Brian Callahan’s Coaching Background

Brian Callahan is a second-generation football coach who built a solid NFL résumé before landing the Tennessee Titans head coaching job. He spent 14 years in the league as an offensive assistant and coordinator, working his way up through several organizations. Notably, Callahan served on the Denver Broncos coaching staff during their Super Bowl-winning 2015 season, and later became the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator during their run to Super Bowl LVI in the 2021 season. In Cincinnati, he was credited with aiding the development of star quarterback Joe Burrow. Prior to that, he also had stints as the quarterbacks coach for the Detroit Lions (2016–2017) and Oakland Raiders (2018). This breadth of experience made Callahan a hot candidate in league coaching circles.

Unfortunately, he’s terrible…

In January 2024, the Titans hired the then-39-year-old Callahan as their head coach. The franchise’s first outside hire at that position in a long time. He was brought in to replace coach Mike Vrabel (fired after six seasons, for some dumb reason) and was “tasked with trying to turn back into winners and groom Will Levis into their franchise quarterback.”

He didn’t…

2024 Season: Offensive Woes and a 3–14 Record

The 2024 season was Callahan’s first at the helm in Tennessee and I was hoping his only. It proved to be a nightmare campaign for the Titans. The team stumbled to a 3–14 record, a very disappointing outcome for a club that had entered the year with hopes of contending based on the moves made. Like most of them historically though, they were terrible. The offensive overhaul that Callahan was supposed to bring never materialized; instead, the Titans’ offense became one of the league’s least productive and most mistake-prone units.

One low point came in Week 14 of 2024, when Tennessee managed only six points in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. A Jaguars defense that was statistically the worst in the NFL at the time. After that game, an exasperated Callahan offered a blunt assessment of his offense’s performance: “We didn’t do enough good (expletive) on offense to score points,” he said. The Titans mustered just 272 total yards in that contest despite facing a defense that had been allowing over 400 yards per game.

Under Callahan’s supposed offensive expertise, mistakes and turnovers became a hallmark of the 2024 Titans. As the losses piled up, Callahan even benched the second-year passer he was hired to groom: in a Week 15 game against Cincinnati, Callahan sat Will Levis after his fourth turnover of the day (a pick-six interception), turning to veteran backup Mason Rudolph in an attempt to spark the team.

It did not…

By that stage of the season, Levis had become a turnover machine. He would finish 2024 leading the NFL with four pick-sixes thrown (the most by any Oilers/Titans quarterback in a season since the franchise moved to Tennessee in 1997) and had 12 interceptions overall, among the highest in the league. He also lost 5 fumbles contributing to the Titans’ NFL-worst 29 turnovers on the season. The constant giveaways short-circuited any offensive momentum and often put the team in early holes.

The Titans weren’t just losing under Callahan, they were frequently noncompetitive and appeared incompetent. Through 14 games of 2024, Tennessee had already suffered seven losses by 10 or more points. The Titans had only eight double-digit losses total in the previous two seasons combined under former coach Mike Vrabel. Many games were essentially decided by the fourth quarter, and fan morale plummeted as the defeats mounted. By December, with the team sitting at 3–11, Titans fans had shifted their focus to the future, openly tracking draft position and “rooting for other teams to lose” to improve Tennessee’s odds of securing a top draft pick.

Ultimately, the Titans did secure the No.1 overall pick for the 2025 NFL Draft, finishing with one of the worst records in franchise history (their 14 losses tied a franchise high since relocating to Tennessee) and signaling that the Will Levis experiment had failed after just one full year.

2025: A Promising New QB, But a Nightmare 0–3 Start

So, things would get better right? I mean, the #1 overall pick, the first season of whoopings behind you, things could only get better surely. With the first pick of the 2025 draft, the Titans selected quarterback Cam Ward, aiming to reset the franchise’s trajectory at the game’s most important position. Ward, a talented rookie out of miami, has indeed shown flashes of promise, the one “bright spot” on an otherwise bleak roster. However, even the infusion of a new quarterback has not been enough to change the team’s fortunes on the field. The Titans have started 0–3 in 2025, and Callahan’s second year as head coach is looking as troubled as his first.

