It looks like the Tennessee Titans are ready to hire former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their new head coach, replacing Mike Vrabel. On our Jan. 23 episode of the Titans Daily Podcast, we are joined by AllBengals.com publisher James Rapien to get to know more about Callahan.
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00:00 Welcome to the Titans daily podcast on all Titans.com.
00:16 We'll join you every day with all the latest news on the Tennessee Titans and the NFL.
00:20 There's a freight train back there, but he can't be a runaway freight train.
00:24 Yeah.
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00:27 They used to be in Houston first through the Oilers.
00:32 The Titans.
00:33 Houston Oilers are the Tennessee Titans.
00:40 The show was hosted by all Titans.com publisher, Tom brew.
00:44 You'll also hear from all Titans reporters, Greg areas and Tyler Rowland every day about
00:48 their stories.
00:49 As we tour the league with reporters, players, and coaches from around the NFL.
00:53 They went to the super bowl last year.
00:58 It was that you died.
01:00 It was some site and they almost won by one yard, one lousy yard, right at the end.
01:05 Live from Nashville.
01:06 Here's your all Titans.com publisher, Tom brew.
01:12 Hello everybody and welcome to the Titans daily podcast for Tuesday, January 23rd, 2024.
01:19 Happy to get this new year rolling new things going on with the Titans, including the big
01:24 news likely to be announced later today and reported last night that Brian Callahan is
01:29 going to be the new head coach of the Tennessee Titans.
01:32 He's 39 years old.
01:33 He's been with the Cincinnati Bengals for the offensive coordinator for the last five
01:37 years and has a long history already in the NFL, you know, dating back nearly 15 years
01:42 already.
01:43 I worked with a lot of great quarterbacks and it looks like he's on his way to Nashville
01:48 now to be the next head coach of the Tennessee Titans to replace Mike Fable, who was here
01:52 for six years and did some good things, but not enough good things.
01:56 So with Brian Callahan on his way, we thought it would be a good idea to to make sure we
02:02 learned a little bit more about him and no better way to do that, of course, than to
02:07 bring in James Rappiot, who of all Bengals.com, a colleague there on on our sports illustrated
02:14 fan nation sites and James, welcome to the Titans Daily Podcast.
02:18 Of course.
02:19 Yeah.
02:20 Thanks for having me.
02:21 Oh, it's totally my pleasure.
02:22 Glad we were able to to get together this morning and talk about Brian Callahan a little
02:25 bit.
02:26 You've had he's been there in Cincinnati for five years now and you've spent a lot of time
02:30 with him in his last couple of years.
02:32 And so if you would just start us off a little bit about what kind of guy and what kind of
02:36 coach the Titans are getting here with Brian Callahan.
02:40 I think the the thing and you mentioned him being thirty nine years old.
02:44 But the thing that stands out to me is his experience is the fact that he's coached a
02:49 ton of great players from Peyton Manning to Joe Burrow.
02:53 He's helped Derek Carr become a franchise quarterback, helped Matt Stafford in Detroit.
02:58 And he grew up around the game and the NFL game.
03:01 Obviously his dad, Bill, coached the Raiders.
03:04 So you're talking about a guy in Brian who remembers Jerry Rice with the Raiders and
03:10 and Brown and all of Rich Gannon and all those guys that were there during that that run
03:17 for the Raiders in the early 2000s, which maybe a lot of these viewers don't remember
03:21 or listeners remember right now.
03:23 But that's that's what you're getting with Brian as someone who knows the game in and
03:27 out.
03:29 I think he's patient.
03:30 I think he's a good teacher.
03:32 And from an offensive standpoint, I've watched him along with the rest of the Bengals staff,
03:37 but obviously he's a big part of it.
03:40 Adjust the offense based on the personnel.
03:43 Titans fans saw it a few years ago.
03:44 This Bengals offensive line was awful.
03:46 Nine sacks in the division round.
03:48 And yet they found a way to get to Super Bowl 56.
03:52 And I think Brian Callahan was a big part of that.
03:55 Absolutely.
03:56 And, you know, we've known he's been the offensive coordinator for the five years there.
04:01 But he and Zach Taylor really close in age, close in in how they think about things offensively.
