We Are Looking for Growth Right Now | Press Conference

We Are Looking for Growth Right Now | Press Conference

that the the NFL is a it’s a good business, but at the same time, it’s a tough and unforgiving business. There are days where this game brings us great joy. There’s also days where it’s tough, and today is one of those days. You know, Brian Callahan is, as you all know, is a man of high character. He’s a good man. He’s a good football coach. Um he’s got a wonderful family and Amy has entrusted me um to make tough decisions in this organization and working with Mike and I and meeting with her this morning and talking through all this uh we just felt like this was the right time to make a change. Now, that doesn’t change the fact that uh the things that we said in in in the preseason about um you know, we were looking for growth in this football team and that’s what this is about right now is we’re not seeing enough growth from this football team. We’re we’re one and five. Um and and we got to be better in this. And I I want to acknowledge the fact that we’re all frustrated. We understand that you, the fan, you’re frustrated with everything that’s going on, but I can we’re we’re doing everything we can. We will do everything we can to build a football program that you can be proud of. So, we do want to wish Brian Callahan and his family the very best. These things are tough because there’s relationships involved. There’s a human element to all this. Uh so, it doesn’t make it easy. Um, but we know at this time where we are as a football program, uh, we needed to make a change because we got to start growing and getting better. How does this fit in with Hold on. Mike’s going to have a few things he wants to say. I just really want to echo a lot of things Chad said. Um, you know, I have a tremendous amount of respect uh, for Brian um, as a person and as a coach in this league. Um, and you know, we said from the start, you know, we’re just looking for growth right now. We did not see that at this point. Um but he’s an excellent uh you know coach uh person and um you know I wish him the best uh moving forward. Uh we also announced today that we’re going to uh make Mike McCoy the interim head coach. Um what Mike brings right now is experience uh leadership. Uh he’s done it before. I’ve had respect for Mike uh for a long time. He played in the same division we did in Kansas City for a long time. Um so we have full confidence in Mike um that he’s going to be able to steer the ship here. Sorry. How does this how does this reconcile with your mantra of patience, not panic? Yeah, I think again it’s uh this change was needed because we weren’t seeing the growth in this football team. That’s what it goes back to. Uh we talked about this all off seasonason. We know where we are as a football program right now and um you know to this point in the season we just weren’t seeing the growth that we needed to see to get this program in the right direction. So that’s why the change was made. How much of it was the growth of the team and how much of it is the growth of Cam Ward? Yeah, I think uh that’s a big part of this as well. You know, obviously uh we we drafted Cam Ward first overall. um we need to to see him grow as a football player as well. So all that’s a factor. So was this Amy’s decision or did you guys make a recommendation as far as the change that you thought should be made there? There was a conversation with obviously Amy’s involved in in in every conversation that we have. Uh so we had that conversation with Amy this morning. We made that decision collectively. What makes you guys think that? Go ahead. What makes you guys think that coaches hired by Brian who worked collectively under Brian’s instruction with the the same thinking that that things are going to change with with with coach McCoy largely being the same people and the same philosophies? Yeah, you know, sometimes you you have to change a little bit and there will be changes that um Mike will address. Uh he will speak to you guys tomorrow. I don’t know if he’ll have all the changes and let you know on that, but there will be certain things that he does change. Um I’ll let him address some of those um questions uh that might come up. Um but sometimes you need a little bit of a change to get a spark. Um so um you know that’s why the decision was made. a little bit if it’s not going to there’s only so much you can do at this stage during the course of the season yet. Well, we’ll see. We’ll see. Do you think in terms of responsibility for for hiring Brian? I guess how much responsibility do you feel in that and and I guess maybe what lessons can be learned from this whole process? Yeah, I think you know we Brian was a first-time head coach. You know, I talked about this in the in the offseason and uh we wanted to give him that opportunity uh to grow into the head coach we believe he he he could become. Um but unfortunately it just has not worked out and we haven’t seen the growth um with with this football team to this point that um warrant that to continue. Uh so we need to take make a tough decision. And like I said in the beginning, you know, I’m I’m put in a position uh to, you know, assess uh evaluate uh the entire program. And there’s nothing that that’s getting done in this organization without Mike and I talking about this, working together, talking to our owner. Um so, you know, that that’s why that decision was made. I guess in hindsight, do you feel like you was there anything that was overlooked in your opinion or? Yeah, I think in in any of these situations, you you go back and you wonder what you know, did you miss something? Could you have done better here or there? That’s that’s part of what we do as evaluators and part of being in this position that you’re in is um you’re constantly evaluating not only what’s going on around you, but also evaluating yourself. Um but I I think uh you know, our process was right. I I don’t think the process was wrong or or there was something wrong in that in that part of it. I just think that, you know, Brian um we believed in Brian