Former NFL Coach Mike Smith Has Lofty Praise for Titans

Former Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith is excited about the Tennessee Titans rebuilding progress with first-year coach Brian Callahan and quarterback Will Levis.

NASHVILLE — Tennessee Titans general manager Ran Carthon and first-year coach Brian Callahan have been tirelessly working to rebuild the team after two challenging seasons. Their dedication and efforts have not gone unnoticed, even catching the attention of a former NFL coach.

Mike Smith was 66-46 as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons from 2008-14, reaching the playoffs four times, including the 2012 NFC Championship Game. He recently spoke with Betway insider and had some positive feedback about how the Titans hired Callahan, the potential of quarterback Will Levis, and how the team did in free agency.

Last season Levis played in nine games last season as rookie while showing signs of promise there were moments inconsistency. Smith believes the best is yet to come for Levis under Callahan.

"The short answer is yes," Smith told Betway Insider. I was excited about him in his rookie year; he was a mixed bag of good and bad. He ended up starting nine games as a rookie, but there's a new head coach in town in Brian Callahan, who was hired because of his work with some of the top quarterbacks in the NFL."

During his career before coming to the Titans, Callahan worked with several high-level NFL quarterbacks, including Peyton Manning, Joe Burrow, Derek Carr, and Matthew Stafford. Smith believes this experience will translate well with Levis.

"The offense is going to look a lot different with Brian Callahan calling the shots," Smith said. "You're going to see Levis in an offense that features more passing, and he'll be able to distribute the touches more evenly. Last year, he was hamstrung a little bit and wasn't able to show what he's really capable of doing. I'm high on Levis and I was very impressed with him at Kentucky. I was surprised at how he fell down the draft board."

One of the most notable signings for Carthon was picking up former Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Calvin Ridley to a four-year $92 million deal. Smith believes that Ridley is one of the best receivers in the league.

"Calvin Ridley... is a top 10, maybe even top five receiver in the league, definitely top 10 at least," Smith said. "He can show out like nobody else and when he's on and he's hot, he's really good. They were looking at upgrading the wide receiver spot opposite DeAndre Hopkins, and that mission was certainly accomplished.”

Smith also high on the Titans signing running back Tony Pollard and center Lloyd Cushenberry. He sees the Titans as putting themselves in good position to modernize their offense with the depature of legendary running back Derrick Henry.

“Those skill position players that they added are very good," Smith said. "They had an issue at offensive line, so they went out and got Lloyd Cushenberry III and they had a really good resigning of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.” These are all moves which indicate to me that they are moving away from the run focused scheme with the large doses of Derrick Henry, who is no longer there, which was preferred by Mike Vrabel.”