Four Reasons Brian Callahan Has NOT Been Fired Yet | MCA Titans Podcast

Four Reasons Brian Callahan Has NOT Been Fired Yet | MCA Titans Podcast

Why have the Titans not fired Brian Callahan yet? No, like actually why? We’re going to talk about the reasons that they haven’t done it, even though the entire fan base pretty much is calling for Brian Callahan’s firing. This is the Music City Audible. Let’s get to it. Uh, welcome everyone to another episode of the Music City Audible podcast presented by Sinkers Beverages, the premier wine, spirits, and beer store in East Nashville in partnership with 440 Sports. I’m Justin Graver. With me as always, Justin Millow. Justin, how are you doing today, my friend? Well, I’m doing well. Doing well. Uh, I think we got some interesting theories here. I mean, I’m not going to pretend that we know for sure why they haven’t fired Brian Callahan yet, but I want to talk through all the possibilities. What are the theories? Some of them on the positive side, some of them on the negative side. Essentially, this is a back and forth discussion um that’s going to theorize all the possibilities because they they’ve got a reason. We don’t know that reason for sure in my opinion. Um, but we’re going to talk through it and see what sort of conclusions we can come to. Yeah, very, very true. So, let’s start here. Justin, I’m going to start by talking about what’s happened to the Titans over the last few years. We all know, we all watched it happen, but Titans fire John Robinson. The following year they fire Mike Vrabel. The following year they fire Ran Carthon. The following year is this year. The Titans have become a team that fires somebody every year, three years in a row. It’s going to be four. Like it’s whether it’s mid-season or end of season, it’s going to be four. I think there’s a real hesitation on the part of Amy Adams Strunk. Again, this is complete speculation, but they’ve talked about, you know, this whole offseason how patience is key and continuity matters. And Cam Ward has talked about how he wants to be coached by Brian Callahan, Bo Hardigree, and Nick Holtz for years and years to come. Sorry Cam Ward, that’s not going to happen. But I do think there’s a hesitation to not be that reactionary again. But the problem is this is the time to actually be that rea like this is the guy who has truly shown that he can’t do the job at a competent level. And when you have someone who isn’t doing their job at a competent level, you don’t let them do that job anymore. But I really think it’s about like not wanting to not wanting to the perception the perception from the league, from potential head coaching candidates, free agents, other just every the fans, everyone that we that you’re not an unstable organization. And I know the damage has already been done on that front, but I think that is at least a partial reason for the holdup. Leave it to the Tennessee Titans. And I say this only half jokingly because part of it is very serious. Like it’s such a Tennessee Titans thing that we want continuity. We’re tired of Farsome. We want continuity. We know all the stable teams have continuity. We want to be stable. And you end up firing a guy or sorry, you end up hiring a guy who doesn’t deserve continuity. Like that is such a Tennessee Titans thing to happen. And in all honesty, like when we talk about Amy Adams Strunk, I think we’ve given her a little flack on this show. She deserves more because the the Ran Carthon Brian Callahan hiring pairing is like full-blown disastrous, right? Like two horrible horrible people at their individual jobs. Huge mistake on Amy Adams drunk part and it set the franchise back a couple of years. But uh and by the way, what you talked about there not being stable, the whole reputation, you want to know what others think about the Tennessee Titans? Mike Florio wrote a piece on Pro Football Talk, whatever the platform is that he has. Um talking about firing Brian Callahan, like you and I, like the national media is in on this now. They’re calling for it. Others like Connor or your buddy Connor or wrote a great piece on Sports Illustrated, I believe, Monday morning quarterback about it. You’re seeing analysts tweet about it. Pro Football Talk, who covers obviously the league from a a wide scope, but also a mainstream scope for the most part. They released an article saying, you know, on on watch, Brian Callahan, and I read it, you know, they’re always pretty short articles there. I read it and he said in the article, and again, it tells you what people think or what he and he has said it before, what he thinks about the Titans. He said, “Well, Brian Callahan is speaking on Monday, so they’re probably not going to fire him on Tuesday.” And then something along the lines, I’m paraphrasing, in brackets, well, you know, like an unstable organization would do that, so don’t put it past the Titans. Like people think the Tennessee Titans are an unstable organization. But I I I’ve got a couple of reasons um to theorize why they haven’t fired them yet. And uh you know again talking about the whole continuity thing. It’s very possible that they’re kind of looking at this from a bird’s eyee view and saying it’s been four weeks. Yeah. You know the the fan pressure