New coach Brian Callahan will call offensive plays for the first time this season. Serving as a coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2019-2023, Callahan hopes to bring the same model of play-calling process to the Tennessee Titans.
It served he and Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor well during their time together.
"It's a system that I know is important, and I know that it works," Callahan said at a Wednesday press conference while introducing new Tennessee offensive and defensive coordinators Nick Holz and Dennard Wilson. "And so, Nick (Holz)'s job, he'll get more into the details of it, but most of it is to make sure that the offensive staff, and offensive players and the offensive scheme keeps running in all the moments that I'm not available to be there, particularly during the course of the week. There's a preparation part of it that's critically important to me."
Holz joined the Titans after spending the last year with the Jacksonville Jaguars as their passing game coordinator.
He and Callahan spent a year together on the coaching staff of the Oakland Raiders. Both men also attended know California football powerhouse De La Salle High School together before setting off on their respective college playing and coaching careers. Holz will have every responsibility that another offensive coordinator would except for one.
But the bulk of play-calling process will already done before Tennessee takes the field on offense in a regular season situation.
"Quite a bit is the answer," said Callahan. "Because of the way that the week operates and the way you build a game plan with the input from the staff and the input from the quarterback, which is sort of the cherry on top of the preparation process. As you get to Saturday, quarterback's going to have a lot of input as to what he likes and where his favorites are. He'll rank the plays as we get ready to go into a game.
"So, for example, we might have, our top two plays in third and-2 to 3 and third-and-4 to 6. They're going to come off the sheet just like that, especially early in the game, until we have to adjust in between series or at the quarter, at the half, however that works. But we have a starting point plan.. Just like you have your kind of—we call them 'openers,' some people call them 'First 15'—but, you have a handful of plays in there that you're trying to probe the defense. You're trying to give your guys a chance to get a rhythm going. The quarterback's going to have an input into that portion of the game plan. So the early part of the game, the calling of the plays is really sort of already done before the game starts. Where good play callers, I think, make their money and where good staffs separate themselves in this league is how quickly you can pivot, in the process of a game."
The whole process under Callahan will be that kind of major pivot for the Titans in 2024. It will be a fascinating experiment to watch play out in real time.
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