Patience Runs Out: Titans Fire Brian Callahan Mid-Season Amid 1-5 Start

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NASHVILLE, TN—The Tennessee Titans made the dramatic move on Monday to fire Head Coach Brian Callahan, making him the first NFL coach ousted this season. The dismissal comes just six games into his second year, following a disastrous 1-5 start that showed a troubling lack of progress for a franchise committed to a painful rebuild.

Callahan, hired in January 2024 for his reputation as an offensive innovator and quarterback developer, leaves Nashville with a franchise-low 4-19 record. The decision sends the organization into turmoil just days before a pivotal Week 7 home game against the New England Patriots, led by former Titans coach Mike Vrabel.

The Reasons for the Change: Lack of Growth and Sputtering Offense

Titans President of Football Operations Chad Brinker stated that the move, made after extended conversations with ownership and the general manager, was necessary because the team “had not demonstrated sufficient growth.”

The lack of progress was evident across the board, but especially on the side of the ball Callahan was hired to fix:

Historic Offensive Failure: The Titans’ offense has been historically inept, ranking dead last in the league in EPA/Play and struggling to even score a touchdown in the first half of games this season.
Play-Calling Hand-Off: A sign of the early dysfunction was Callahan delegating play-calling duties after the team dropped to 0-3, a move that failed to spark an improvement.
Cam Ward’s Struggle: The team used the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on quarterback Cam Ward, but the rookie has been under constant duress. Ward is the most-sacked quarterback in the NFL with 25 sacks through six games, a glaring indictment of the offensive infrastructure.
The Inevitable Return: The optics of facing Vrabel—the popular former coach who was controversially fired after the 2023 season and is now finding success in New England—may have forced ownership’s hand to accelerate the inevitable. The prospect of Vrabel’s thriving Patriots handing Callahan’s struggling Titans a lopsided home loss was a media narrative the organization could no longer stomach.

A Very Short Tenure

Callahan’s 4-19 record gives him one of the lowest winning percentages of any coach in the modern era and makes him just the second coach in franchise history, since relocating to Tennessee, to be fired mid-season.

He was brought in to modernize the offense and usher in a new era of quarterback play, contrasting the “old-school” style of his predecessor. Instead, the team plunged to a new low, failing to secure the very developmental growth they preached patience for.

The Titans will now face the challenge of naming an interim head coach to lead the team through the remainder of the season and simultaneously launching a new search for the franchise’s third head coach in as many seasons. The next hire will inherit a team built around a top draft pick who desperately needs stability and development to survive in the league.