Tennessee will, of course, look to add players around Ward and ideally compete for a playoff spot next season. The team currently has seven picks in the 2026 NFL Draft. By the time April rolls around, a new head coach will likely be involved in the decision-making process for Tennessee.
Titans Fire Head Coach Brian Callahan in Second Dismal Season
Posted October 13, 2025
The Tennessee Titans have fired Brian Callahan just six games into his second season as head coach. Callahan finishes his Titans‘ tenure with a 4-19 record, including a 1-5 start this season. His .174 winning percentage ranks as the fifth-worst for any head coach since 1970 with a minimum of 20 games.
“After extended conversations with our owner and general manager, we met with Brian Callahan this morning to tell him we are making a change at head coach,” Tennessee’s president of football operations Chad Brinker said in a statement. “These decisions are never easy, and they become more difficult when they involve people of great character. We are grateful for Brian’s investment in the Titans and Tennessee community during his tenure as head coach. We thank him and his family for being exemplary ambassadors of the Tennessee Titans.
“While we are committed to a patient and strategic plan to build a sustainable, winning football program, we have not demonstrated sufficient growth. Our players, fans, and community deserve a football team that achieves a standard we are not currently meeting, and we are committed to making the hard decisions necessary to reach and maintain that standard.”
The Build-up to Callahan’s Firing
Just last week, Callahan was handing out game balls to an exuberant Titans locker room after the team notched its first win of the season in a 22-21 thriller over the Arizona Cardinals. It was No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward’s first career victory. There was a glimmer of hope that the team had turned the corner following a frustrating 0-4 start, in which most games were non-competitive. Yet, after the Titans fell 20-10 to an underachieving Raiders team on Sunday, the team’s front office decided to make a change. Tennessee has the second-worst margin of defeat this season, at -13.0 points per game.
The numbers, in most facets, are disappointing. The Titans are scoring the second-fewest points per game (13.8) and gaining the fewest yards per game (232.3). Meanwhile, they have surrendered the 11th-most yards per game (343.3) and seventh-most points per game (26.8). Ward has also been sacked 25 times in only six games, the most in the league by a significant margin.
With former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel coming to town in Week 7, ownership may have been compelled to fire Callahan before he could be beaten by the man he was hired to replace.
Failures That Led to the Team’s Decision
According to NFL insider Jordan Schultz, Titans ownership was initially opposed to making an in-season coaching change. “But it spiraled out of control—things felt off, there were head-scratching moves, no true direction or improvement—and they made the switch today,” Schultz tweeted.
Kevin Patra of NFL.com writes, “Callahan regularly made avoidable coaching errors. The onset of the season portended the epic failures that would dissolve the Titans‘ season before it got off the ground.”
Hours before Callahan was fired, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell included him on a list of players and coaches on the hot seat. “In terms of game management, it’s hard to argue that Callahan has been up to the task,” Barnwell writes. “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. (One elbow, as you probably know, equals two feet.) 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.”
Callahan now has the dubious distinction of being the first coach fired during the 2025 season, but he likely won’t be the last.
What’s Next for Tennessee
After three consecutive seasons below .500, it appears 2025 will continue to be a rebuilding year for the Titans. Only four teams in NFL history have made the playoffs after starting 1-5.
The rest of the season will have several focuses aside from the team’s record, with Ward’s development at the top. Despite modest numbers, the 23-year-old QB has shown flashes of both poise and playmaking ability to start his career. It hasn’t been the ascendant rookie season of quarterbacks like Jayden Daniels or C.J. Stroud, but it’s been promising nonetheless, especially considering the Titans’ talent-deficient offense.
Moore Admits Fault in Saints’ Slide, But Still Sees Hope
It's safe to say that the New Orleans Saints are off to their worst start of the 21st century. The last time the black and gold rolled out a squad that only won one through their first six, "Heartbreaker" by Mariah Carey featuring Jay-Z was topping the charts.
The team's most recent loss was to the New England Patriots. "I thought our guys played fast; they played physical," head coach Kellen Moore said. "At the end of the day, we didn't take advantage of the opportunities that were presented to us. Every game is going to have those opportunities, and you gotta take advantage of them... Gotta find a way for myself to coach better, to put ourselves in better situations to be more successful as a football team, because there's too much good in these little margins."
On Sunday, the Saints would continue to struggle in the red zone, settling for two field goals inside the 20 yard line and one more inside the 30. Moore says that's on him. "Obviously, we're not doing a good enough job. We're extending some drives, but then we're not getting the ultimate points we need," he said to the media. "Whether it be settling for field goals in the red zone or getting stalled out just crossing the 50-yard line, we're not doing good enough stuff."
The 2025 Saints just aren't there yet
The New Orleans Saints offense hasn't quite been able to hold their own. Earning around 300 yards a game, they're currently ranked 24th in the NFL. Furthermore, just to make the situation worse, in light of a struggling offense, the other side of the ball is slowly becoming a cause for concern. Since week one, when they allowed 276 total yards, the Saints defense has allowed 300 or more yards a game, which puts them 18th in the league.
However, one must have patience with this team. It's got young players being led by a young guy who's never been a head coach before. There's bound to be some bumps and bruises.
The defense isn't even all that bad and it even ranks in the top 10 in terms of takeaways (eighth in the league with eight), but that's the only category where they've done well. However, with their typical luck, their next opponent will be one that can one-up them in that category. The Chicago Bears, who the Saints are set to take on next week, are tied at fourth in the league with nine takeaways so far this season.
Fact of the matter is, though, that the Saints have yet to be able to punch their opponent in the mouth and come up with a decisive victory. They'll get another shot next week, when they travel up North to Chicago.
