10/13/25 05:07:00
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10/13 17:06 CDT Titans fire coach Brian Callahan after 4-19 record and 1-5
start to second season
Titans fire coach Brian Callahan after 4-19 record and 1-5 start to second
season
By TERESA M. WALKER
AP Pro Football Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) --- The Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan on Monday
after a 1-5 start to his second season, making him the first NFL head coach
ousted this season.
Chad Brinker, the Titans' president of football operations, said team officials
had extended conversations with controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk and general
manager Mike Borgonzi before meeting with Callahan on Monday morning to tell
him that Tennessee was making a change.
"While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable,
winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth," Brinker
said in a statement. "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."
The Titans announced hours later that Mike McCoy would take over as interim
coach. Brinker and Borgonzi were scheduled to talk to reporters Monday night.
McCoy joined the team in March as a senior offensive assistant, and he was
27-37 in four seasons coaching the then-San Diego Chargers between 2013 and
2016, losing 23 of the last 32 games before being fired. He also was offensive
coordinator in Denver in 2017 and Arizona in 2018.
His first game leading the Titans comes Sunday against former Tennessee coach
Mike Vrabel and his New England Patriots (4-2).
Callahan went 4-19, which featured a 10-game skid.
He became just the second coach fired during the season by this franchise since
it relocated from Houston to Nashville in 1997, joining Ken Whisenhunt.
Whisenhunt had a 3-20 record when fired in November 2015, with a stint that
also included a 10-game skid to end the 2014 season.
But it's just the latest personnel shakeup since December 2022:
--- General manager Jon Robinson was fired on Dec. 6, 2022.
--- GM Ran Carthon was hired on Jan. 18, 2023.
--- Vrabel was fired on Jan. 9, 2024.
--- Callahan was hired on Jan. 24, 2024.
--- Carthon was fired on Jan. 7, 2024.
--- GM Mike Borgonzi was hired on Jan. 17, 2025.
The Titans had said they wanted to see improvement this season with Callahan
going into his second season as a first-time head coach and with a rookie
quarterback in Cam Ward. Yet Callahan had to hand off play-calling duties after
dropping to 0-3 and the offense struggling.
Even the change in play-caller didn't help.
The Titans have scored only 83 points and are averaging 3.94 yards per play.
Only the 2019 Jets, the 2018 Bills in Josh Allen's rookie year, the 2009
Browns, the 2009 Raiders in JaMarcus Russell's last season and the 2007 49ers
have scored fewer than 84 points and 4 yards per play through six games in the
past 20 seasons.
Of the 241 NFL coaches who have coached at least 20 games or more since the
NFL-AFL merger in 1970, Callahan ranks 237th with a .174 winning percentage.
The only coaches with worse winning percentages were Jim Ringo (.130), Marty
Mornhinweg (.156), Chris Palmer (.156) and Rod Dowhower (.172).
The Titans knew that this would be a rebuilding year, and Brinker said at the
start of training camp that improvement was the one sign they were looking for.
They have played at least seven rookies in each game this season, led by Ward,
the No. 1 draft pick.
Callahan was hired in January 2024 for his work with quarterbacks including
Cincinnati's Joe Burrow, also a No. 1 pick, in 2020.
But Ward is the most-sacked quarterback in the NFL, with 25 already, including
a pair of games with six sacks each, following a 20-10 loss to the Raiders.
This marks the fourth time in five years that a team that picked a quarterback
with the No. 1 selection fired the coach during the season.
Callahan joins Matt Eberflus (Chicago, 2024), Frank Reich (Carolina, 2023) and
Urban Meyer (Jaguars, 2021) in that group. Hue Jackson also was fired by
Cleveland in 2018 and former Titans coach Jeff Fisher by the Rams in 2016 in
the same situation.
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