Titans Legend Reacts to Brian Callahan Firing

Titans Legend Reacts to Brian Callahan Firing

The number statement from Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker says Brian Callahan has been fired as Tennessee Titans head coach after extended conversations with the owner and general manager. They met with Brian Callahan this morning. Tell him they are making a change at head coach coming days just before the Mike Vrabel game, the revenge game coming to Nissan Stadium after a pitiful performance on the field by pretty much the entire offense. And we’ll break down that game as well. But obviously Brian Callahan is fired. Not necessarily, I guess you would say, surprised that he’s been fired mid-season, but a little shocking that it comes before the Mike Vrabel game. So maybe they’re hoping for the vaunted new coach bump before the Mike Vel game. Or maybe they just looked at him last night, saw him at the press conference, said, “It’s time to let this guy have a vacation of some sort.” or like I mean cuz he I don’t know if you saw his demeanor at the at the press conference last night blame but it was the I felt I just was like this dude has gone through the ringer and someone please put him out of his misery. Well I mean whenever you’re dejected after a loss but I mean just like you can’t find ways to to win and uh man uh I’m actually a little disappointed they let him go now. Why is that? Yeah, that’s what I wanted you to ask because now we can’t get the number one pick. It was guaranteed that we’re going to lose the rest of the game. You You don’t think? Yeah. Well, that’s Do you think that we’re strategic strategy? That is strategy. No, all jokes aside, man. Uh uh yeah, I guess uh that way if you I thought it would make it to the variable game. I thought the variable game would be the final. Harrah. Actually, they did it beforehand. Probably a smart move on their part. This way it doesn’t look uh like it was they knew they were going to let him go at this point. Uh but when and how long do you let him go is really was the question. And uh man, you know, the fans would have been riled up if Rabel beat him. And that would have been all the talk of uh which you know, a lot of fans forget about the last year and a half or so there of Rabel’s tenure. So uh yeah, I’m not stunned. It’s just that uh at least uh you know, it’s it’s Monday and it was right before our show. So I’m I’m super excited about that. But I I just want to just talk about how I this is what I perceived of Callahan, which who’s I think is a great guy. I think he would be a fantastic head college coach to be honest. U but I thought he was more of a system guy and system guys think that only their system is the way. He didn’t adjust to actually with his system the pieces that they had to the puzzle with the actual players. So what people do as coaches is I run my system and they don’t fit my system. Well, it’s up to you to essentiate, you know, all the good qualities in the players that you have. And all the guys in the National Football League are elite level players now. We must not forget that. So you need to highlight them in a manner that they are very comfortable with. And I don’t think he really ever did that. And we saw little clips of it even last year. Hopkins Ridley couldn’t make it work with two players. He still hasn’t figured out. I know Spears has been hurt, but it goes on and on. Then it was like, “Oh, it was the offensive line. Oh, it was Lev.” No. And I kept saying I think it became almost you, it was clear as day when Levis actually played halfway decent. Like, you know, not great by any mean, but you could say, “Oh, man. Mason and and Levis look no different to me, different styles, but the offense, how it actually operated was no different in that it it looked like, you know, it’s still the same. And it’s still the same with Cam War. So now we’re talking about you got a drastically different style quarterback, right? And it Right. And it’s still the same results. And I I think uh I think Cam is getting uh frustrated and trying to make too much of everything that he he needs to. And I think he’s missing the boat a little bit. He doesn’t have the pieces around him. Those are the, you know, chances and risk you take when you take a quarterback number one. And I don’t think I think they sold to the the owner that uh, you know, new quarterback, it’s going to be New Horizons, which is not true. And you, I think, did the stats made me aware of when there’s a new quarterback, typically the coaches get fired that next year. And I was like, uhoh. Well, mhm. If we keep going down this same road, that that’s probably going to happen sooner or later. I think they ultimately wanted to try to make it work. I think they did. It’s a valiant effort, but also fruitless endeavor. Yeah, they it just there was no way around it with all the things that that happened. So, you know, now let’s see uh what happens that nothing changes. I’m bet Bohard is still probably calling the plays and you know, who gets uh elevated to uh head coach? I would I would I want Bones f. So, I’ve been saying that for a while. Uh because he’s special teams and he you kind of are of a part of all the different players uh because of who all’s on the special teams and as backups. Uh so, we’ll see what they do. Um never anything close to what I would say, but uh finally here. So, let’s move forward and now we get a jump start on who are the great candidates, whether they’re still coaching somewhere or not or head coach