By MIKE HERNDON, columnist
The Tennessee Titans finally ripped off the band-aid on Monday, firing Brian Callahan after a disastrous 23-game run that saw the team go 4-19 with a negative 227 point differential, both marks saved only by the Browns from being the worst in the NFL since the start of last season.
However, it wasn’t just the results that ultimately got Callahan fired; it was the trendline of the team that was clearly pointed downward. After a 3-8 start with an average margin of defeat of 8.0 points, the Titans dropped to 1-11 with an average margin of defeat of 11.6 points.
The plan is not changing, we just didn’t see the growth.— Chad Brinker. #Titans. pic.twitter.com/LiYWc5Noup
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) October 14, 2025
Chad Brinker was being nice when he said that a lack of growth was the reason for the Titans pulling the plug just a few months after preaching patience. The fact is that the Titans got actively worse under Callahan, especially on offense, the phase of the game that Callahan was specifically hired to improve.
Making the move now makes sense to me on multiple levels. For one, firing a poor-performing head coach typically does provide some level of improvement in performance for the team over the remainder of the season. According to research by Action Network, NFL teams that have fired their coach midseason have jumped from a winning percentage of 26.9 percent before the firing to 37.9 percent after the firing.