is present when you’re losing and people are going to react to every single loss. Of course he hasn’t helped the narrative himself cuz if he had at least stayed out of the way and they had lost four games it’d be different. But you’re the whole catch rule thing goes viral. multiple fumbled game management situations go viral like he hasn’t he’s piled on the the public pressure obviously so and that’s placed the pressure on Mike Boronzi and Chad Brinker but it’s possible that they’re standing from a bird’s eye view and saying it’s been four weeks like we wanted to give him a fair shake I mean that’s why they didn’t fire him they they wanted him to come into this year to prove that he’s the long-term coach there it’s well within the realm of possibility now I’ve some uglier theories I want to get into, but it’s well within the realm of possibility that they’re just saying, “Guys, it’s been four weeks. Like, what we said in May, April, May, June, July, August isn’t going to change in just September. Let’s give this thing September, October, maybe November. Who knows?” But, um, it’s, you know, when it’s your decision to make and you’re trying to preach patience, uh, you’re you’re doing your best to not reverse course after week four. I think that I think that’s spot on. Like I think if we could get a peak behind closed doors that we would hear something like that. Hey, it’s been four weeks. Let’s all calm down a little. Like I think that is potentially and now coaches have been fired uh after four weeks. We talked about that a couple times in this podcast. I don’t know if you saw I know you saw I don’t know if you the listener/viewer I know you Justin saw uh Superhorn’s thread. Superhorn did a thread that was basically like, can teams actually get better mid-season by firing their head coach? And this is a really interesting uh data. So, there have been 36 head coaching changes since 2000 during a season mid-season firing/changes. 25 of those 36 teams improved. That’s almost 70% of the sample. 10 teams regressed. One team remained unchanged. But of across all 36 teams, the average win percentage before firing 26.9%. The average win percentage after firing 39.2%. And the worse the team was before the coaching change, the better the average improvement. So, I understand their their plan or their preach of patience has is coming to fruition and they meant it when they said that and they are probably not wanting to overreact to four games. Especially for Mike Boranzi. This isn’t 21 games with Mike Boronzi. It’s four games with Mike Boranzi seeing the process of what’s happening assuming he has some level of say in Callahan’s job safety. Um, but the data would actually show that they’re if they know he’s not the guy. And I feel like three wins in 21 games tells us he’s not the guy. Uh, the data that Superhorn dug up actually supports a a the quicker the better firing if you want any chance to salvage a season. Yeah, no doubt about it. And Super Horn is probably the most underrated follow on Titans Twitter. Like, if you’re not following him, you’re doing yourself a great disservice. Super Horn would be one of the biggest, I think, personalities in this media landscape if he cared to be, right? Like, he’s just he’s so good at what he does. He’s just got a full-time job and he’s got a life that he that he tends to, unlike us losers. So, uh, but no, great great thread by Super Horn. Glad you shouted that out. Um, uh, you guys should go check it out if you haven’t already. The other positive spin I could put on this uh not and when I say positive spin, I mean something that shines a a positive light on Mike Borgonzi and Chad Brinker potentially. Uh I do wonder how hesitant they are to say, “Hey, you want a stable situation for your rookie quarterback. You want continuity for your rookie quarterback.” Do we want him to have three head coaches in a calendar year? Because if they fire Brian Callahan right now, they’re gonna obviously hire an interim guy. We’ve theorized they would either be Bones Fossil or Mike McCoy because those are the two coaches on staff with previous either interim experience or full-time head coaching experience. Those are the only two on staff, I believe, and Bill Callahan. But I mean, it doesn’t really count because it’s obviously not going to be Bill Callahan if they fire Brian Callahan. Although, that would be the funniest thing to happen in Tennessee uh to the Titans in a while. But I wonder if there’s some hesitancy to say, “Hey, a third head coach for Cam Ward.” Cuz again, if it’s Bones or Mike McCoy, I mean, look, don’t put it past Amy Adams Strong cuz I probably would have said when it was Mike Malarkey, this is an interim basis. Who is going to coach them? Marcus Mariota next year. No, but whoever’s the interim would more than likely not get the full-time job. And then you’re on Cam Ward’s third head coach. I wonder if if if that gives them pause maybe somewhat understandably. Now, what I will say to push back against I’m not saying I agree with that. I’m saying I could see that being the thought process. Now, to push back against my own thought process, um which I probably think and I think you do as well. What’s worse? you know, introducing Cam Ward to a second and and third head