or in college or wherever that’s at. So maybe they thought maybe they could just kind of get a better feel, better vibe. Uh maybe a short thing because they’re probably only going to get the administration only going to probably get one shot at this with their head coach with their GM. So uh let’s see if they can get it get it right with this crew. And and listen, it’s it’s it’s it’s a tough situation because we right as of right now, we’ll keep you guys updated. I’m constantly refreshing the feed for interim head coach, who that may be. Oh yeah, we don’t know uh how they’re going to handle the rest of the staff. Is Bill Callahan going to stay? You know, there’s talks that well, he’s going to quit and blah blah blah. And I don’t think that’s a for sure thing. I I think you feel the same way that quitting means you give up the money that’s guaranteed to you, by the way. I I don’t know where that connection is, but I I got it wrong in them going to hire him. So, uh you know, and the the Browns just releasing him, letting him go. So, did they get some compensation for that? No, I don’t think so. They did not. Yeah. So, I thought that was really weird in itself. But nothing would surprise me these days, but I wouldn’t assume that the just cuz the the dad uh is the O line coach and that’s his son who got fired. You still got Mike McCoy kind of out there in the wings too, right? Like I mean, he’s still out there. Um he’s got head coaching material. Maybe it’s Bones Fossil as head coach and Mike McCoy becomes offensive coordinator. I I I don’t know what this mess is going to be or how they’re going to navigate it. Here’s what I do know is that’s it may delay Cam’s growth, but it ain’t going to hurt it. And here’s why is because I do think that when you’re looking at this team, I don’t feel like play calling changed really from Brian Callahan to Bo Hardigree. And I don’t think your tendencies changed at all or anything like that. You may have gotten a few, you know, you had the two trick plays, that’s about it. But ultimately, it’s the same playbook. Right now, what can maybe Bohard Agree do if he is given full autonomy within the playbook? Because you’re not going to throw the playbook out no matter how bad it may be. But there are plays in there, right? They have RPOS’s, they have playaction plays. Does he is he now allowed to lean into that more now that Brian Callahan is gone? I don’t know. We will see. But there are plays like no huddle plays that they need to lean into and they need to lean into it before they’re taken out of the game. They need to lean into some play action a little bit more. Lean in on the run game a little bit more. Do those things change now that Brian Callahan’s gone? Cuz if they don’t change, then you’re not going to see anything really different in my mind other than maybe the offensive line gets better because JC Laam gets healthier and who did not look like he was ready to be out there yesterday by the way. Yeah. You know, I I it’s it’s kind of hard for me to say like what they should and should run. I know you talk about a lot of the stats and the numbers about play action pass and RPO and they probably should be doing some of those things, but maybe the staff wasn’t comfortable and really understood the concept of what those things brought to the table as far as offensive because they never ran them. I mean I mean it just didn’t exist. It it was like they zero RPOS’s yesterday by the way. Yeah, I saw it. I just couldn’t I you know I just so you know I don’t know if that’s more stubbornness or they just don’t like the vibe and feel of that that kind of offense. I don’t know. Uh but I think pretty much everybody runs it now in the National Football League at least two or three or four handful of plays in a game. Uh so it’s kind of even Vel ran it. Uh granted different offense with with the King back there. Uh but uh yes I yeah they did a lot of things that uh I didn’t like and you can see the performance of the offense continues to go backwards and that’s what probably got them uh you know Cam not developing getting any better getting worse by the way in my opinion that’s where stats can fool you. What does stats look like there? They didn’t look too bad like if you were just doing a box score yesterday we talked about 68.4 or 64.8% 8% may have that backwards, but then uh 222 yards, a touchdown, one interception, uh a passer rating that wasn’t you learned is those numbers always don’t tell the truth. Exactly. And then right there was what I was like, nah, he he had three turnovers, man. Uh, so it was the first time I really saw uh, head coach Callahan, former head coach Callahan actually get a little, you know, tough love and uh, get after Cam a little bit. So, I think it’s getting frustrating. The pressure got to everybody. While we are quote, “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. That’s from Chad Brinker in his statement after firing Brian Callahan. And I think what to to me the most glaring thing about yesterday’s game was about what was said after the game by Big Jeff in the locker room, by Cam Ward in the press conference confirming what Big Jeff said. This was their worst week of practice. coming off the win. And what does that mean? Well, that to me means that first off, a little bit blame on the players for that because I do think that, you know, if you see that there’s low energy or flat practices, the leaders need to step up and step in. But also, that’s a current theme from last year. If you remember after the