As General Manager of the Titans, Ran Carthon hired Brian Callahan as the team’s head coach in the offseason. The Titans fired Carthon on Tuesday, but they announced they are keeping Callahan after one season.
The Titans went 3-14 and have the No. 1 overall pick in April.
Chad Brinker, who was promoted to president of football operations, said he believes in Callahan despite the team’s struggles in 2024.
“He was a first-time head coach and a first-time play caller,” Brinker said, via Jim Wyatt of the team website. “There are some challenges as a first-time head coach, like building a culture, assessing current and future talent, establishing trust and communication, building a high-level staff, creating an alignment from the coaching to the front office to ownership.
“Brian was one of the hottest candidates last year on the market, and we believe in Brian, and we want to give him the opportunity to grow into the head coach that we think he can be. He knows, and we’ve talked about it, that it wasn’t good enough this year. And I think Brian is really self-reflective in that regard, and he understands that he has to be better, and his staff has to be better. And, quite frankly, we all have to be better, including me. We want to give Brian that opportunity to continue to grow. It just takes time to build a program.”
Callahan was the offensive coordinator but not the play caller with the Bengals when the Titans hired him away. He needs more consistent quarterback play than what the Titans got from Will Levis and Mason Rudolph, but the team also has lots of holes to fill.
