive line guru capable of elevating the talent around him.

The veteran coach will have a pair of talented youngsters to work with in the Titans' past two first round picks, Peter Skoronski and JC Latham. With Latham entering his rookie season and Skoronski having missed three games wihle recovering from an appendectomy for the majority of his 2023 rookie campaign, both players are relative unknowns at the NFL level.

So what kind of impact will one of the best position coaches in the history of the league have on these youngsters in 2024 and beyond?

Callahan has been on the offensive staff, or been the head coach leading 14 different lineman to a total of 35 Pro Bowl selections, per the Titans' official website. Of those 14 lineman, nine were first round draft picks while 12 of the 14 were top 50 overall selections.

Throughout his career, the longtime coach has led various types of players to improved success. His resume includes coaching UDFA Brandon Moore to his first Pro Bowl, and developing career journeymen Ereck Flowers into an above-average starter in Washington in 2019. Callahan also elevated first-round picks such as Zack Martin and Nick Mangold to multiple All Pro selections.

The Titans are hoping that Skoronski and Latham fall into the latter group of players, but what has that looked like for first round rookies in the past under Callahan? We're diving deep into the seven former first round rookies that were drafted while Callahan was on an offensive staff.

Jermane Mayberry was a tackle drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles with the 25th overall selection in the 1996 NFL Draft while Callahan was the offensive line coach. The lineman out of Texas A&M-Kingsville caught pneumonia and played sparingly during his rookie campaign (three games with one start) before coming back to start a full season at left tackle in his sophomore campaign. Prior to his third and final season under the new Titans offensive line coach, Mayberry shifted inside to left guard and struggled. The newly appointed guard started only five games that season and, in his own words, "took awhile to get used to it". Mayberry ended up having a 10 year NFL career and made a Pro Bowl and Second-team All Pro in 2002 (his seventh season) while playing right guard for the Eagles with the final seven seasons coming after Callahan's departure.

Damon Jamal "Mo" Collins was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the 1998 NFL Draft with the 23rd overall selection, Callahan's first season with the Raiders as the offensive coordinator. During his rookie season, the former Florida product began as a backup left tackle. After a back injury knocked out starter Pat Harlow for the year, Collins was the starter for the final 11 games of the season. In his second season in the league, the tackle started 12 of the first 15 weeks prior to a Week 16 injury that saw Barry Sims take over. Collins shifted inside to right guard prior to his third season and finished out his six year stint with the Raiders between the left and right guard positions prior to a knee injury cutting his career short. Callahan was present for all six of these seasons, the first four as offensive coordinator, and the final two as head coach.

Drafted in the first round by the Raiders one season after Collins was Matt Stinchcomb. The Georgia product was expected to compete for the left tackle job against Collins in his rookie season, but missed the entire year due to a shoulder injury. Stinchcomb won the left tackle job to start the 2000 campaign and started the first nine games before going down with another shoulder injury in addition to a torn MCL. The oft-injured lineman played sparingly as a swing tackle, left guard, and center from 2001 to 2003 under Callahan before leaving Oakland in free agency. Stinchcomb would play one full season in Tampa Bay, starting all 16 games before back injuries forced him into early retirement.

Callahan landed at Nebraska as a head coach and spent several years with the Jets coaching former first round picks before landing in Dallas as the Cowboys offensive coordinator/offensive line coach.

In the second of his three seasons in Dallas, the team selected center Travis Frederick with the 31st pick in the 2013 draft. The Wisconsin product was known as a a great run blocker with zone blocking experience coming out of college and instantly became a starter in Callahan's zone-heavy scheme. The center started all 16 games in his rookie season on his way to the All-Rookie team, but often times struggled with pass protection. His pass blocking improvement over his next four seasons, something that can't be overstated as his five-year pass-blocking grade of 86.2 ranked sixth among the 40 players with at least 1,000 pass-blocking snaps from 2013 to 2017, per PFF, and that includes his rough rookie season. Frederick would go on to make the Pro Bowl in 2014 under Callahan and continued to play at a Pro Bowl level for four more seasons before retiring due to an autoimmune disease that forced him to miss the 2018 season.

