The Tennessee Titans are back to square one. After a win over the Arizona Cardinals last week that probably had way more to do with the Cardinals blowing it than it did with Tennessee winning it, water sunk to its own level again in Las Vegas Sunday against the Raiders.
The Titans lost 20-10 and dropped to 1-5 on the season. And, the game honestly wasn’t as close as the score indicated.
Defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons sounds like he’s about had it with being a Tennessee Titan and would probably just quit if not for the four-year, $94 million contract he signed back in 2023.
“In this league, you have to learn how to stack wins,” Simmons said, via Buck Reasing of 104.5 The Zone. “To be able to carry that momentum over — it started at practice. If I’m being honest, this was one of our worst weeks of practice. Came out flat Thursday and things like that — sometimes things carry over. In this league, you have to prove it every week and reprove it.”
Reasing went on to say that quarterback Cam Ward agreed with Simmons’ assessment of the week’s practice.
“Cam Ward on Jeff Simmons’ assessment of a bad practice week: He ain’t lyin. Came out flat and that’s how we played,” Reasing posted on X.
This all points to head coach Brian Callahan
It’s easy to point the finger at the head coach when you’ve won one game in six tries. But, that isn’t always the case. However, when you win one game in six tries and your superstar is saying you practiced like hot garbage all week? We’re looking at you, Brian Callahan.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell takes a look at hot seats in the NFL each week (at least I think he does) and there is a chance that Callahan lives on it. He should if he doesn’t.
“The tough part for Brian Callahan is that he has already ceded responsibilities,” Barnwell writes. “His father presumably plays a big role in designing the run game, which ranks 28th in the league in EPA per play on designed runs. He also handed over playcalling duties to Bo Hardegree at 0-3.
“The offense didn’t move much; it was 32nd in EPA per play with Callahan calling the plays and jumped all the way to 30th after the shift, though that’s mostly been a product of the Browns and Ravens changing quarterbacks below them.”
Brian Callahan’s in-game management is poor and he’s probably Jimmy Carter
Simply put, Callahan has too many flaws in his game and his team stinks. All of the fingers are pointing at him in this debacle, even if it’s not all his fault. It’s most likely a Jimmy Carter situation; you’re not the worst coach in the world, but you’re not the right guy for this job right now either.
“In terms of game management, it’s hard to argue that Callahan has been up to the task,” Barnwell continues. “He was involved in a bizarre controversy in Week 1, where he neglected to challenge an incomplete pass call on Titans receiver Elic Ayomanor because he had only an elbow inbounds…In Week 2, the Titans were lined up for a 57-yard field goal, only for Callahan’s indecisiveness to lead to a delay of game penalty, with the ensuing 62-yarder getting blocked. In Week 4, while trailing 26-0 to the Texans and inside his own 5-yard line with 1:50 to go, Callahan handed the ball to Tony Pollard three consecutive times, putting unnecessary hits on the 28-year-old’s body.”
You get the drift, right? Another huge problem is that he has this No. 1-overall draft pick at quarterback that looks like he’s about to rot in the NFL if something doesn’t change.
“Callahan’s role is likely dependent on how he does developing Ward,” Barnwell writes. “Six games isn’t an entire picture, but so far, Ward’s 25.0 QBR ranks last in the league by a comfortable margin. The guys directly ahead of him have either been benched (Jake Browning, Russell Wilson or Joe Flacco) or seem to be in real danger of losing their job (Geno Smith, Justin Fields).”
Something needs to change in Tennessee soon, because every single indicator of NFL success is pointing to abject failure.
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