coach or letting Cam Ward continue under this current staff for another two, three months, which we believe is borderline negligent, right? Based on how they’re coaching this offense right now. So, but I’ll be honest with you, that’s one hell of a question because I I can see both sides to that coin. You don’t want a guy to have three. I guess Caleb Williams had three head coaches, right? Because they fired Iber Floose in the middle of the year. They hired the interum ended up doing terribly, right? I think it was Thomas Brown. Like they got worse, I think, when they put Thomas Brown in that role. But hey, he’s looking, you know, pretty decent under Ben Johnson right now, his third head coach. So, um, but I do think that’s one hell of a question that doesn’t have a straightforward answer. So, Justin, I’m actually working on an a little project, a little research project that I’m going to put together here for when it eventually happens. But just looking at the success rate of quarterbacks whose head coaches, first round quarterbacks only, of whose head coaches were fired during or immediately following their rookie season, what is their success? How does it affect their NFL career success to have their head coach fired? And I’m looking at things like, did they get a second contract with the team that drafted them? How many Pro Bowls did they make for the team that drafted them? It’s all specific to to the team that drafted them. uh how many playoff appearances, wins, conference championship appearances did they have for the team that drafted them and total games started and how like what are what are your chances essentially as a quarterback to get a second contract just as a first- round quarterback overall? And then how do those change if your head coach is fired during or immediately following your rookie season? So, I’m doing the research on that front. I will have a video on that when I have the data. But I definitely think there’s something there’s some consideration for that fact. Personally, I feel that keeping him with a coach who is creating bad habits is worse than giving him because almost every quarterback whose head coach is fired mid-season eventually has three coaches. Now, yeah, there’s the rare instances where malarkey takes over and then gets the actual job. Um, but it’s I don’t think that that should stop them from firing a bad coach. Now, maybe I mean I’m not saying you’re wrong or that they’re not doing this. They totally this could be a total consideration, but if it is, I disagree with the philosophy. Yeah, I I I totally get it, right? Which one which one is worse? But like I said, you preach continuity, you want stability. The quite literal opposite of continuity and stability is to give a rookie quarterback three head coaches in a calendar year. You can’t give him more. Right? You have reached the maximum level of being unstable. The opposite of continuity is three head coaches in a calendar year. Now, I’ve got one more theory on uh potentially why they haven’t fired Brian Callahan yet. And the first two theories were very friendly, I think, and positive to Chad Brinker and Mike Borghazi. This one’s not going to be friendly to them. And I think it’s well within the possibility that this could actually be the case. Again, I wanted to present you, the viewer, all the possibilities. And maybe you can make your own decision of of which one you think it is. I wonder where you’re going with this because I have one more theory as well, but I want to hear what you’re cooking up. Let’s Let’s Let’s get it. Graver and I literally did not talk about this off air, so he does not know what I’m about to say. No. I woke up about 5 minutes before we started recording cuz I was up till 4:00 a.m. working on Heed the Call. Continue. He’s not kidding. I was like, “Where are you?” Um, the final theory I have that’s a negative towards them, they’re cowards. They’re being cowards. Okay? Because listen, a couple of things. Number one, if you fire a head coach after four weeks, you are essentially admitting we screwed up. We should have fired him before the year. Remember, there were a lot of people on Titans Twitter than the fan base that wanted him fired before the year. Some people said he was three and 14. That warrants being one and done. You have a new GM, you have the number one overall pick at quarterback. Why don’t you align the new GM and your new quarterback with their own head coach? a lot of people and with again with Amy Adams Trunk, it’s always been half measures. She fired John Robinson but kept Rabel. Then she fired Rabel and and and tried to align Carthon with Callahan, I guess. But Carthon had a year with Rabel, so you weren’t quite sure, right? Like it’s always one and not the other. Um they should have, you know, and there was a report that came out that they considered firing before the year. Yes, it was downplayed later. I think a Toz Sports said of course they considered it. They had the number one pick, but it was never a serious conversation. So, I I I think it’s within the realm of possibility that firing them after four weeks, you’ve got egg on your face. You’re saying, “Darn it, we should have fired him before the year, but we didn’t, and it was a huge mistake.” So, and