04:09 And they work very closely together.
04:10 It's, you know, of course, you get the negative Nellies.
04:13 Well, you know, why are we hiring a guy who doesn't call the plays every day, you know,
04:16 type stuff.
04:17 But these guys have worked very closely on this offense together.
04:20 And I know Zach, anytime he's ever asked about it, talks a lot about Brian's involvement
04:25 with, you know, with game planning that and scripting things out and the red zone stuff,
04:29 protections, all that stuff.
04:30 And you're there as the insider.
04:32 Once you kind of help tell us a little bit about Brian's role in this offense and how
04:37 it's gotten him well prepared to be head coach.
04:40 It's he's as important as anyone in that building outside of Joe Burrow, of course, getting
04:47 this offense together, ready and making sure it flows on game day at a high level.
04:54 And it the day to day offensive duties.
04:58 Those are handled by Brian.
05:00 Now Zach calls the plays.
05:02 But that doesn't mean that Brian isn't putting together game plans.
05:05 It doesn't mean that Brian isn't the one doing working with Joe and making sure that he likes
05:10 this but not this.
05:11 Zach is a head coach.
05:13 And so Zach has a lot of responsibilities.
05:15 And of course, he's in on those meetings as well and end of week meetings and all of those
05:19 things.
05:20 But Brian handled a lot of that stuff.
05:23 And I think over the past five years, he's learned how to do the day to day.
05:29 I think he's as ready as you can be.
05:32 The calling plays element of it.
05:35 That's that's different than the head coach element of it.
05:39 And one thing that I think Brian learned in Cincinnati, and Zach learned on the fly in
05:44 Cincinnati, it was certainly his goal, but had to have learned it is how to build a culture
05:49 and build a winning culture.
05:50 And it's easy to say that you want to do that.
05:53 It's another to execute it.
05:55 And so the offensive play stuff.
05:57 And I just said how he's been around the league for his entire life.
06:01 He did call some plays in preseason games, like entire scripts and things like that.
06:06 I think he will be fine.
06:07 Will it be perfect and rosy from the jump?
06:10 There might be some hiccups.
06:11 But I think that's the least of your worries when you're talking about an offensive minded
06:16 head coach.
06:17 You want to make sure that he can put the right culture in, which is something Mike
06:20 Vrabel, right?
06:21 That was one of the arguments for him.
06:23 I think Brian can put his own culture in a winning culture and also obviously have a
06:29 huge hand in the offense and find the right minds that can help develop this offense and
06:34 push it forward in Nashville.
06:35 >> Yep, I had mentioned in my column earlier today about the hiring of Brian that one of
06:41 the things that I find semi ironic, I guess, is that this current Titans team and the current
06:47 Titans offense is very similar to where the Bengals were five years ago when they showed
06:51 up.
06:52 You guys had to hit the reset button there in Cincinnati with a quarterback and he did
06:55 that with Joe Burrow.
06:57 But there was also just a horrible offensive line.
06:59 The Titans outside of the New York Giants this year probably had the worst offensive
07:03 line in the NFL this year.
07:06 But you guys, Zach and Brian found ways to still score points and do things with that
07:11 and then build on that.
07:13 So to me, those are the two most important things.
07:15 You got a young quarterback here and Will Levis now in an offensive line that needs
07:20 to kind of be rebuilt.
07:21 Brian's been through that before.
07:23 But why don't we, if we could, let's just start with the handling of the quarterbacks
07:27 and that.
07:28 Talk to me a little bit about just what it was about their personality and such and what
07:33 types of things they did to get Joe Burrow to be, obviously, he was number one overall
07:38 pick, had a great college career.
07:40 But they get him now to be one of those bright young stars in the NFL as a quarterback.
07:45 >> Well, Joe came in during 2020, the COVID year.
07:48 And so they didn't get to work with Joe in person, regularly at least until training
07:53 camp.
07:54 And it's kind of weird, it's kind of bizarre.
07:56 We can talk about installing an offense, getting things ready to go.
08:00 And there was no preseason to get things rolling in that direction.
08:03 So what did they do?
08:05 They looked at his college tape.
