TITANS HIRE BENGALS OC BRIAN CALLAHAN AS THEIR NEW HEAD COACH, PROMOTE GM RAN CARTHON & CHAD BRINKER
The Tennessee Titans have hired former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their new head coach, the team confirmed on Wednesday.
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero had reported on Monday that the Titans intended to hire Callahan but the team waited until other positions within the organization’s football structure were ironed out before making an announcement.
Callahan, who spent the last four years of his career with Bengals head coach Zac Taylor in Cincinnati, had his second interview with Tennessee on Monday and ended up securing the job before the end of the day. The Illinois-born coach had quietly become a hot candidate in recent days and had several second interviews scheduled for the week, including one with the Carolina Panthers on Tuesday and another with the Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday.
As per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Titans had identified Callahan as their top candidate early in the interviewing process and believed the young offensive-minded head coach could revive the team’s offense and improve last year’s second-round quarterback, Will Levis. All matters considered and with Tennessee assured that they got their guy, the Titans acted fast and made a decision.
The Titans also finalized their football structure as in addition to Callahan, they named General Manager Ran Carthon their Executive Vice President/General Manager, as well as promoting Assistant General Manager Chad Brinker to new President of Football Operations.
“Over the past year, Ran [Carthon] has impressed me and our staff with his innovative approach to roster building,” said Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk in a statement. “Ran’s exceptional reputation around the league as a talent evaluator and culture builder was a clear competitive advantage during last year’s free agency and draft process, as well as our recent search for a head coach. Simply put, Ran Carthon makes the Tennessee Titans a destination for the league’s top talent.”
“By expanding his role to include full roster control and oversight of the coaching staff, our organization will now benefit more completely from Ran’s unique ability to build and lead a championship-caliber football team.”
As Strunk explained, Carthon’s role within the Titans organization is now set to include all areas that impact the football team including roster control, team activities, personnel decisions, oversight of head coach Brian Callahan and his coaching staff, and scouting, sports medicine, and player engagement.
Brinker’s new role will include provision of executive leadership and support for the entire football operations of the organization. A new role for the Titans organization, the President of Football operations will have direct oversight of the departments that address salary cap management; analytics and strategy; communications and information systems; and team operations including security, video, equipment, and grounds.
Brinker will also continue to provide scouting evaluations of top talent in both the league and at collegiate level.
When Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk fired Mike Vrabel a couple of weeks ago, she said she “believes the teams best positioned for sustained success will be those who empower an aligned and collaborative team across all football functions.” With second-year General Manager Ran Carthon, President of Football Operations, Chad Brinker, and now Brian Callahan as the new head coach, it seems Strunk has found her new “aligned and collaborative team.”
With a modified and improved football structure in place, the Tennessee Titans now move forward into a new era at head coach, moving on from a successful six-year period with former HC Mike Vrabel. Tennessee’s hiring of Brian Callahan means three NFL teams have now filled their head coaching vacancies as the Titans go next following the New England Patriots and the Las Vegas Raiders in making an official decision before the Senior Bowl next week.
Callahan was previously a coaching assistant, an offensive quality control coach, and an offensive assistant in Denver prior to being the quarterbacks coach with the Detroit Lions and the then Oakland Raiders. The 39-year-old has worked with multiple decorated quarterbacks throughout his young career, including Peyton Manning, Matthew Stafford, Derek Carr and Joe Burrow. Manning is on record for saying back in 2016 that Callahan would be an offensive coordinator in the NFL, or even a head coach someday.
Callahan is the son of long-time Oakland Raiders and Nebraska head coach Bill Callahan and has also worked under other great NFL coaches like John Fox, Gary Kubiak, Jim Caldwell, and Jon Gruden. After a decorated five-season period in Cincinnati in which he developed one of the league’s best offenses with Joe Burrow and most recently Jake Browning, Callahan now has a chance to coach his own team and call his own plays, something he didn’t do with the Bengals.
Cincinnati has a potential in-house replacement for Callahan as offensive coordinator in quarterbacks coach Dan Pitcher, but the 37-year-old has a full docket of offensive coordinator interviews this week. As reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Pitcher had a zoom meeting with the New England Patriots on Tuesday before taking a flight to Las Vegas for an in-person interview with the Raiders on Wednesday. He then meets with the New Orleans Saints on Thursday, which means the Bengals would need to make a hasty decision if they don’t want to lose Pitcher to the competition.
Callahan is also expected to make some changes to the staff in Tennessee, which shouldn’t be an issue for Titans assistant head coach/defensive line coach Terrell Williams. Williams is also the head coach of the American team in the Senior Bowl, and has an interview lined up with the Chicago Bears for their defensive coordinator job this week.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: vermillion. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.