Titans hiring Brian Callahan as subsequent coach

By Joe Rexrode, Paul Dehner Jr. and Mark Puleo

The Tennessee Titans are finalizing a deal to rent Brian Callahan as their subsequent coach, a group supply informed The Athletic. Callahan joins the Titans after spending the previous 5 years because the Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator.

Callahan was in Nashville for a second interview Monday and the Titans, who noticed him as their prime teaching goal, made certain to work in the direction of an settlement earlier than he left.

Callahan joined Zac Taylor in Cincinnati and has helped rebuild the Bengals from a cellar-dwelling group to at least one that has put collectively three consecutive profitable seasons and reached Tremendous Bowl LVI.

The Titans job was vacant after Mike Vrabel was fired Jan. 9 after six seasons with the group. Vrabel went 42-24 in his tenure, however the group slipped to 6-11 in 2023.

What Tennessee is getting in Callahan

Callahan comes with the pedigree of an offensive and quarterback guru. He spent his life across the sport rising up within the shadows of his father, former NFL coach Invoice Callahan, however actually grew within the shadows of Peyton Manning. As an rising offensive assistant in Denver he actually discovered to grasp the place on the highest stage. He went on to work with Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr and, in the end, groom Joe Burrow as effectively. However what is going to separate Callahan are the teachings he helped set up and noticed flourish in constructing tradition that modified the Bengals’ franchise.

He was the right-hand man of Taylor for each determination of the final 5 years in Cincinnati’s development from punchline to back-to-back AFC Championship Video games. He’s taken full management in molding an offense that thrived constructing round Burrow. He brings a mode reverse of Vrabel in some ways in that he leans towards a lighter, player-friendly offseason and prefers to lean closely into the passing sport. His model with Taylor has not been inflexible, although, morphing typically from 12 months to 12 months and even month to month in recent times. — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals beat author

Titans went the proper route for Will Levis

It made sense for the Titans to forged a large internet and never confine their search to offensive coaches, since you by no means know the place an interview may lead, however touchdown on one all the time made probably the most sense. That is an OC-obsessed league proper now, particularly on the subject of anybody with a Kyle Shanahan/Sean McVay hyperlink, and Taylor comes from that tree — with a few of Callahan’s early NFL expertise coming in Denver below an early West Coast disciple, Gary Kubiak.

Callahan didn’t name performs in Cincinnati, however he clearly labored intently with Burrow and located success for Jake Browning this season. He was quarterbacks coach in earlier stops in Oakland and Detroit, and what Will Levis wants now could be a steady companion in his growth. Hiring an offensive coach means the man who units the inspiration of every little thing Levis is doing can’t be employed away by one other group. — Joe Rexrode, Titans beat author

One other key offensive workers rent appears to be a lock now

The Titans had one of many worst offensive strains within the NFL final season, and whereas that’s about personnel greater than teaching, a prime offensive line coach is badly wanted in Nashville. It will stand to cause that Callahan would herald his father for that goal.

Callahan has been Cleveland’s offensive line coach the previous 4 seasons and has in depth expertise working with that place, together with head teaching stints with the Oakland Raiders and Nebraska Cornhuskers. Callahan helped set the inspiration below Barry Alvarez in 1990 for offensive line domination at Wisconsin that carried on for many years after he left. So far as offensive coordinator, two apparent names are Carolina Panthers OC Thomas Brown — who interviewed for the Titans job — and Kentucky Wildcats OC Liam Coen, who coached Levis in 2021. — Rexrode

Required studying

(Photograph: Dylan Buell/Getty Photos)