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Brian Callahan will call plays for Tennessee Titans. Here's why he's confident he'll do well
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- Brian Callahan will call plays for Tennessee Titans. Here's why he's confident he'll do well
Roughly one-third of NFL coaches call their teams' offensive plays. New Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan plans to join that fraternity.
Callahan intends to be the Titans' offensive play-caller for the 2024 season at his introductory press conference on Thursday, regardless of who he hires to be his offensive coordinator. Callahan did not call plays in five seasons as offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals ; coach Zac Taylor did.
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But Callahan knows how involved he was in helping Taylor devise the best strategy for the Bengals and is looking forward to having a similar relationship with his assistants.
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"When you have an offensive staff that you trust and guys do a great job with their areas of expertise, our third down, our red zone, by the time you get to Sunday, the game plan is mainly set," Callahan said. "Now where guys earn their stripes is when you have to adjust and adapt the mid-flow of a game, and that's where you have to have great people involved in a game plan. But I don't see it as a big adjustment. It's going to be a collaborative approach on offense. And we're going to make sure we get the best plays and put our players in the best position."
Taylor is far from the only coach with play-calling responsibilities. As many as 14 coaches called plays for their offenses in 2023. Seven led their teams to the playoffs. Two — Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid and San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan — are still in contention for a Super Bowl. But three coaches who called their own plays were also fired this year: Josh McDaniels, Frank Reich and Arthur Smith.
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Play calling is a skill like any other, but Callahan is hardly going to be the first coach to learn the skill on the job after not calling plays as a coordinator. Taylor didn't call plays with the Los Angeles Rams before taking over in Cincinnati. Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel didn't call plays behind Shanahan in San Francisco. Both have gone on to call successful offenses when presented with the opportunity.
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Callahan didn't provide details Thursday about who he plans to hire to his staff . But he believes having a staff that he trusts, including a mix of veterans with league experience and up-and-comers with fresh ideas, is the key to enabling himself to be the best play-caller he can be.
"As far as my role, I'm going to take it every day as it comes, and I'm going to learn a lot as we go," Callahan said. "But I feel really confident in my ability to handle all the different parts that are asked of me on a day-to-day basis, as a play caller, as a head coach, as an offensive head coach overseeing a defense. And so, I'm incredibly confident in my ability to do that. So, that's probably the best way I can say it."
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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' Brian Callahan hasn't called plays but will in 2024
