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Tennessee Titans staff candidates: 18 potential coordinators, assistants for Brian Callahan
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- Tennessee Titans staff candidates: 18 potential coordinators, assistants for Brian Callahan
Brian Callahan should have no shortage of options filling out his first Tennessee Titans coaching staff .
The new coach will be tasked with hiring coordinators and assistants as the team gets ready for the 2024 offseason. Here are 18 coaches, listed alphabetically, who make sense for various positions, ranging from potential coordinators to low-level assistants.
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James Bettcher, Bengals LB coach
Bettcher was defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals (2015-17) and New York Giants (2018-19), helming top-10 defenses all three years in Arizona. He followed those tenures by working in San Francisco alongside Titans GM Ran Carthon and in Cincinnati with Callahan.
READ MORE: As Tennessee Titans finally give Ran Carthon an honest chance, we all should, too | Estes
Thomas Brown, Panthers offensive coordinator
The Titans interviewed Brown for their head coaching vacancy before hiring Callahan. With the Panthers bringing in a new coach, too, Brown could be on the market, and the Titans could end up with two of their top candidates.
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Tom Cable, longtime NFL coach
Cable hasn't coached since 2021, so pulling him out of quasi-retirement might be a stretch. But the former Raiders coach and Seahawks assistant was Callahan's offensive coordinator when he was a college quarterback at UCLA, and he worked alongside Callahan in 2018 in Oakland. His experience could be invaluable for a first-time head coach.
Bill Callahan, Browns OL coach
Callahan's father, Bill, ran the show for the Raiders and at Nebraska and has offensive coordinator or offensive line coaching experience in the NFL dating to the 1990s. The Titans need to fix their offensive line, and Bill Callahan would be a huge help there.
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Liam Coen, Kentucky offensive coordinator
Coen was the offensive coordinator for Will Levis ' breakout season at Kentucky and has experience as an NFL coordinator with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022. Coen and Callahan haven't overlapped as coaches, but they've worked for coaches with similar philosophies.
Al Golden, Notre Dame defensive coordinator
Golden has been the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame for two years, but the former University of Miami coach knows Callahan well and could make the jump back to the NFL. They worked together in Detroit (2016-17) and Cincinnati (2020-21) and could reunite a third time.
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Bo Hardegree, Raiders interim offensive coordinator
The Jackson native and former Tennessee Vols quarterback was the Raiders quarterbacks coach in 2022 and 2023 and was promoted to interim offensive coordinator in 2023. Hardegree reportedly will not be retained for 2014, and he has history with Callahan. The two worked together as offensive assistants in Denver in 2024.
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Brian Johnson, Eagles offensive coordinator
Like Hardegree, Johnson is reportedly out of a job. And like Brown, the Titans interviewed Johnson for their head coaching vacancy. The former college coordinator and Eagles quarterbacks coach might have some philosophical differences with Callahan that need reconciling, but he's still a young (36), experienced offensive mind who the Titans took interest in.
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Brad Kragthorpe, Bengals assistant QB coach
Kragthorpe, 31, has been with the Bengals since 2019, the entirety of Callahan's tenure. He knows Callahan's system and philosophies and could be due his first position coach job somewhere if Callahan wants to bring some continuity over from Cincinnati.
Klint and Klay Kubiak, 49ers offensive assistants
Gary Kubiak coached the Broncos at the end of Callahan's tenure in Denver . Kubiak's sons are both on Kyle Shanahan's San Francisco staff — a staff with limited upward mobility because Shanahan is de facto offensive coordinator and play caller. With Carthon's connections and Callahan knowing the family, there's reason to believe a move to Tennessee could be a promotion for either of the young coaches.
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Mike McCoy, Jaguars QB coach
McCoy's an assistant coach with the Titans' AFC South rivals. But the former Chargers coach was also offensive coordinator in Denver from 2009 to 2012, making him one of the first coaches Callahan worked for in the NFL and an experienced option to join Callahan's first staff.
Jake Peetz, Rams pass game specialist
Callahan and Peetz were assistant coaches at UCLA together early in their careers, and Peetz played for Callahan's dad at Nebraska. Now Peetz has experience as an NFL quarterbacks coach, running backs coach and pass game specialist, as well as a year of experience as offensive coordinator at LSU.
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Kyle Shurmur , Bills offensive quality control coach
Shurmur, the former Vanderbilt quarterback, knows Nashville. He's young (27), and likely wouldn't be due for any job bigger than an assistant position coaching job. But he spent a few months in the Bengals QB room with Callahan in 2020-21 and is working his way through the coaching ranks now. Also like Callahan: Shurmur is the son of a former NFL coach.
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Jemal Singleton, Eagles assistant head coach and RB coach
Singleton worked with Callahan in Oakland in 2018 and in Cincinnati in 2019-20 before heading over to Philadelphia in 2021. Callahan is known for his experience designing pass attacks, so someone like Singleton, who has experience in the run game, provides a different kind of value, especially as the Eagles reportedly look for a new offensive coordinator and send their existing staff into question.
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Eric Studesville, Dolphins associate head coach and RB coach
One of the architects of the Dolphins' dynamic offense, Studesville is a veteran running backs coach who has helped develop everyone from Tiki Barber to Marshawn Lynch . He also worked with Callahan in Denver from 2010 to 2015.
Tyke Tolbert, former Bears WR coach and pass game coordinator
Callahan also overlapped with Tolbert in Denver from 2011 to 2015. Since then, Tolbert has coached receivers with the Giants and Bears, and he helped coordinate the passing attack with the Bears. Tolbert was not retained on the Bears staff following 2023.
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Alex Van Pelt, former Browns offensive coordinator
Van Pelt led the Browns offense from 2020 to 2023, working with the elder Callahan, and was Bengals quarterbacks coach in 2019 when Brian Callahan first got to Cincinnati. He was also Aaron Rodgers ' quarterbacks coach for four years in Green Bay.
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: 18 candidates for Brian Callahan's Tennessee Titans coaching staff
