The Tennessee Titans have fired head coach Brian Callahan six games into the season, wrapping up a 4-19 run during his time with the club. Senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy has been named interim head coach in his place.
“After extended conversations with our owner and general manager, we met with Brian Callahan this morning to tell him we are making a change at head coach,” president of football operations Chad Brinker said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy, and they become more difficult when they involve people of great character. We are grateful for Brian’s investment in the Titans and Tennessee community during his tenure as head coach. We thank him and his family for being exemplary ambassadors of the Tennessee Titans.”
“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth. Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”
Callahan’s firing now makes it 4 straight QBs selected first overall who have yet to make it through a full season with their head coach. Cam Ward, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, and Trevor Lawrence all saw their coaches relieved of their duties midway through their rookie campaigns.
Tennessee has struggled to put points up on the board in 2025, amassing only 83 (13.8 ppg) through the first six contests of the year. In an attempt to jumpstart the offence, Callahan turned over play calling duties to Bo Hardegree at the end of September with mixed results.
There were more than a voices around the league who believed Callahan would be relieved at some point this season, with many assuming it would happen during the team’s Week 10 bye week. However, with fan discontent growing by the day, and rookie QB Cam Ward publicly calling the Titans’ play “ass”, ownership clearly felt the right time was now.
Ironically, the team’s first contest in the post Callahan era will come against the New England Patriots, who currently sit at 4-2 under new head coach Mike Vrabel’s leadership. Vrabel was the Titans head coach between 2018-2023 before being surprisingly relieved of his duties.
The former linebacker won two division titles, and an NFL coach of the year award in 2021 while on the sidelines at Nissan Stadium. Now, he’ll return to face his former team in week 7 in a matchup that will likely be personal on a number of levels.
Photo: Tennessee Titans. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.