For those ready to unfurl bright-colored banners announcing a liquidation in Nashville, Brian Callahan has a message: Stand down.
The Titans' Tuesday trade that sent cornerback Jarvis Brownlee to the Jets is not a sign of things to come, the coach said Wednesday.
"I don't think so," Callahan said. "That was a one-off situation unique to what it was. Again, those conversations happen as they happen. There's front offices around the league from now until the deadline that call everybody in football, and they are all looking for different things.
"So I can't say whether or not there'll be something more or nothing more. It's hard for me to make any predictions about that or stake any statements about it. I think that's always what front offices around the league are doing is trying to figure out if there's players to be had and if there's draft capital to be had."
It isn't the most definitive answer, but at least Callahan is suggesting the Titans aren't nearing midseason teardown mode despite their 0-3 start. Such a shift would be somewhat understandable, given talent deficiencies have been glaring during the three losses and they could use additional capital to jumpstart a rebuild, but also wouldn't be the wisest move if the Titans are interested in retaining their fanbase's engagement with 14 games left to play.
What remains mystifying, however, is the reasoning behind this specific move after just three weeks. Brownlee started his first two games this season before an ankle injury kept him out of Tennessee's Week 3 loss to Indianapolis. Moving a 2024 fifth-round pick -- who was seeing significant snaps and still had two more years of team control -- in exchange for a sixth-round pick seems illogical unless he was on the verge of demotion.
Callahan opted to keep the details of the conversations that preceded the trade "in house" Wednesday but offered a peek at how the Titans view their cornerbacks group.
"Whether it's a lesser role or not, I think the important part is we do have some players that we feel good about that are starting to play good football for us and getting ingrained in the system, starting to have a little bit more action," Callahan said when asked if Brownlee was headed toward a lesser role.
If the Titans had decided Brownlee wasn't going to be part of their future, they found a willing buyer in the Jets, a team searching for secondary help opposite Sauce Gardner. Perhaps Tennessee believed this was the best return it would receive for Brownlee, a player Callahan said did not ask to be traded, as far as the coach was aware.
With more than a month left before the trade deadline, it will be interesting to see if Tennessee answers calls on other players with higher status and greater value. As Callahan noted, there's draft capital to be had out there.