and and wanted to give him that opportunity and unfortunately, like I said, it just didn’t work out. To the replacement, who is going to ultimately be the one to make that decision? I know you preached collaboration, but how is that process going to going to play out? the the collaboration you’re talking about, right? As far as choosing who’s going to be not the interim, but the head coach actually, not permanently, but going forward, uh, once the season’s over. Yeah. I think, like I said, Mike and I have been, you know, a big part of all those conversations with Amy. I I don’t know if I’m understand your question correctly, but basically what I’m asking is, is it going to be your decision, your decision, Amy’s decision? Whose decision is it going to be to hire the next head coach for for this? I got you. Yeah, we’re all going to work on that together. But Mike and I will lead the if you’re asking, you know, as far as the search is concerned, Mike and I will lead that search. But right now, you know, what our focus is right now is pouring everything we can and into and to Mike McCoy and giving him every opportunity from here on out, starting this week, we got the Patriots coming to town. We got to do everything we can to help him uh you know, to support him the way he needs to be supported so we can go out there win a football game. So that’s really what our focus is right now. Um there’s going to be plenty of time to talk about the the next steps. Mike McCoy is going to get every opportunity uh to prove I mean he’s been a head coach in this league before, so we want to give him that opportunity. Well, there’s plenty of time now, but does Amy realize with the constant change over here, the damage that’s happened to the franchise in terms of of the national perception and and of what your ultimate candidates are going to think if they’re given a choice between this job and another job where the owner doesn’t make an annual change of a position in power. Yeah, I think it this is a uh very frustrating situation for everybody involved, including our owner. Um, you know, I this this job will be attractive. Um, I have no doubt about that. Uh, but at the same time, I want to keep our focus right now on Mike McCoy leading this football team and focusing on the New England Patriots coming to town um this Sunday. And like I said, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about those things at a later time. Where is she? Where is she right now? Where? What do you mean? Where’s Amy Adam out of trunk right now? Yeah, she’s she’s at her home. Why isn’t she here? I’m here representing her. Can you guys move forward with the plan that you have, expecting her to have the patience that you’ve preached in this plan given that she’s just fired yet somebody else in a leadership role? Yeah, like I said, I that doesn’t change. The plan’s not changing as far as the the patience and building this roster and all the things go with that. Unfortunately, there’s a change that need to be made in in this process where we’re at right now because of the lack of growth that that we’ve seen with this football team. You know, just to reiterate it again, I mean, we talked about that being a very important thing. We didn’t talk about wins and losses. Of course, we want to win as many football games as we can possibly win, but we we preached and talked about the growth and we just have not seen the growth uh with the team to this point. In terms of in terms of growth, you know, you know, you told us going into training camp that this roster was a much very much a work in progress. What without going into wins and losses, what does growth look like to you? Yeah, I think um you know when you look at whether it’s offense, defense, or special teams, there’s some areas where we have grown. Uh I think the special teams have played pretty well uh this season for the most part. Um you know, Dinard Wilson’s done done a good job, you know, as far as the defense is concerned. You know, we’ve we’ve struggled on offense. I mean, that that’s not a secret and uh we need to be better there um on that side of the ball. But I think there’s growth opportunities all throughout the roster, whether offense, defense, or special teams. Um, but we need to we need to see more from um from our players, from our coaches, and and we got to get better. There’s a standard that we’re trying to uphold here moving forward, and we’re just not meeting that standard. I don’t know if you have anything to add there, Mike. Yeah, I mean, we all have to do a better job here and um, you know, we we need to see continuous growth throughout the entire organization really. What’s Sorry, go ahead. What’s What’s the uh status of the assistant coaches? Do you guys know which will be returning and which may not be? Uh Mike will address that tomorrow as press conference. This move right now obviously looking for some sort of a spark, but how will you judge that spark now between now and the end of the season? What do you hope this move leads to this year? Yeah, I’d like to I’d like to see um you our quarterback play be better. um like to see the offense, you know, be consistent, more consistent moving the football. Um, you know, I think, uh, you know, I want to see improvement in the defense and offense, but I, you know, again, it’s just it’s we all know what it looks like when we see it. When when you see that you’re playing complimentary football, um, that the offense and the defense and special teams are are playing off of each other. Uh, we have yet to put together a complete game in a long time. So, you know, there’s there’s a lot of work to do um for everyone in this organization. Why do you believe that this move will have that effect that you just talked about on the team? Yeah, you know, I think there there’ll be some changes that Mike puts into place um you know, working with Cam um that we uh discussed today. Um whether it’s changes at practice, changes we do within the scheme, uh things to make him feel a bit more comfortable. um all those things. Any opportunity we have to try to change things to to help him