By TERESA M. WALKER
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans began this season figuring out the franchise is rebuilding with a lot of work required to grow to be program.
Brian Callahan didn’t produce sufficient progress six video games into his second season, and that value him his job on Monday, when he grew to become the primary NFL coach fired this season.
“We need to win as many soccer video games as we will probably win,” Chad Brinker, the Titans’ president of soccer operations, mentioned Monday night time. “However we preached and talked concerning the progress, and we simply haven’t seen the expansion with the workforce so far.”
Brinker mentioned he and basic supervisor Mike Borgonzi met with controlling proprietor Amy Adams Strunk as normal on Monday morning earlier than telling Callahan that Tennessee was letting him go. The Titans introduced hours later that Mike McCoy would function interim coach.
Then, about 6 1/2 hours after the firing was introduced, Brinker and Borgonzi lastly talked to reporters. Borgonzi deferred questions concerning the assistant coaches to McCoy, who will converse to native media for the primary time Tuesday. NFL veteran Invoice Callahan got here to Tennessee to educate the offensive line for his son.
The Titans are 1-5 for a second straight season. Brinker mentioned they’ll preserve working to get the franchise heading in the right direction, noting he and Borgonzi are a part of a entrance workplace that has mixed to win 9 Tremendous Bowl titles with numerous groups.
“We’ve seen what successful soccer seems to be like and we all know what that appears like,” Brinker mentioned. “It’s nonetheless early within the season, and there’s loads of work to be executed. There’s nonetheless loads of soccer to play. … We’re simply as pissed off as as our followers are.”
McCoy joined the workforce in March as a senior offensive assistant, and he was 27-37 in four seasons teaching the then-San Diego Chargers between 2013 and 2016, shedding 23 of his final 32 video games earlier than being fired. He was an offensive coordinator for Denver in 2017 and Arizona in 2018.
His first sport main the Titans comes Sunday towards former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel and his New England Patriots (4-2).
Callahan went 4-19, which featured a 10-game skid.
He grew to become simply the second coach fired throughout the season by this franchise because it relocated from Houston to Nashville in 1997, becoming a member of Ken Whisenhunt, who was 3-20 when fired in November 2015. That stint additionally included a 10-game skid to finish the 2014 season.
That is simply the most recent of a number of personnel shakeups inside the previous three years:
— Normal supervisor Jon Robinson was fired on Dec. 6, 2022.
— GM Ran Carthon was employed on Jan. 18, 2023.
— Vrabel was fired on Jan. 9, 2024.
— Callahan was employed on Jan. 24, 2024.
— Carthon was fired on Jan. 7, 2025.
— Borgonzi was employed on Jan. 17, 2025.
The Titans had mentioned they wished to see enchancment this season with first-time head coach Callahan going into his second 12 months, this time with a rookie quarterback in Cam Ward. But Callahan needed to hand off play-calling duties after dropping to 0-3 with the offense struggling.
That change didn’t assist.
The Titans have scored 83 factors and are averaging 3.94 yards per play. Solely the 2019 Jets, the 2018 Payments in Josh Allen’s rookie 12 months, the 2009 Browns, the 2009 Raiders in JaMarcus Russell’s final season and the 2007 49ers have scored fewer than 84 factors whereas averaging lower than 4 yards per play via six video games previously 20 seasons.
Brinker famous the particular groups and protection have performed fairly effectively.
“We’ve struggled on offense,” Brinker mentioned. “I imply, that’s not a secret. And we must be higher there on that aspect of the ball.”
Of the 241 NFL coaches who’ve coached at the least 20 video games or extra for the reason that 1970 merger, Callahan ranks 237th with a .174 successful proportion. The one coaches who had been worse had been Jim Ringo (.130), Marty Mornhinweg (.156), Chris Palmer (.156) and Rod Dowhower (.172).
The Titans have performed at the least seven rookies in every sport this season, led by Ward, the No. 1 draft pick. Brinker mentioned: “We have to see him develop as a soccer participant as effectively. So all that’s an element.”
Callahan was employed in January 2024 for his work with quarterbacks together with Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow, the No. 1 choose in 2020.
However Ward is the most-sacked quarterback within the NFL, with 25 already, together with a pair of video games with six sacks every, following Sunday’s 20-10 loss to the Raiders.
This marks the fourth time in five years {that a} workforce that picked a quarterback with the No. 1 choice fired the coach throughout the season.
Callahan joins Matt Eberflus (Chicago, 2024), Frank Reich (Carolina, 2023) and City Meyer (Jaguars, 2021) in that group. Hue Jackson additionally was fired by Cleveland in 2018 and former Titans coach Jeff Fisher by the Rams in 2016 in the identical scenario.
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