Brian Callahan Fired: Las Vegas Raiders vs. Tennessee Titans Review | PFF Grade Release Show

Brian Callahan Fired: Las Vegas Raiders vs. Tennessee Titans Review | PFF Grade Release Show

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. October 10th is World Mental Health Day and this year we are saying thank you to therapists. BetterHelp therapists have helped over 5 million people worldwide on their mental health journeys. That’s millions of stories and millions of journeys. Behind each one of them is a therapist who showed up, listened, and helped someone take that next step forward. Moments in therapy like asking the right questions, having a safe place to get emotional or cry, or small wins that can change lives. This World Mental Health Day, BetterHelp is honoring those connections and the therapists who make them possible while showing how easy it is to get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHel. I’ve been doing therapy for over two years and I couldn’t recommend it enough. It’s helped me so much with relationships with my friends, families, even myself. It’s helped me understand myself better and it’s just made for such a better life. It really has. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world’s largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for live sessions based on over 1.7 million client reviews. This World Mental Health Day, we are collaborating with those therapists who have helped millions of people take a step forward. If you’re ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off of their first month at betterhelp.com/pf. That’s betterhelp.com/pf. Just so we got breaking news if you want to cover it now or later. What’s the breaking news? It appear I’m going to find a source on this, but one of our guys is saying Brian Callahan is out in Tennessee. If we if we even we could skip to that game and just do it now if you want. You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. Skip ahead a little bit. Let’s get to it. Um, are we sure that this happened? I’m going to type this in. I’ve got two of our social guys that are saying duped. Let’s see. Oh, some dupage. No, Ian Rapaore is saying Titans have fired Brian Callahan. Okay. All right. So, let’s let’s skip ahead to this game and then we’ll roll back. We’ll skip ahead to the Titans. Where’s the Titans at? I’m scrolling down to our note here for the Tennessee Titans. Titans Raiders. All right, Titans Raiders. Uh, Vegas Raiders win this game 20-10. Uh, let’s take a look at the top five graded players that we have for the Las Vegas Raiders. We’ll do the top fives and we’ll get into the Brian Callahan thing. Top five graded players for the Raiders. Wide receiver Trey Tucker at the very top of the list with a 76.2. Uh, linebacker Orlando Roberts with a 76.2 as well. Tight end Michael Mayer who got in the end zone in this game a 70.8. Edge rusher Max Crosby a 68.6. Defensive tackle Adam Butler rounding things out at number five with a se 67.7. And then Gino Smith a 68.2. On Tennessee side of things, linebacker Cedric Gray an 87.1. He is having a great year as their stud linebacker there. Defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons an 81.9. Safety Ammani Hooker a 747. Safety Quandre Diggs a 73.5. Offensive guard Peter Skansky a 72.2. Kim Ward in this game a 54.0. Uh Brian Callahan fired here from the Tennessee Titans a week after uh giving up play call duties or was that two weeks ago? I think it’s two games, right? I think they won the game with him not calling plays with the Cardinals. Okay. And then this game. So yeah, I think it’s two weeks after. Okay. So, two weeks after giving up play calling duties, which you know, it’s never a good sign when the offensive head coach who was brought in to be the play caller gives up play calling duties. Not great. Usually, it’s not their choice either. Usually, it’s somebody making them do that. I think the issue with Brian Callahan, though, amongst the struggles for the Titans, who are now one and five on the season, it’s just how it’s looked, right? They’re one of the most penalized teams in the NFL. They don’t really seem to have a great grips on on what’s going on in the game situationally. There’s a lot of miscues and we talked about this a couple of weeks ago when Brian Callahan did end up giving up play calling. The Titans were only going to put up with so much now that they have Cam Ward because everything that I have heard from within the building for the Titans is that they love this kid, that he is their franchise quarterback through and through. They think he’s a great talent, but they also think he’s a great dude. They think that he cares. They think that he will be a great leader for them. And there is no way that they are going to let a head coach sabotage who they have in Cam Ward. And when when Callahan had to give up play calling duties, that sort of put up some buzzers in my head to go, “Oh, they’re telling him, we’re not going to let you screw up Cam Ward. And if it comes down to Cam Ward or Brian Callahan, there’s no question about it. We’re picking Cam Ward.” And I think the nail in the coffin here in this game, I don’t know if you saw these quotes afterwards. Both Jeffrey Simmons and Cam Ward came out after the game and said, “Practice sucked this week.” Yeah. You don’t you don’t usually hear that out loud. They’re coming off of their first win and what might be their only win of the year. And both of their stars and leaders on both sides of the ball said, “Practice sucked. We came out flat and that’s how we played. That’s the last draw. And I was gonna make a mention of this and now it all makes sense when you tie it into the entire week is obviously Bri Brian Callahan I already had down for my most disappointing not knowing this. And it’s because the Titans here’s the thing about an offensive coach. Usually you get you have your guys ready to go. You have an initial plan. You have the first 15 and then maybe the adjustments and things get hard or your talent’s just not good enough to win a ball game. This team’s biggest offensive struggles were in the first half. This game they got shut out in the first half. Again, 30 plays they ran in this first half. 82 yards total, which is already atrocious. 