there’s a there’s a second part to this cowardly theory. If they were to fire him now or this early, they’ve got to face the media, right? Like, they’ve got to get up there and talk. I I don’t think do they want to do that? They traded Jarvis Brownley a week ago. They traded Jarvis Brownley, not Brian Callahan. And they made Brian Callahan get up there and take your questions because they didn’t want to face the music. And they’re you they’ve been using Callahan as a like a meat I think Buck Rising Buck Rising called it a meat shield. Maybe they want to continue that for a couple more weeks, maybe even a couple more months. If they fire him, they got to get up there. They got to explain why they didn’t fire him in the off season. They got to explain why they’re firing him after four weeks despite claiming they want continuity and stability. And they got to answer to why this football team is one of the worst we’ve ever seen. Certainly in the Tennessee Titans era, like you and I discussed on yesterday’s episode. So, you know, like I started out this episode almost being too nice to the regime. Now, I’m I wanted to acknowledge the very real possibility that this decision to keep him in place despite there being a lot of evidence that he should not be the head coach is possibly due to their own cowardice. Yeah, I I mean, we can’t rule out that as a theory. I would rather not believe it, you know, but I definitely think, you know, we’ve all done this. We’ve all been in this situation similar to this before where you staunchly say or do something and then a month later you realize that was that was wrong and then you have to own it somehow, but if you can find a way to not have to own it, maybe you will. So maybe that’s happening right now. Maybe they’re like, “Holy we didn’t realize this guy was this bad. What are we going to do? Do we fire him now? We just talked about patience, stability, con. We can’t just fire him now. We got Okay, let’s give him more time. Let’s just give him more time. We’ll see what happens.” Um I could totally see that. fire him without getting up there. You can’t, right? Like, and what was the last time we saw Chad Breaker or Mike Boranzi, right? It’s it’s been a minute. So, and they’re enjoying hiding right now because the team is 0 and4 and the worst in the National Football League. So, look, it’s a theory that sucks, but it’s very well within the realm of possibility that they just they just don’t want to face you right now. Yep, I’m with you on that, Justin. Um, all right. I have one last theory that I’m going to roll out. And this I don’t know if this reflects positively or negatively on Brinkler Borghazi. It’s kind of just a choice and we can evaluate it if it’s real. What if they’re keeping him on to be tank commander? Oh, I mean they don’t think he can win a game. This this is a regime that believes in draft and develop. The best chance you have of drafting and developing is to draft higher, pick higher in the draft. Um, I mean, I look at teams like what the Lions did, you know, they they trade away Stafford and then obviously you have to hit on first first round picks, but they get cornerstone pieces like Aiden Hutchinson, Pen Su, Jamir Gibbs, Jack Campbell, Jameson Williams. I mean, not all of these guys are superstars, but they’re all highle contributors for this team that they use with having multiple first round picks for multiple years in a row. If the Titans are able to wind up with the first overall pick and can trade that for one or two other future first round picks and you go two or three straight drafts with two first round picks, that’s how you turn a franchise around in a f like quickly versus a three to fiveear rebuild. And maybe it has to do like maybe it’s a combination of everything we’re talking about. Maybe they don’t want to give Cam Ward three quarterback, three, sorry, three coaches in two years. And they don’t want to have to go face the media after four weeks of preaching patience all off season. And they believe if they keep Callahan in place, the team will continue to lose. and the without having to try to lose, which you never want to do because you lose a locker room that way. You just lose because your coach is incompetent and then you end up with the first or a top three maybe draft pick for the second straight year. It’s too early to have the NFL draft conversation, but I’m going to I’m going to do it just for a minute here because uh first of all, everyone who said this crop of quarterbacks was going to be so good, the Titans should wait. They shouldn’t draft Cam Ward, thank God they did, right? Not only do we do do we we’re confident in the way Cam Ward has played. Yes, he’s got to be better, but feel pretty good about the way Cam Ward has played through four weeks. And I feel real good about how him being a much better prospect last year at Miami than Lenor Sers at South Carolina. Fernando Garrett Nusmire struggling a little bit at LSU. Clay Clubick I think’s gone from like maybe not even draftable in my opinion the way he’s playing. So it’s like the Titans do get the number one pick. It’d be interesting. You know, I quarterbacks tend to rise to the top. Uh you hope there’d be an abil an opportunity to trade the pick away to a QB needy