My Two Cents: For What Titans Need Right Now, Brian Callahan Checks Every Box
NASHVILLE — There is no relationship in football more important than coach and quarterback. In fact, it might be the most important alliance in any sport.
And that's not hyperbole.
So when the Tennessee Titans went shopping for a new coach this month, it was an absolute must to hire someone who can bring out the best in rookie quarterback Will Levis. For the Titans to get back to relevance — and they are completely irrelevant in NFL circles right now — they need Levis to become a great quarterback.
Not average, not good, but great.
Brian Callahan is the right guy to make that happen. Even though he's only 39 years old — he'll turn 40 on June 10 — the current Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator already has a long history of coaching some of the best QBs to ever play the game. He has a lot of experience in dealing with a lot of different styles of quarterback too, which makes him the perfect fit here in Nashville.
News broke late Monday night that Callahan — the son of longtime college and pro coach Bill Callahan — will be hired to take over for Mike Vrabel in Nashville after his day-long in-person interviews with Titans brass. The official word should come sometime on Tuesday.
And it's a great word. This is the perfect hire.
When Callahan and Zac Taylor arrived in Cincinnati together five years ago, the Bengals looked almost exactly like the Tennessee Titans do right now. That is NOT a compliment. They needed a quarterback re-set, and did that with Joe Burrow. They had the worst offensive line in football — the Titans have that honor now, them and the New York Giants — but found a way to fix it and still move the ball during the transition.
Once done, this Bengals tandem has been winning ever since, including making a Super Bowl run that came just a few seconds short of their first-ever world championship. Callahan has had a lot to do with that. And who says so? Only the Bengals head coach, Zac Taylor, who praises Callahan for everything the Bengals have accomplished together in their five-year run
Titans Nation would love the same kind of trajectory. And that first Lombardi Trophy of their own.
Callahan's offensive philosophy will take some getting used to in the Music City, but all in a good way. He is a pass-first offensive guru, and he's done great things with Joe Burrow, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, during his time in Cincinnati. They throw the ball all over the place, and they do it with a lot of creativity. But he's also willing to adapt as needed, whether that's season by season or week by week. And they can run the ball. Joe Mixon has had three 1,00-yard seasons during their run.
And that's all good, that creativity and willingness to throw the ball downfield. For as much as Titans fans love bruising running back Derrick Henry, they've grown weary of slow-paced, slogging offenses that rank near the bottom of the league year after year. They haven't scored over 30 points in more than two years. Worse off, they're boring. The Bengals have topped 30 a whopping 10 times in the same time frame.
With Callahan, they won't be boring. And that's just not me saying that. I've closely watched Peyton Manning's career for 30 years, and he's the smartest, most well prepared, most analytical quarterback ever in my book. A personal favorite, for sure.
And get this: Peyton Manning loves Brian Callahan. The two of them worked together in Denver, where they won a Super Bowl. He thinks he'll be a great head coach. And Manning loves Levis, too. He praised Levis often coming out of Kentucky, and thinks the Titans got an absolute steal when they scrambled to move up in the second round to grab him last year in the 2023 NFL Draft.
This has the potential to be a great marriage. We will see, of course, but the pedigrees are aligned.
For several Titans ''fans'' who don't know how things work, they're bashing the hire because Taylor calls the plays at Cincinnati, and not Callahan. But if you don't know the inner workings of how the Bengals operate, then you just don't know.
Callahan is deeply involved in the game plan, and scripting the early plays. He's responsible for red-zone calls and protections — and that has to be music to the ears of Titans fans. When you make of list of Tennessee failures in 2023, those two issues were top of the list. He and Taylor, who are about the same age and have a great personal relationship, talked constantly in real-time about calls and attacks during Bengals games.
In other words, the fact that he wasn't the every-down play-caller is irrelevant. He'll be just fine here in developing Levis and improving this offense.
"He establishes the whole structure of the offense," Taylor said recently of Callahan's important role. "He has helped develop every position we have. He's invaluable. There's really not enough things I can say about him. He’s seen a lot of successful quarterbacks and how they worked, and that experience has helped us.''
The Titans finished 6-11 this season, and won just one game in the AFC South, where they finished dead last, three games behind the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars, and four behind the division-champion Houston Texans.
There is work to be done, and Levis is the key to that in a division loaded with talented young quarterbacks. Levis played nine games in his rookie year and did a lot of good things, including throwing eight touchdown passes and providing great leadership. He threw four TD passes in his first game, a win over Atlanta, and has all the physical tools needed to win — and win big — in the NFL.
He did all that behind one of the worst offensive lines in football, one that allowed a whopping 64 sacks. That needs to be fixed, and that's one of the bonuses of hiring Callahan. Because he just might be able to bring his father along to help.
Sometimes nepotism is a good thing.
The elder Callahan is considered one of the best offensive line coaches in all of football. He's currently working with the Cleveland Browns as an offensive line coach, but joining his son in Nashville just seems to be too perfect, doesn't it?
Making Levis great starts and finishes with having more creativity from the coaching staff, and building a better offensive line. Check, and check with Callahan. Adding more weapons on the outside would be good too, and the Titans have a ton of salary-cap space to work with this winter.
One of the best free agents out there is Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, who loves Callahan, as well. Higgins is a Tennessee native, so bringing him home in the offseason would be great, especially when paired with Titans star DeAndre Hopkins.
Giving his quarterbacks time to throw is something that Callahan values, because he knows that success offensively requires it.
When Callahan worked with Manning in Denver from 2012 to 2015, the two talked often about every possible blitz package and having the right protection for every pressure the defense brought. It was that critical to their relationship.
“It’s one of the things most deeply ingrained in me from my time with Peyton,” Callahan told Dan Pompei of The Athletic. “I spent hours combing through tape for Peyton, finding all the blitzes, drawing them up, presenting them to him. He always wanted answers — what calls to make to get the blitz blocked, what plays to check to, how to make a team pay for blitzing him. ''
Callahan has taken everything he's learned from being around quarterbacks like Manning, Rich Gannon, Derek Carr and Matthew Stafford. That's helped him turn Burrow into one of the best young quarterbacks in the game.
It's going to be very interesting to see what he can do with Levis, who's got all the tools, too.
This is the start of turning things around here in Nashville. Now, build a staff, bring in some players with all that cap money and get to work. This can be a quick turnaround for the Titans, so let's see how that plays out.
But this is a great first step for owner Amy Adams Strunk and general manager Ran Carthon. It's a home run hire that checks all the boxes. It's the right next step forward from Mike Vrabel, who was 6-18 in his last 24 games.
It's change — in a good way. And it's good, for sure.
Related Titans stories
- TITANS HIRING CALLAHAN: The Tennessee Titans are hiring Brian Callahan as their next head coach to replace Mike Vrabel, according to multiple reports. Job One in the rebuilding effort could be the continuing education of quarterback Will Levis. CLICK HERE
- WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT CALLAHAN: "Obviously, the work that he's done with Joe Burrow has certainly been noted. But it's not just that. The fact that he got Jake Browning this year to play as well as he did certainly played into it." CLICK HERE
- MEET THE NEW COACH: Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan is an NFL legacy, the son of a coach. But his career is one of his own making. CLICK HERE