50 of those 82 came on three plays. It was two solid throws from Cam Ward, one run from Tony Pot. So, think about that. 50 yards came on three plays. The other 27 plays, they gained 32 yards. They’re getting nowhere in the first half of games. first half of games this season. They’re 30th in offensive grade, which I was shocked that they weren’t last. They’re ahead of the Bengals and Browns. Same thing with yards per play. 30th. Dead last in EPA per play in the first half of games. Trevor, this team has only scored six touchdowns this season. Only one of them’s in the first half. They have played six first halves and they’ve scored one touchdown. That’s I mean the the level of ridiculous that that is it. Anytime you get that and you get teams I used I used to get last year you remember all my rants about this with the Jets in the first quarter if you’re not scoring in the first quarter and the first halves your first say three or four drives there’s a heavy chunk of that that’s on coaching that’s a lack of preparation well yeah they said that they came out in practice and were absolutely flat and that’s how they started and of course it was after a big emotional win and then and then you get a team that’s feeling high and mighty on themselves and this is what happens right and then they lack off in practice and then you go I’ve seen this a million times and it happens with bad teams because they’re feeling so good after such a rare win that you forget, oh, we have to stack this up and do it again. And that’s what happened to this team. And offensively, it’s been the theme this six six first hs that’s 12 quarters in the first half when an offense is supposed to have an advantage with preparation. One touchdown in the first half of games this year. It’s crazy. I mean, and that that that is on coaching. It really is. Especially when you have a young quarterback that he’s not just going to carry you through it. It’s not going to happen. No. I I am I am shocked that it went this south this quickly, but it is ironic that I believe the Patriots travel to Tennessee this weekend. Mike Vrabel. Oh boy. His his successor has already been fired and he is now leading a Patriots team that is on the up when it comes to power rankings and where this team is sitting at 4 and2 with Drake May looking the way that he’s looking. I thought it I thought the Titans moving on from Mike Vrabel was one of the craziest things that they possibly could have done in that franchise. And now it the irony is thick as can be with them coming to Tennessee this week now with their head coach gone. Tough. Um my staff have told the story in this game the Titans were terrible and quite frankly the Raiders should have won this game by more but the reason why they didn’t is the re reason that I have a lot of cause for concern with the Raiders moving forward. Last week the previous week Gino Smith had an average depth to target of 8.3. Okay. Okay, Gino Smith is a gunslinger. That is what he does. His average depth to target is always going to be something between an eight and an 11. That’s that’s where Gino Smith operates. You know what it was this week, Dalton? 2.8. His average depth to target was 2.8. You want to talk about not trying? That’s not trying. I wonder. Here’s the That is so That is so different than what he normally is. I have two I have a couple of things. Go ahead. It’s one game. If we’ve seen this for like three or four games in a row, I’d be like, whoa, this is not good. If we see this again next week, and hell, we might against Kansas City. That’s not great. But then the only things I’m going to say are one, Brock Bowers is out. That hurts. Sure. And Michael Mayer had a pretty good game in his place. Okay. Two, the pass protection numbers for the Raiders in this game against a Titans Dline, that’s a little bit frisky with Simmons and those guys. And and again, we don’t have Colton Miller, right? We got Stone Foresight in there for Colton Miller, and we know that’s going to go right to the pass protection. And three, kind of like the Broncos against the Jets after a while in that game. And I think the Steelers a little bit, we’ll get into later against the Browns. When you’re playing a team like this that just cannot function offensively, I I almost wonder if that was a bit intentional on the part of Pete Carol and Chip Kelly just going, “Hey, if we don’t give them anything, they’re just not going to score.” Cuz the the Cardinals gave the Titans a lot. Now, it doesn’t look great. I totally agree. But would you rather do that and win? Of course. Right. Right. Right. Or take if I see if you see this if you see this again next week against because you’re going to have to take your shots against the Chiefs if you have any chance of winning. Yes. Then I’ll go. But I’d be worried that it’s all or nothing. Right. That’s when I been a problem anyway because you can’t go but that’s what I’m saying. I don’t know what the identity of this team is at this point because it’s gotten a little bit better in the run game, right? It was really slow to start the season, but now like Ashton Genty is fine. and the offensive line’s playing a little bit better. I know that you mentioned they struggled a little bit in pass protection this game, but to me the fix for Gino can’t be we turn the switch on or we turn the switch off. It has to be somewhere in the middle. And to me, this could have been a perfect game for them to find that middle ground and they chose to not do that. And I don’t know who they is. I don’t know if it’s Chip Kelly. I don’t know if it’s Pete Carol. I don’t know if it’s Gino Smith himself. I don’t know