The early-season offensive numbers in 2025 have been dreadful, even with Cam Ward under center. Through the first three games of the season, Tennessee ranked dead last in the NFL in passing offense and 30th in scorin. In fact, the Titans managed to score only two offensive touchdowns in the first two weeks. Big plays have been non-existent: Tennessee was the only team in the league without a 30+ yard gain from scrimmage through Week 2 of the season. By Week 3, the Titans had been outscored 94-51 collectively, as the offense continued to sputter and fail to sustain drives. For an offensive-minded coach, these stats are damning, essentially every available metric paints disastrous picture of the Titans under Callahan.

Criticism of Callahan has intensified not just for poor results, but for his game management and play-calling. During the Week 3 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, a 41-20 blowout that really the Titans were in, Callahan committed a flatly dumb blunder just before halftime, FOR THE THIRD WEEK IN A ROW! Facing a fourth-and-1 at the Colts’ 39-yard line with under a minute remaining, the Titans were clearly indecisive. Indianapolis called a timeout, and then Callahan inexplicably called one of his own, seemingly unsure whether to go for it or attempt a long field goal. Despite the double-timeout debacle, they were still unprepared to run a play. How on earth do you get a delay of game after two timeouts!?

And oh by the way, a delay-of-game penalty that pushed a 57-yard field goal try back to 62 yards. After just PLAYING FOR POSITION TO KICK A 64-yarder, which he also of course missed. That won’t get talked about, but it was equally as dumb.

Joey Slye’s 62-yarder fell short, and the Colts took advantage of the short field to drive for their own field goal before the half immediately, again – a “completely avoidable six-point swing” caused by the Titans’ coaching mishap. This sequence, broadcast on CBS and shots of frustrated fans in the stands, underscored what called the “numerous in-game errors” Callahan has made in his short tenure. It was the kind of mistake that amplifies criticism of a coach’s aptitude on the sideline.

By halftime of that Colts game, the home crowd’s frustration boiled over. As the Titans left the field for the locker room, trailing 20-6, Nissan Stadium echoed with boos and chants of “Fire Callahan!”. The negativity was impossible to ignore – even a planned ceremony honoring team owner Amy Adams Strunk at halftime was drowned out by fans’ angry chants. The public call grew louder with the team falling to 0-3, and local media began openly speculating about his job security. It’s worth noting that the Titans organization has been anything but patient with underperformance in recent years: the franchise has fired a head coach or general manager in each of the past three seasons. In fact, controlling owner Strunk dismissed former coach Ken Whisenhunt back in 2015 after a 3-20 stretch, and fired Mike Vrabel in early 2024 after a downturn in fortunes. With that history, Callahan’s 3-17 record and the team’s continued downward trend have put him squarely on the hot seat.

But for what… should have fired him after last year’s mess…

Amid the chaos, the one silver lining has been the early play of Cam Ward. The rookie quarterback has demonstrated talent and poise in spurts, “flashing ability as he works through extreme growing pains,” as one analyst put it, and he’s given fans a glimpse of hope for the future. Ward has also shown leadership beyond his years by publicly standing by Coach Callahan despite what we all think, and know. After the Week 3 loss, Ward told reporters he isn’t bothered by the crowd’s booing and still believes in what the team is building. The young QB’s vote of confidence suggests that inside the locker room, Callahan has not lost the team completely.

A Coach on the Hot Seat

At some point, it stops being about bad luck, rebuilds, or “growing pains,” and it just comes down to the guys in charge. Brian Callahan was sold as an offensive mind and a QB developer. Instead, he’s turned the Titans into a punchline. Back-to-back disaster seasons, another rookie being dragged down into the mud, and the same boneheaded game management week after week. The record 3–17 isn’t an accident, it’s who this team is under him. The fans know it, the players feel it, and the scoreboard proves it. The writing isn’t just on the wall; it’s been spray-painted across Nissan Stadium in neon letters.

Enough excuses. Fire this guy and let’s move on.