Dysfunctional teams do dysfunctional things. And, currently, the Titans are among the most dysfunctional in the entire NFL.
As it does with other bad teams that stay bad (Browns and Jets, for instance), the dysfunction flows from the top of the organization. In Tennessee, owner Amy Adams Strunk inherited the franchise from team founder Bud Adams (after a clunky few years flowing from the failure of Adams’s estate to designate a controlling owner from among the three branches of his family tree). Her tenure has been sparked by a series of half measures, and by a perception that specific people in the power structure fall in, and out, of her favor.
For now, Chad Brinker has Strunk’s ear. For how long will he have it? Maybe G.M. Mike Borgonzi becomes the next perceived savior. Maybe the next coach emerges as “the guy.”
One thing is clear. Interim head coach Mike McCoy likely won’t emerge as the next trusted confidant. Which means that the Titans will be embarking on a full-blown search for their next head coach.
And the coaching change has come as former coach Mike Vrabel (who never should have been fired) will be returning to town with the AFC East-leading Patriots. He’s 4-2 this year. The Titans are 4-19 since firing him.
It’s a disaster. It’s a mess. And it feels like the Titans have no clear path for finding a way toward contention and, more importantly, relevance.
The Titans, for years, have been irrelevant. Vrabel was making them relevant. Rookie quarterback Cam Ward could make them relevant. They’ll need to nail this next coaching hire in order to have a chance to get to where they want to be.
But here’s the caveat. If the next coach is too good, too strong, too magnetic, too charismatic, the next coach could end up becoming the next guy who captures the influence in Tennessee — and who engineers the ouster of everyone else.
That’s the biggest problem in Tennessee. The owner never presses the reset button. And, because the fans can never press the reset button on ownership, their only way to send a message is to deprive themselves of the thing they love, even when they hate it.
The Titans made major changes at the top of their organization this offseason when they gave president of football operations Chad Brinker more control over the team and hired General Manager Mike Borgonzi, but they opted to hold onto head coach Brian Callahan after he went 3-14 during his first season on the job.
Brinker and Borgonzi might like a mulligan on that decision because they fired Callahan on Monday. Sunday’s lifeless loss to the Raiders made Callahan’s career record 4-19 and Borgonzi said at a press conference that the lack of progress was the reason why the Titans decided to pull the trigger now.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Brian, as a person, and as a coach in this league,” Borgonzi said, via the team’s website. “We are looking for growth right now, and we did not see that at this point. But he’s an excellent coach, person, and I wish him the best moving forward.”
The timing of the change makes Cam Ward the fourth straight quarterback picked first overall to see his first NFL coach fired during their rookie season. Even if firing Callahan is understandable given his record, it’s a less than ideal way to break in a young quarterback. Picking the right choice for 2026 will be crucial for Ward and the Titans, but Brinker said the team isn’t writing off the rest of the season with interim head coach Mike McCoy as a lost cause.
“Mike and I will lead that search,” Brinker said. “But what our focus is right now is pouring everything we can into Mike McCoy and giving him every opportunity from here on out, starting this week. We have the Patriots coming to town, and we want to do everything we can to support him the way he needs to be supported so we can go out there and win a football game. So that’s really what our focus is right now.”
The Patriots are coached by Mike Vrabel, who held the same job with the Titans before being fired after the 2023 season. That wasn’t that long ago, but his return will offer a reminder of how quickly and how far the Titans have fallen from the best days of his tenure.
Titans offensive line coach Bill Callahan is leaving the team after it fired his son, Brian, on Monday, Paul Kuharsky of paulkuharsky.com reports.
Bill Callahan, who is considered one of the top offensive line coaches in the league, left the Browns in the 2024 offseason to join his son’s staff.
Yet, the offensive line’s breakdowns have played a big part in the Titans’ 4-19 record under Brian Callahan.
The Titans used the seventh overall pick on offensive lineman JC Latham in 2024, but Latham has struggled in his two seasons. He started at left tackle as a rookie before moving to right tackle this season.
Left tackle Dan Moore, who signed as a free agent in the offseason to play, and center Lloyd Cushenberry, who signed in the 2024 market, also have not lived up to expectations.
Bill Callahan is credited with developing several top offensive linemen, including Hall of Famer Alan Faneca, Brandon Scherff, Trent Williams, Tyron Smith and Zack Martin.
Scott Fuchs, who Bill Callahan selected to be his assistant offensive line coach, is expected to take over the position for the rest of the season.
Bill Callahan was the head coach of the Raiders in 2002-03, compiling a 15-17 record. He also went 3-8 as the interim coach in Washington in 2019.
After firing Brian Callahan earlier on Monday, the Titans have found his replacement for the rest of 2025.
Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, Tennessee will name Mike McCoy its interim head coach.
McCoy, 53, joined the Titans as a senior offensive assistant earlier this year. The Chargers head coach from 2013-2016, McCoy has since served as the Broncos offensive coordinator (2017), the Cardinals offensive coordinator (2018), and the Jaguars quarterbacks coach (2022-2024).
McCoy accumulated a 27-37 record with the Chargers during their last four seasons in San Diego.
A former pro quarterback, McCoy went undrafted out of Utah in 1995, spending time with the Broncos, Packers, 49ers, Eagles, and Seahawks in the league. He got into coaching with the Panthers in 2000 as an offensive assistant, eventually working his way up to passing game coordinator and QBs coach. He was hired as Broncos offensive coordinator in 2009, sticking with the organization until the Chargers hired him in 2013.
Now, McCoy will need to work to develop this year’s No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward as best he can through the rest of the season.
The Tennessee Titans have announced that coach Brian Callahan is out. The Titans have not yet announced his interim replacement.
There aren’t many obvious candidates on the current coaching staff. Callahan’s father, Bill, has head-coaching experience (he took the Raiders to the Super Bowl in 2002), but it would be awkward, to say the least, for the team to give him the keys. Or for the elder Callahan to take them.
Former Chargers coach Mike McCoy serves as a senior offensive assistant in Tennessee, so he could take the reins for the remainder of the season.
The Titans also could go outside the building, like the Colts did in 2022, hiring former Colts center Jeff Saturday. And, unlike Saturday, there’s a former Titans great who currently is coaching a mid-major college program — and who was interviewed for an NFL job in the most recent cycle.
Eddie George.
Whether he’d leave Bowling Green is a different issue. His buyout would be in the range of $2 million. But he’d be in line for a significant pay increase, since he’s making roughly $600,000 per year in his current gig.
Then there’s Mike McCarthy. He had no buyout in Dallas, and he’s available immediately. He and Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker worked together in Green Bay, for multiple years.
Regardless, the Titans didn’t announce the interim coach at the time they announced the firing of the current one. With a game against former Patriots coach Mike Vrabel only six days away, the clock is ticking. Loudly.