08:07 And I think sometimes these offensive coaches overthink it.
08:12 But one thing that Zach Taylor, Brian Callahan, Dan Pitcher, all these guys have done is they
08:16 try to put their players, starting with the quarterback, their players in a position that
08:20 they're comfortable with, that they can have success with.
08:23 And so I think that's where Brian will start.
08:25 I think he'll go back to the University of Kentucky tape, look at Will Levis, look at
08:29 what he did well, look at what he didn't.
08:31 Obviously look at his rookie year, that's something he didn't have with Joe Burrow.
08:34 Look at his rookie year and see the things he likes to do, doesn't like to do, and put
08:39 him in position to do those things.
08:42 And then from there, grow a little bit every single day so you expand on what Will Levis
08:50 does well and what he's comfortable with.
08:53 And so I think that's, it sounds really basic, Tom, but there are a lot of times that doesn't
08:58 happen for these young quarterbacks and they're not put in those positions.
09:01 So I think that's where Brian will start.
09:03 And he won't be afraid to throw it.
09:05 He's also not going to be afraid to run it.
09:06 I don't want to think that, I don't want you to think that either.
09:09 I think that one of the things I said, I was talking to my cohost on Lockdown Bengals,
09:13 Jake Lisko, after the hire, and I was like, I have Tajay Spears in a keeper league.
09:18 And I smiled from ear to ear because I think that Brian Callahan is going to love Tajay
09:22 Spears, his ability to catch out of the backfield, of course, that explosive running ability.
09:27 It's certainly a weapon to use on offense.
09:29 Absolutely.
09:30 And I mentioned that as well, too, obviously, as much as I love to throw the ball and they've
09:33 got great receivers.
09:34 I mean, Joe Mixon still ran for a thousand yards three times in the last five years.
09:39 So they still know how to turn around and hand the ball to a nice running back and keep
09:43 people involved, too.
09:45 All right.
09:46 One last question for you, James, before we go.
09:48 Just tell me a little bit about Brian Callahan, the person, and your time with him there and
09:53 your interactions.
09:54 And tell us a little bit about what type of guy we're getting here, just as Brian Callahan,
09:59 the person.
10:00 He's someone that's going to be honest with you and honest with the media.
10:06 I wonder how much of that gets toned back a little bit as a head coach versus an offensive
10:11 coordinator.
10:12 But he's pretty upfront about specific plays, about situations, about what happened on the
10:19 field, even when things are going wrong.
10:21 It's not just when things are going right.
10:23 When things are going wrong, he'll tell you.
10:26 And I think it's one of the refreshing things about Brian.
10:29 And as far as a person, I mean, he's, to me, he's a great, he's always been a great guy.
10:34 I haven't heard anyone else say otherwise.
10:37 In Cincinnati, it's not a huge town, right?
10:40 So you're five years in one place.
10:42 You would hear if there's something negative about him.
10:45 I think he's a great offensive coordinator, honestly, even though there are some on social
10:52 media here in Cincinnati that think otherwise.
10:55 I think he's a great offensive coordinator.
10:56 It's a big loss for the Bengals.
10:58 And I do, I think the Titans fans are really gonna enjoy having Brian Callahan.
11:03 I look forward to being down there in Nashville this coming year, because it seems like the
11:08 Bengals always play the Titans in Nashville now.
11:10 It does seem like that, doesn't it?
11:12 But yeah, that's great.
11:13 So James, thank you very much for your time today.
11:14 We appreciate it.
11:15 Getting to know Brian Callahan a little bit better, and I appreciate you being a part
11:19 of the Titans Daily Podcast today.
11:21 We'll talk to you real soon down the road.
11:23 Appreciate the time, James.
11:24 Sounds good.
11:25 Thanks for having me.
11:26 You're welcome.
11:27 We're doing a different Titans Daily Podcast today here on Tuesday, January 23rd.
11:31 Lots of great content on alltitans.com all day long today.
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12:14 The links in the story that's attached to this video will have all those links to take
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12:21 So thanks for being with us today.
12:22 We'll have a whole bunch more on Brian Callahan's hire and what comes next.
12:26 We appreciate it.
12:27 This is Tom Brewer for altitans.com.
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