The Tennessee Titans have fired head coach Brian Callahan following a 1-5 start to his second season, the team announced on Monday.
"After extended conversations with our owner and general manager, we met with Brian Callahan this morning to tell him we are making a change at head coach," president of football operations Chad Brinker said in a statement. "These decisions are never easy, and they become more difficult when they involve people of great character. We are grateful for Brian's investment in the Titans and Tennessee community during his tenure as head coach. We thank him and his family for being exemplary ambassadors of the Tennessee Titans.
"While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth. Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard."
Callahan ends his career in Tennessee with a 4-19 record. The Titans went 3-14 in his first season before stumbling to a 1-5 start this year.
The team did not announce an interim coach or any other personnel moves in their release announcing Callahan's firing.
The Titans host former head coach Mike Vrabel and the 4-2 New England Patriots in Week 7.
Why make an early-season move in Tennessee?
A year ago, Callahan's club struggled mightily with consistency. It was mostly excused by poor quarterback play, which led to the Titans earning the No. 1 draft pick.
A year later, the same concerns remained. Callahan regularly made avoidable coaching errors. The onset of the season portended the epic failures that would dissolve the Titans' season before it got off the ground.
In Week 1, Callahan failed to challenge an incomplete ruling in a close game in Denver, after which he didn't seem to understand the rules. In Week 3, he mismanaged an end-of-half field goal situation by taking too long to decide on a plan, which caused a delay of game and a blocked attempt.
Even handing off the play-calling to quarterback coach Bo Hardegree did not help the Titans offense or Callahan's management.
The coach had poor responses when rookie quarterback Cam Ward chided his own team's play. Then this week, the rotten cherry on top came with veteran Jeffery Simmons, the club's best player, admitting after Sunday's loss in Las Vegas that the Titans had a terrible week of practice.
If a coaching staff can't get its players ready after a win, there is no future.
Callahan seemed like a dead man walking from Week 1 on. It was only a matter of time. Pulling the plug now jumpstarts a needed reboot that was bound to happen. Better to yank off a clearly deteriorating Band-Aid and redress the wound than to let it fester and infect.
Monday's firing continues the churn in Tennessee. In 2022, the Titans fired GM Jon Robinson. Coach Mike Vrabel was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2023 season. This January, GM Ran Carthon was fired. Now, Callahan is gone.
It's a clean slate for Brinker and the front office to bring in their own coach.
More than anything, Tennessee needs stability. Badly.
What does the firing mean for Cam Ward's future?
Selecting a QB No. 1 overall doesn't cure problems. Recently, it underscores that they aren't a panacea for bad coaching. The past four QBs taken with the first draft pick have all seen their head coaches fired in the middle of their first season: Trevor Lawrence, Urban Meyer with Jacksonville in 2021; Bryce Young, Frank Reich with Carolina in 2023; Caleb Williams, Matt Eberflus with Chicago in 2024; Ward, Callahan in 2025.
Ward has shown flashes of excellent upside. He's also shown the downside of playing on a rudderless team with little help.
The Titans offense has been an inefficient mess all season. The offensive line, which Tennessee has tried but failed to upgrade for the past several years, remains a sieve. The run game is stuck in the mud. And the pass catchers have dropped a slew of balls, unable to help out the rookie QB.
Ward has had his own issues. He's turned the ball over -- tossing four interceptions and fumbling four times, including two lost on Sunday -- and has taken a league-high 25 sacks. Ward sometimes gets into trouble trying to fit the ball into tight windows, trusting his arm. He also holds the ball too long, looking for the big play instead of taking a layup. To be fair, the system hasn't exactly schemed him up a lot of easy throws, and drops have been a bugaboo.
The flashes – however brief – have been excellent. Owning a howitzer, Ward has a top-shelf arm. When he sees a play develop, he can rip it, looking like prime Matthew Stafford. In the fourth quarter of the Titans' only win, Ward showed his upside in hurry-up mode, splashing deep shots, marching down the field and picking apart a tired, banged-up defense.
The concern is that we haven't seen enough of these flashes early in the season. The coaching staff shoulders part of that blame. So too does Ward. For the next 12 weeks, the only real thing that matters in Tennessee is Ward's development. Even baby steps will benefit the passer.
The next coach must have a plan for Ward to succeed where Callahan failed.
