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4 takeaways from what Titans CEO said about Brian Callahan hire, Ran Carthon's new role
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- 4 takeaways from what Titans CEO said about Brian Callahan hire, Ran Carthon's new role
The Tennessee Titans moved quickly to get Brian Callahan , the coach they wanted .
"From the beginning Brian started with a lead and ended with a lead," said Titans president and CEO Burke Nihill in an interview Wednesday on 104.5 The Zone. "He was exactly what we were looking for to partner with Ran Carthon to build a consistent championship contender."
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Nihill spent 20 minutes talking with hosts Ramon Foster, Kayla Anderson and Will Boling about the process that led to the Titans to hire Callahan, the structural reorganization that led to new roles for Carthon and Chad Brinker and a look back at the decision to fire Mike Vrabel two weeks ago.
Here are four takeaways from Nihill's interview.
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Titans coach Brian Callahan's rapport with GM Ran Carthon felt immediate
"Alignment and collaboration" were the words that hung over the Titans' coach search. Nihill said those can be unsubstantial buzzwords at times. What mattered most, and what the Titans were looking for, was a coach who could easily articulate his vision and whose vision matches up with Carthon's.
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From the earliest stages of the interview process, Nihill says, it was evident that Callahan and Carthon had that relationship.
"Brian was the last in-person interview," Nihill said. "It started off as an interview. People asking Brian questions and Brian answering the questions. At some point ... that interview changed from an interview to a workshop on how they were going to build this thing. Ran and Brian went from Ran asking questions and Brian answering questions to them just riffing and getting excited. Everyone was sitting up in their chair listening to them talk."
As an example, Nihill shared a granular discussion Callahan and Carthon had about wide receivers. Instead of saying "we need three good receivers," Callahan outlined the exact heights, weights and athletic specifications he desires in a good outside receiver and a good slot receiver. That led to a detailed conversation about when and how often Callahan would be willing to draft or sign a player who doesn't fit those specifications and how many exceptions the team can have on roster.
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Dividing Ran Carthon's responsibilities from Chad Brinker's
In addition to hiring Callahan, the Titans promoted Carthon to executive vice president and general manager and promoted Brinker from assistant GM to president of football operations. Carthon will be in charge of everything football related, including building the roster, while Brinker will be "the umbrella for the football organization."
The NFL is getting more complicated as staffs get larger, and Nihill says the organization doesn't want some of those excess responsibilities to distract Carthon from "the main thing" on the football side. That leaves Brinker to handle more of the day-to-day departments such as analytics and sports science.
"I think we'd acknowledge there was a bit of lack of clarity last year," Nihill said. "That just wasn't acceptable moving forward. There needed to be stability, there needed to be clarity around who was doing what in the building. Structure, at the end of the day, isn't what's going to create alignment and collaboration and some of those buzzwords. It's the people. But at the end of the day the structure needs to be clear."
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Brian Callahan will be able to hire the Titans staff
Nihill said Callahan's ability to articulate who he wants on his staff and how likely he'll be able to bring them to Nashville was a major differentiator in the interview process. Even though Carthon will have final say on team decisions, Callahan will be able to pick his staff.
"Ran is not going to tell Brian 'you need to hire this guy' or 'you need to hire this guy,'" Nihill said. "He's going to stress test Brian's ideas and ultimately help him in any way he can to deliver the best NFL staff."
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Firing Mike Vrabel was a tough decision
Looking back on the organization's decision to part ways with Vrabel, Nihill said he was reminded of the movie "A Few Good Men" and how sometimes people in power like Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk have to be able to make tough decisions in the moment.
"Amy has never backed down from having high expectations," Nihill said. "She's also never backed down from hard decisions in the direction of high expectations."
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com . Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Titans CEO on Brian Callahan hire, Mike Vrabel getting fired
