The timing of the Tennessee Titans’ decision to fire head coach Brian Callahan on Monday reportedly had something to do with an upcoming matchup against a familiar face.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that some around the NFL feel that the Titans wanted to avoid having Callahan face the New England Patriots on Sunday, as they are now being led by former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel.
“Some people I’ve talked to believe Vrabel’s presence was a factor, at least subconsciously. One industry source told me half-jokingly, ‘They didn’t want Vrabel to be the one to dunk on [Callahan],’ thus getting ahead of it,” Fowler stated.
After falling to 1-5 with a 20-10 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday, Tennessee fired Callahan just six games into his second year as the team’s head coach and promoted senior offensive assistant Mike McCoy to interim head coach. Meanwhile, Vrabel has the Patriots in first place in the AFC East with a 4-2 record in his first year at the helm since being fired by the Titans after the 2023 campaign.
Fowler went on to add that the early firing could give the Titans “a chance to reset” as they usher in a new regime.
“As one team executive put it, this is the ‘last cleanup’ under president of football operations Chad Brinker,” Fowler stated. “Now Brinker and general manager Mike Borgonzi can handpick their coach. Getting a head start on vetting candidates also can be useful.”
However, ESPN’s Dan Graziano pushed back on that notion, calling out the Titans for potentially wasting 2025 No. 1 pick Cam Ward’s rookie season.
“I get what you’re saying, but people I’ve talked to argue that if that were the case, they should have let Callahan go in the offseason and let Brinker hire his replacement then,” Graziano stated. “Instead, Tennessee is pretty much in a holding pattern with Ward for the next three months until it hires someone to install a new offense and work with him in January. This smells more like dysfunction to me than the tail end of some grand plan. But we shall see. As is always the case, what matters more is what happens going forward with whom the Titans hire as their next full-time head coach and what they do roster-wise in the meantime.”