and the offense um you know Mike’s going to be open to that decisions at this point, three of these kind of decisions at this point. Why should fans trust you to be able to get this right based on the plan since the plan hasn’t gone right now three different times? Yeah. Um, you know, I’ve been entrusted to to do this job, and that’s all I can say is we’re going to work to to get this right. Um, you know, both Mike and I come from places where we’ve won a lot of football games. Uh, we got a front office that I think between all of us, we got nine Super Bowls. We’ve seen what winning football looks like, and we know what that looks like. So, we’re going to do everything we can to support u the staff uh currently uh to you know we’ve you know our players um to you know it’s still early in the season and there’s a lot of work to be done. There’s still a lot of football to play. Um so I think uh you know we’re just as frustrated as as our fans are. Like I said in in in the opening statement, um we’re going to get this right and we’re going to build build a football program that that everyone can be proud of and we’re acknowledging right now it hasn’t been good enough and that’s why we’re up here answering these questions because we haven’t been good enough and we’re committed to getting better. Why this particular week either you guys can answer this why why this particular game, this particular week, there hadn’t been growth for a while. you know, some people thought might come after Houston was a pretty poor performance. Why this point right now? I think it was just continuous, you know, frustration um of, you know, getting things going and um that’s why um you know, we decided to make the move right now. Chad, how much did you consider this kind of change after last season? And how much of this too when you choose to retain him had to do with the fact that the roster wasn’t as strong as you would have liked to compete? Yeah, I think a lot of those things were, you know, addressed in January. I mean, um, we know we know where we are as a football program. We knew the situation that that Brian was, you know, having to handle here. Uh but we felt we had uh the confidence that that he would um you know help get this program moving in the right direction and now here we are where it’s not. Um so therefore we felt like we needed to make the change now and but that doesn’t take away from what we’re trying to build long term. Chad Chad, what do you think makes Mike uniquely capable to help get Cam on the right track? I think that’s a better question for Mike here. Go ahead. Uh, you know, Mike has he has a lot of experience in the league. Has has been a head coach. He’s a former quarterback that’s that’s played he’s had some years in the NFL as a player. Has has been around NFL quarterbacks. Um, you know, Philip Rivers, Pton Mannings. Uh, he’s with Trevor Lawrence last year, young guy that is, you know, getting acclimated from some of the college offenses. Um, so he has a lot of experience doing it. And, um, you know, I’ve I’ve always had a lot of respect for Mike. Who initiated the who initiated the meeting this morning between the two of you and Amy Adam? Uh we we meet every after every game. You know there’s not like a initiation. I mean we you’re always communicating with your owner. I think across any organization there’s always those meetings taking place on Monday. So this was no different. You guys touted when he was hired. McCoy was touted as as a great selection by Brian. He didn’t have great success in San Diego record-wise with a quarterback that was, you know, Hall of Fame caliber guy. And again, he was Brian’s teacher slashmentor at the beginning of his career. And Brian just got fired for not having enough success. Help us connect the dots as to how Mike is is a solution based on his own failures and and the failures of his protege. you know, we all have our hand in this right now, so it’s it’s not, you know, you know, I think Mike has experience. Um, I know he was with Brian before and they have they have a past. Um, but sometimes you need to change and you know, I I think Mike will will do some things differently. Um, and you know, we’re confident in Mike. Bill had experience. Bill didn’t do anything here in a season in six games. I mean, is experience automatically the solution to everything? Uh, no. No. I mean, I I’ve been around Mike now for for a few months. I’ve got to know him a little bit better. Um, but that’s certainly not everything. Um, you know, everybody has different ways of doing things. I would say that even though they were in the same place at one time, um, they have different, um, coaching styles, um, different ways. So, you know, I I think change sometimes is good for everybody. In your time of being too, you had mentioned you’ve been around Mike for some time now. McCoy, that is in your time being with him, did you learn anything new? Any revelations? Okay. You know, I see why uh he’s capable of taking on his job. You know, I think that in the role Mike has now, he he communicated with a lot of different players, uh a lot of different, you know, staff members. Um and you know, his communication skill is really good. He’s got a lot of energy. Um, and I think he’ll bring some good ideas. Yeah. Did you guys see or hear the the comments I guess Jeffrey and and Cam made yesterday after the game talking about the the worst practice week of the season and flat and so forth? And and if you did, does that, you know, affect what you thought of the of the coaching staff? Did that should that reflect on the coaching staff? Um, I I did not hear those comments. Um, but listen, not every practice is perfect, okay? Um, and you know, I’ve I’ve been on teams that have had really bad practices and gone out and dominated the game. Um, not every team is going to have a perfect practice every day. All right. Thanks,

Titans President of Football Operations Chad Brinker and General Manager Mike Borgonzi address the media on Monday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

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