Zack Martin was the Cowboys' first-round selection at guard in the 2014 NFL Draft. The Notre Dame product was a slightly undersized player with zone blocking experience and great mobility coming out of college. Martin made a huge impact during his only year under Callahan, earning Pro Bowl and All Pro honors in his rookie season. The star guard is currently still with the Cowboys and has earned nine Pro Bowl nods in 10 seasons, the lone exception being the 2020 season that saw Martin miss time with a calf injury and concussion.

The 2015 season saw Callahan leave the Cowboys to join Washington as the offensive line coach, that same year the team used the fifth overall selection on Brandon Scherff. The former Iowa tackle came into the league as a powerful player and mean run blocker that could get to the second level and move in space, but struggled with speed off the edge. Despite having a profile that sounds similar to Latham (the difference being that Latham is 30 pounds heavier with longer arms), Scherff was moved to right guard prior to his rookie season due to the presence of Trent Williams at left tackle. The tackle-turned-guard played all but one snap in his rookie season on his way to the All-Rookie team. Scherff would continue to improve in his next four seasons under Callahan, making three of the next four Pro Bowls. The guard is entering year 10 this season and has made five total Pro Bowls in nine years. The veteran has even commented when asked about his development, "there is no better coach to have then coach Callahan."

Following Callahan's time in Washington, he joined Cleveland as the offensive line coach where the team used their 2020 first round pick on Jedrick Wills Jr. The Alabama product was a right tackle in college that Callahan was tasked with converting to left tackle at the NFL level. Cleveland GM Andrew Berry said he was confident in Wills making the transition due to the presence of the veteran offensive line coach and his prior experience helping past players, such as Tyron Smith, make the same transition. Wills started 15 games during his rookie season and was largely promising, making the All-Rookie team at age 21. In the three seasons since, the left tackle has struggled with injuries and consistency as he enters a contract season in 2024- his first without Callahan as his offensive line coach.

Now Callahan comes to Tennessee with Latham and Skoronski both looking to take a big step forward, but what do these past first rounders tell us about the Titans' young left side of the offensive line? Firstly, the coaching guru has plenty of experience with positional changes- five of the seven players mentioned above switched positions while working with Callahan. This will be huge as Skoronski only kicked inside to guard last season after being drafted, while Latham is switching from right to left tackle. To Latham's credit, he's already been watching some of the tackles that Callahan has converted previously to study their technique.

Several of the above mentioned former first round picks were labeled as prospects who had excellent movement skills that could excel in space and in a zone blocking scheme, which also describes both of the young Titans lineman. The Titans' new offensive scheme is projected to lean more heavily on a wide-zone blocking scheme in the run game which should highlight the athleticism of the entire left side of the offensive line. This change should allow Skoronski, Latham, and Lloyd Cushenberry to get out in space and create running lanes for Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears.

Realistically, both Skoronski and Latham could struggle in pass protection particularly early in the year. Skoronski and Latham will both be learning a new offensive scheme and even several of the players who have had successful rookie years under Callahan, like Frederick and Scherff, struggled with pass protection early on in their career. While this could be a spot that both players excel at in the future with their skill sets, some growing pains could be present for at least part of the 2024 season.

Lastly, Callahan has turned all four first round rookies he's coached since the turn of the century into productive starters in year one, which the Titans will be counting on from Latham from Week 1 onward.

Three of those four rookies eventually turned into Pro Bowl level players, with Wills being the lone exception, one thatonly recently turning 25 years old. Health pending, Latham and Skoronski could develop into Pro Bowl level players next to each other in a similar mold as we saw Martin and Frederick grow together as back-to-back first round selections. The Titans have the perfect blend of high level talent and top-notch coaching to turn this offensive line around.

Skoronski and Latham could develop into elite players for years to come.