team, but I’m not convinced that there will be. They might just have to stick there and pick. And I mean, hey, the way Ruben Bane is playing at Miami, that might be worthy. I don’t think they take an offensive tackle, but pretty good tackle class I I think this year with the kid at Miami and also the one at Utah. Like be interesting to see what they’d end up doing if they get if it’s a top three pick. If it’s two or three, I think you’re probably sticking and picking. If it’s one, you’re probably trying like hell to trade it. But no guarantee that there’s going to be an interested party in a quarterback out there. But yeah, I think that pretty much Yeah, sure. Go ahead. Yeah. No, that does do it. Sorry. I was just going to say like drafting Ruben Bane, if Ruben Bane is what you hope he is, that is the type of cornerstone piece that it takes to to create a turnaround. Like the Bill Carter is doing for the right now. the the Titans have never had I mean that’s funny because the Titans could have just had Abdul Carter and waited on quarterback um which I’m glad they didn’t because I love Cam Ward um and I think he’s going to be fine and yeah he didn’t have his best game and we’re going to talk about that tomorrow but anyway yeah Ruben Bane is like the Titans have literally never had a guy well yes they have Javon Kur the freak but since Javon Kur they’ve been searching through the wilderness for like a true premier edge rusher and Brian Araba was great Derek Morgan and great players. I mean, not not I don’t know. Are they great players? They were really good players. They’re good. They’re very good players for sure. Titans haven’t had like Jason Gabin for one year. Yeah. But in order to truly be a contender at any level, like the Titans will eventually have to find like a premier edge rusher and the best way to do that is at the very very top of the draft. So, um it’s not by drafting a project in the second round. You hope Feed Dejo can develop into like your second into your Derek Morgan to you know I guess Ruben Bane being better than I rack but whatever. So anyway, yeah I think that’s like that’s a perfectly acceptable team building strategy is we cannot compete without premier talent at premier positions and the only way to find those guys is to draft them. You cannot sign them because the teams don’t let them hit free agency. Occasionally you can pull a Micah Parsons and trade for him, but you’re giving up more in that trade than you are by just select selecting a guy with your top pick. So there you go. Um that will do. Yes, that does it for today’s episode. I wanted to sign us off cuz I wanted to summarize real quick. We gave you guys four theories on why they haven’t fired Brian Callahan yet. Number one is it’s too early. We’re not pulling the plug after four weeks after preaching continuity. The second one is the Cam Ward conversation. we do more harm than good by introducing them to three head coaches in one calendar year. The third theory was they’re being cowardly and they don’t want to face the media and have to, you know, talk about why they’re so bad and why they fired him so quickly when they could have fired him in the offseason and started a new. Those were my theories. Graver comes in with the fourth theory there that they’re tanking. They they might as well lose and get an early draft pick and Brian Callahan’s helping them do that right now. We want to hear from you in the comments. Of those four theories, which one do you think is the likeliest reason why they haven’t fired Brian Callahan yet? I’m pretty sure it’s one of those four reasons, but if you have a fifth, if you haven’t, if you have another reason that we didn’t think of, please let us know in the comments. We will respond. We will engage with you. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t yet. You guys been doing a great job. We’re over, I think, 5,150 subscribers. We don’t really have a new goal yet, but we’d love to get to 5200 because you got to get to 52 before you could get to 53. So, subscribe to the channel if you haven’t yet. Let us know uh again in the comments which theory you’re going with. Shout out to Stinker Beverages premier wine beers beer and Graver does this. The premier the premier wine beer and spirit store in East Nashville serving the community for like 350 years whatever it’s been. Graver know better than I do. Please let us know in the comments until tomorrow. We’ll be back. I think we’re talking trade deadline fire sale targets on Wednesday. We’ll assign a grade to Cam Ward because we’re doing that every single week. That’ll be tomorrow’s episode. Until then, y’all stay safe out there. And Titans down a Broadway sports media production.

Justin Melo⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Justin Graver⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ are back to theorize the reasons that Tennessee Titans upper management, including Amy Adams Strunk, Chad Brinker and Mike Borgonzi, have not yet fired head coach Brian Callahan. Are they worried about Cam Ward’s development, the optics of the organization, or something else?

0:00 Intro
1:02 Brian Callahan has not been fired yet
4:51 Theories on why
22:41 Wrap Up

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