the who is. I think this was a team I think collectively this was just a team that wanted to get a win somehow someway and the problem totally get that problem give me faith with them moving forward the other problem with Gino and the vertical passing is that your your one vertical threat right now is Trey Tucker oh that’s not DK some respect well that’s not DK Metaf and it’s not Tyler Lockett and Jackson Smith and Jigba like it used to be Jack Bash waiting in the wings respect Jack Jack Bash has caught five balls this year Dant Dante Thornton has caught five balls this year. Yeah. Well, the Thornon the Thornon factor I think started off hot first couple of weeks. Like he was involved in the game plan and now he’s not. But now he’s not again because I don’t know what their passing identity is. It should be to get vertical but they just don’t have enough. If Trey Tucker’s your only vertical but if he’s your only Oh, it should worry you. That’s why it’s a part a big reason why they’re two and four and he doesn’t look as good as he used to in Seattle. No, this team now they have to they have to get this. They have to get conservative and they kind of did it here and run this offense around Ginty. They just have to at this point because there’s not unless Thornton or somebody becomes a much better vertical threat than they are. This is going to this is going to be what they’re going to look like. And I think what we’re going to talk about um what we’re going to talk about this off seasonason for the Raiders is getting Look, I like Bes. We’ll see the future of Jacobe Myers. I like Tucker. These are good role players. I think they need a receiver. They need a dominant number one type college talk Jordan Tyson type of receiver that can do those things because they don’t they don’t have the vertical threat for Gino to be even allowed to do that at this point. And when he does, yeah, it is a gamble because he has to be even better than he was in Seattle to carry this crew, especially without Bowers on the field. Yeah, I think that that maybe it is just a matter of the vertical receivers that they have just are not good enough outside of Brock Bowers and when he is hurt. Maybe that is just the case, but it still very much worries me because Oh, it’s not great. They’re the the the whole reason why I was somewhat in on the Raiders this year is I felt like Bowers, Tucker, Thornton, Bes to some extent as an over the middle of the field guy, Mayor if he was going to be a little bit better than years past, and then having Jacobe Myers, I felt good about that for an intermediate and deep passing game. If you’re telling me none of those guys are reliable outside of Brock Bowers, yeah, now I get worried because now I don’t think I don’t think you have the quarterback who can be that malleable in in what he’s doing from a passing game plan. So, uh, anyways, that’s to me the the Gino Smith average at the target is is kind of the stat that told the story here. Most impressive. I’m going to shout out Jeffrey Simmons very quietly career year and this guy’s been known as one of the top five defensive tackles in the NFL for a long time. He’s having his best season so far. He has an 84.3 run defense grade and 84.5 pass rushing grade so far. He has the highest pass rushers win percentage that he’s ever had in his career. This is the best overall season pass rushing number. It’s an elite 91.2 so far this season. Jeffrey Simmons is having one of the best years that he’s ever had as a pro. And I just don’t think it’s getting talked about enough. So, he’s my most impressive in this game. And then my most disappointing JC Lam was back JC Leam was back at right tackle. Really struggled. 38.0 pass blocking grade in this one. Four pressures allowed. I mean he just he struggled. I mean he he just he might be a guard. I mean they might have done the same thing that they did with Peter Scrsky where they draft a tackle, they’re just playing him at guard and they got to go draft another tackle. And that’s another story I think of Callahan is why in the world is this offensive line still bad when you’ve spent as much Isn’t his dad still Oline coach or no? That’ll be um yeah I don’t know how many other guys would be going or if he would stick around or what he deals with that but you know like like yeah oh no one of the best he’s one of the best to ever do it and yet this offensive line somehow is with all the money they’ve poured into it and the two first round picks and everything it’s still it’s still not good. Yeah, speaking of Yeah, go ahead. You’re going to have a great defensive effort where you only give up 10 points. Your best players usually show up and that was Max Crosby. Credit to him. It’s been a little more inconsistent this year for Crosby, but he’s still really darn good. 76 pass rush grade in this game, six pressures, two sacks, and the entire Raiders pass rush really deserves a lot of credit for winning, yes, a relatively easy matchup against a bad offense. But that’s the pass rush they were expecting more often this year. So, that was really I thought that was the best unit on this field was the Raiders defensive line. Crosby and those guys really got after Cam Ward. Um, rolling back. Yes. Anything else on this one or we moving on to I’m good here. That was that was the big stuff

PFF’s Trevor Sikkema and Dalton Wasserman review the matchup between The Las Vegas Raiders and The Tennessee Titans.

Review Starts after BetterHelp ad:
0:00 – Intro
1:22 – Review Starts

Get 25% off you PFF Subscription!:
Code: PFFNFLSHOW25
Link: https://go.pff.com/nflshow25

🏆 Dominate your fantasy league: http://fantasy.pff.com/
📱 Download the PFF App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pff-fan…
✉️ Join our newsletter: https://forms.gle/maqTaBKcmdPR5Vma6
🏈 NFL/NCAA Player Grades: https://www.pff.com/grades

Thank you to our sponsors. If you’re interested in supporting our shows, please reach out to sales@pff.com