Titans' Brian Callahan ranks last among head coaches in latest ranking
With Mike Borgonzi drafting Cam Ward, plus the other players they brought in during the offseason, the Titans hope those playoff mishaps can become a thing of the past. If not this year, then soon. But a lot of that depends on how well Brian Callahan matches the players to his scheme, or if he can make adjustments to his plan to suit the players on his roster.
Callahan has just one season of head coaching experience under his belt, although he spent plenty of time in the coordinator role to understand how to manage both sides of the ball. Still, in the latest CBS Sports rankings, Callahan came in dead last.
We shouldn't fault Callahan too much for inheriting an overhauled roster, but after he was unable to corral quarterback Will Levis' riskiest tendencies, there's a lot riding on Cam Ward essentially controlling himself as Tennessee's new face of the franchise.
The article groups coaches into three tiers: Tier 3 - Unproven or underwhelming, Tier 2 - Serviceable veterans, and Tier 1 - The cream of the crop.
It's not surprising that Callahan landed in the third tier, he is definitely unproven. That's not a hit at him, it's because there's not a lot to look at yet, he hasn't been a head coach long enough to have landed anywhere else. That doesn't mean he won't land higher in these rankings eventually, but right now, the third tier is where he belongs.
Still, dead last? It would make more sense for coaches in their first year with a team to be ranked lower than those who have at least a year with their current team. Aaron Glenn (New York Jets), Kellen Moore (New Orleans Saints), Brian Schottenheimer (Dallas Cowboys), Liam Cohen (Jacksonville Jaguars), and Ben Johnson (Chicago Bears) are all first-year head coaches, so it's confusing to put them ahead of Callahan.
The Titans' 2024 season was atrocious, no one is going to deny that, but it's a huge smack in the face to assume that any of the coaches mentioned above will have a better season than Callahan. Now he needs to put that chip on his shoulder and get his team ready for the start of the regular season in September.
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