The Tennessee Titans have a new head coach after relieving Mike Vrabel of his duties and his name is Brian Callahan. While fans of the franchise might have never heard of him since he was not a big name candidate like now Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh or former New England Patriots honcho Bill Belichick, Callahan has made a name for himself in the NFL.
However, at the age of 39-years old, his coaching career is not as vast as others who have been in the game for a long time. Who originally gave him the chance? To Callahan, it starts with the Cincinnati Bengals franchise and their owner Mike Brown and head coach Zac Taylor as he was the offensive coordinator from 2019-2023. He talked about how Brown “took a chance” on them according to an interview with NBC Sports' Peter King.
“Mike took a chance on all of us. Zac [Taylor], myself. I was 34 years old as a coordinator. He saw something in us that I was very happy that we could deliver on. Things didn’t go great in our first two years. We weren’t very good,” Callahan said. “For him to have the foresight, the patience to see that all of those good things that were happening, the undercurrents that were positive … The belief in a bunch of young coaches, just really resonated with me. He’s an awesome human being. I wouldn’t be here without him.”
How Peyton Manning impacted Callahan
Part of Callahan's coaching career was being an offensive assistant with the Denver Broncos from 2010-2015 where he was around Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning. He would credit him as “coaching” him during that time.
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“He kind of coached me. Like, here’s what I need from you,” Callahan said. “I was the one who presented the blitz problems we were facing that week, part of the protection puzzle we’d put together every week. It’s kind of still my favorite part of football to this day, and it was all off his direction.”
There was a ton that Callahan learned from Manning in that stint with the Broncos that he will be taking with them when being the head coach for the Titans. This is an aspect that should have Tennessee fans salivating at the mouth over.
“Peyton lives in a world where you can’t say ‘always’ and ‘never.’ Those two words don’t exist for him. Because inevitably you say this team never does something and then it happens in a game. I came in there one time and I said about this team we were facing, ‘They never’—let’s say it was a Double A-gap blitz—'bring this combination together. It’s never happened,'” Callahan recalled. “And I remember sitting there and Peyton, he kind of flips through his notebook for a minute and he says, ‘Hey, go to the Baltimore game from three years ago. Play 26.’ He pulls it up. And it’s exactly the thing I said never happened. I learned that I better make sure I watch every blitz on tape, going way back, before I tell him something never happened.”
How Callahan perceived the Bengals offense under Jake Browning
Furthermore, while the offense of the Bengals has been efficient and effective with the coaching of Callahan and Taylor, there is always a question if it is being carried by the star under center which in this time around, it's Joe Burrow. There was a set back last season though where he would suffer injuries that led to extended playing time for backup quarterback Jake Browning,
However, it seemed as if the offense had not lost a step with Browning under the helm. Callahan gives a ton of credit to the quarterback as talks about the progressions he made throughout the second half of the season.
“Truthfully, those are the moments where even though we didn’t end up making the playoffs, that to me was really rewarding coaching. A ton of credit goes to Jake, who’d been in that quarterback room for two years, for being very transparent and communicating really well that this is something that I don’t like, or this is what I like,” Callahan said. “That takes a lot of balls from young quarterbacks in the NFL to say. He said, ‘I need to have more pure progression where I can just go 1-2-3, and get the ball out of my hand.’ Going into that Jacksonville Monday night game, we gave him everything he asked for, and now he could just go out and play fast. That’s what happened. He played lights out. Great example of a quarterback believing the coaches are doing everything we can do to help him win. That’s important.”
Callahan's philosophy on offense as a sign of things to come for Titans
Now taking his talents to Tennessee, it will be an offensive-driven team as King asked what his philosophy will be like on that side of the ball which initiated the point by Callahan that it depends who the quarterback is. He cites the importance of a drop-back passer being “more productive” in certain situations.
“The drop-back passing game, especially on first and second down, as the statistics and information would bear out, you’re always going to be more productive doing that efficiently. It used to be if you run the ball 30 times and throw 20 completions, you’ll win every game,” Callahan said per NBC Sports. “Those old things have been turned on their head. To me, the philosophy of the offense is, you still want to marry run and pass games. Do a great job mixing your screens, your play-action screen game, with your run game. But when it’s time to throw the football, you better have a great protection scheme and you better have a great distribution in your pass game. That’s what I always felt my strength is as a coach—being able to manufacture the passing game to take advantage of what defenses are giving us.”
“The game is becoming, throw to get the lead, run to finish it,” Callahan continued. “That’s probably what most of the good teams look like. Kansas City and Buffalo throw it so well, and there’s still a huge component of the run game.”
Looking at the Titans, it seems to be that his quarterback for next season will be Will Levis who just completed his rookie season. Subsequently, Tennessee finished last in the division last season at 6-11, hoping to make a splash in their first season despite the possibility of a rebuild.