Written by Joe Rexrode, Paul Dehner Jr. and Mark Beaulieu
The Tennessee Titans are finalizing a deal to hire Brian Callahan as their next coach, a team source said The athlete. Callahan joins the Giants after spending the past five years as the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator.
Callahan was in Nashville for a second interview on Monday, and the Giants, who considered him their No. 1 coaching target, made sure to work toward an agreement before he left.
Callahan joined Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and helped rebuild the Bengals from a basement-dwelling team into one that had three straight winning seasons and reached Super Bowl LVI.
The Titans job was vacant after Mike Vrabel was fired on Jan. 9 after six seasons with the team. Vrabel went 42-24 in his tenure, but the team fell to 6-11 in 2023.
What is Tennessee getting in Callahan?
Callahan comes with the pedigree of an offensive and quarterback guru. He's spent his life around the game and grew up in the shadow of his father, former NFL coach Bill Callahan, but he really grew up in the shadow of Peyton Manning. As a junior offensive assistant in Denver, he truly learned to understand the position at the highest level. He went on to work with Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr, and eventually groom Joe Burrow as well. But what will set Callahan apart are the lessons he helped install and saw flourish in building the culture that transformed the Bengals franchise.
He has been Taylor's right-hand man in every decision made over the past five years in Cincinnati's growth from shutouts to back-to-back AFC Championship games. He took complete control of shaping the attack that flourished around Boro. He brings the opposite style to Vrabel in many ways as he leans towards a lighter, player-friendly approach and prefers to rely heavily on the passing game. His approach to Taylor was not strict, though, changing frequently from year to year and even from month to month in recent years. — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals beat writer
The Giants have gone the right way for Will Levis
It made sense for the Titans to cast a wide net and not limit their search to offensive coaches, because you never know where an interview might lead, but landing one always made the most sense. This is an OC-obsessed league right now, especially when it comes to anyone with a Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay link, and Taylor comes from that tree — with some of Callahan's early NFL experience coming into Denver under one of the West Coast's first disciples , Gary Kubiak.
Callahan didn't call the plays in Cincinnati, but he clearly worked closely with Burrow and brought success to Jake Browning this season. He's been a quarterbacks coach at previous stops in Oakland and Detroit, and what Will Levis needs now is a steady partner in his development. Hiring an offensive coach means that the person who lays the foundation for everything the Levis do cannot be hired by another team. -Joe Rexrode, Titans beat writer
Hiring another key offensive staff appears to be a lock now
The Titans had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL last season, and while it's more about personnel than coaching, there is a desperate need for a great offensive line coach in Nashville. It makes sense that Callahan would bring his father along for this purpose.
Callahan has been Cleveland's offensive line coach for the past four seasons and has extensive experience working in that position, along with head coaching stints with the Oakland Raiders and Nebraska Cornhuskers. Callahan helped lay the foundation under Barry Alvarez in 1990 for control of the offensive line at Wisconsin that continued for decades after he left. In terms of offensive coordinator, two obvious names are Carolina Panthers OC Thomas Brown — who interviewed for the Titans job — and Kentucky Wildcats OC Liam Coen, who coached Levis in 2021. -Rexrod
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(Photo: Dylan Boyle/Getty Images)