Houston Texans game and that to me feels like that’s kind of I don’t know if the players meant it to come off this way, that feels like it the coaches are an easy target to blame in that. They do run practices and everything. Players are involved in it, too. But that kind of felt to me that maybe that was a message of like maybe the straw that broke the camel’s back, right? I mean, they were building and building up to this firing. Anyway, I don’t know if that was what actually did it or not, but that to me yesterday when I heard those two, your two main leaders, one on offense and one on defense, talk about how flat practice was, that did not thrill me going forward into the season with really anything that’s going on with this Titans team. Well, I I don’t know about Callahan, but remember I kept on saying about with a young team, you must make sure that they don’t relax, right? Right. See, different teams is a little different. Now, I’m not a big proponent on this practice crap. Like, when you get in pros, how many times we heard them, “Oh, we practice great and you play like crap. Let’s reverse it.” How many times we heard him say that? Way more cuz way more losses of course than the other way around. So, you know, it is what it is. Maybe it was, you know, it was funny cuz Big Jeff is actually the one that said it and and and that’s really anytime you talk about practice, it’s always an indictment of the coach. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an indictment on the player, but it it is an indictment on the coach cuz first of all, he should have roundmed the troops said we going to start practice over or this segment over, you know, this this part of practice. Uh so, and that’s leadership once again. So, uh, I think when you start looking at everything and we kind of talked about a little bit last night about that, but when you start connecting everything, it just really all does and everything normally does fall at the feet of the coaches cuz that’s the part of the job and the leadership group of the team. Yeah. And the leadership group of the team, but this really felt like we’ve seen enough evidence to know that Brian Callahan was just in over his head at this position. Wasn’t really ready to take the reigns of of everything that he was given. but wasn’t really kind of showed that he wasn’t ready to be a head coach. Kind of showed that he wasn’t ready to take on a rookie quarterback that’s not Joe Burrow. Well, I kind of take it on as just like uh Rancon was sleep on the plane. Yeah. Maybe we get that story. I take No. Well, and what I’m saying is that you’re saying, “Oh, he he he knew he was dead man walking.” Yeah. So, why am I going to go forth and do all this extra when it really is not going to matter in the whole big scheme of things is what I’m really trying to say right there. That makes sense. Uh so that is uh you know so I can’t really say that he was over his head. It just uh I’m more it was about systems for me. Um I think he’s a great guy and I think he’ll get another opportunity. I think uh maybe not as a head coach as I said I I think he’ll be a really good college coach. Yeah. It’s it’s to me it just kind of looks at the whole situation of who’s next. Does it really change anything? Probably not. But I mean, you never know what happens to maybe you don’t have flat practices. You’re still an a a roster that doesn’t have a lot of talent or A+ talent, I guess you could say. That that is gamechanging talent. You know what I’m saying? So, your wins and losses may not look differently as far as the record is concerned, but maybe they look differently because you’re more competitive or your players are put in more advantageous situations. Because that to me has been the big thing that we have talked about on this show for a while now is the concept of what you brought up earlier in this show, players over plays. You know what your players are. You hear Cam Ward now. Cam Ward has said it three different times. He said, “RPOS’s help me with seeing the field and seeing leverage. No huddle and uptempo really helps me get into a rhythm and it keeps the other defense in base. I wish we’d do more of And then he said it again last night. And what we know is that they wait until the fourth quarter to do uptempo. We know that since those statements and those questions asked about RPOS’s, they ran one RPO play in two games. So they don’t that’s because that’s not part of their system. Like you were saying earlier, they’re not going to run it. And and listen, there are plays where Cam Ward is the sole reason that the play didn’t work. that interception that he threw at the end of the second half, he was the issue. He drifted out of the pocket, he didn’t let it rip to a couple different players and by the time that he waited too long, here’s a player while he’s trying to throw the ball out of bounds already in his grill tipping it. But that’s on him. The offensive line held up for as long as they could. But there are a lot of plays that you can point to where you’re like, why aren’t the Tennessee Titans getting him into a rhythm? you have talked about it ad nauseium and then when you you talked about the top of the show and we’ll get more into it coming up next but you look at Will Levice Mason Rudolph and now Cam Ward it’s the same offense and the same failures just with a different.

Titans Legend Blaine Bishop alongside Zach Lyons reacts to the Tennessee Titans Firing HC Brian Callahan.

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