Brian Callahan was hired a few weeks after the Tennessee Titans parted company with Mike Vrabel, and he is the team’s head coach for the first time since 2018.
Since then, the former offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals has been busy assembling his staff. Offensive coordinator Nick Holz, defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, and offensive line coach Bill Callahan, his father, are the most notable appointments.
Callahan was among the eight newly appointed head coaches in the NFL. Callahan was ranked sixth by Derrik Klassen of The 33rd Team after he had ranked all eight.
Here was part of Klassen’s analysis:
- Being on that Bengals staff makes it difficult to gauge Callahan’s impact. Callahan was the coordinator under an offensive head coach, Zac Taylor, which obscures some clarity on who was responsible for what.
- Likewise, QB Joe Burrow is a quarterback who comes with his own offensive scheme in a way. Burrow wants to be in the shotgun, spread the field and pepper defenses underneath and deep outside the numbers. In that sense, separating the quarterback from the scheme is challenging.
- That said, Callahan’s offenses showed impressive growth in the past two seasons. Everyone remembers the explosive 2021 Bengals offense, but as teams adapted the following year, that approach had to go away.
- The 2022 Bengals shifted more towards quick passing and greatly expanded their run game to make for a more balanced offense. In 2023, the Bengals shifted again, trying to take more of an under-center approach. Burrow’s bum ankle threw a wrench in that, but you saw what they wanted to do when Jake Browning stepped into the lineup.
Callahan managed the Bengals’ passing attack, which finished in the top half of the league for the previous three seasons.
Cincinnati’s passing game, which averaged 265.0 yards per game in 2022, was fifth in the NFL.
Between Joe Burrow and Jake Browning, Cincinnati’s offense averaged 229.1 yards per game last season, which ranked No. 15 nationally. After Burrow’s season-ending wrist injury, the latter amassed 1,936 passing yards in nine games.
The Titans are hopeful that Will Levis can become one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL with the help of Callahan’s offensive plan. with nine games as a rookie, Levis averaged 200.9 yards per game with Tennessee’s passing attack, which was the fourth-worst in the NFL (180.4 yards per game).