A new era of Tennessee Titans football began as soon as former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan was hired to become the 7th head coach of the team since the franchise moved from Houston to Nashville in 1997. It's fitting that Callahan is the seventh coach of the Titans, considering the Titans own the 7th pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. Aside from whatever the Titans set out to do in free agency, what Tennessee does with that pick will be the first defining choice made under the Callahan regime. And perhaps Callahan's history with the Cincinnati Bengals can teach us who the Titans may end up selecting with the 7th pick in the draft.

Just one year after picking Joe Burrow with the 1st overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Bengals owned the 5th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. Their decision would come down to two players, both whom made sense given the needs of the Bengals. The selection would either be Penei Sewell, a highly-touted offensive tackle from the University of Oregon, or Ja'Marr Chase, a wide receiver and one of Joe Burrow's top weapons at LSU.

The consensus around the league indicated that the Bengals would be wise to select Sewell in order to bolster an offensive line that had allowed Burrow to take a prolific beating during his rookie season… a rookie season that ended up being cut short due to Burrow tearing his ACL on a play when he was sacked in the pocket. Instead, the Bengals zagged, taking Chase and adding him to a receiving corps that already featured Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. After the draft, when asked about the decision to select Chase instead of Sewell, Callahan offered this response, courtesy of Bengals.com:

“I think what you see around the league is that it's hard to hold the ball. That's every team across the league. There's nobody that sits back and drops back and hangs onto the ball for a long time, because those guys on the other side are freak shows. With those defensive linemen and the blitz packages you see, life is hard for a lot of teams. And when you get a chance to get guys who can win on the outside — and we feel really good about the guys we have that can go win matchups and catch balls — it helps when they win fast.”

Callahan capped his monologue off by saying, “I think it's just an arms race to whoever can get the most explosive players.”

This long-winded response potentially sheds light on what the Titans may do with the 7th pick in the 2024 Draft. Depending on how things shake out with the first six picks, the Titans could find themselves in a scenario where they are presented with the choice of two elite offensive tackle prospects (Notre Dame's Joe Alt and Penn State's Olu Fashanu) and two elite wide receiver prospects (LSU's Malik Nabers and Washington's Rome Odunze).

Given the state of Tennessee's pass-catchers and offensive weapons in general — especially in comparison to what the Bengals had at their disposal heading into the 2021 NFL Draft — signs point to the Titans drafting the best wide receiver on their board in the 1st round. But maybe Brian Callahan, now a head coach who is required to look at the full scope of things, will have a change of philosophy.