INDIANAPOLIS – The Titans' top football people are at Lucas Oil Stadium to watch and meet with prospects. But while Ran Carthon, Brian Callahan, Chad Brinker and Anthony Robinson have the scouting staff with them, Callahan’s new coaching staff is not part of the evaluation process at the scouting combine.
That’s a departure from what Callahan is used to, as Cincinnati has a sparse scouting staff and leans heavily on its coaching staff.
And the big three --- Carthon, Callahan and Brinker – will head back to Nashville in time to be part of Thursday afternoon’s groundbreaking for the new Nissan Stadium.
“Just the way it goes,” Callahan said of the schedule conflict, which seems like something that could have been avoidable.
Those three will participate in Thursday evening meetings with offensive line prospects virtually. And all of it is, of course, recorded for everyone's review.
Carthon didn’t attend the Senior Bowl as he stayed in Nashville to help Callahan piece his staff together. That was a reasonable prioritization. So only Brinker, Anthony Robinson and scouts had opportunities for face-to-face time with linemen like Taliese Fuaga, Tyler Guyton, Jackson Powers-Johnson and Jordan Morgan.
Now, however many offensive linemen the Titans choose to include in the 45 18-minute interviews will meet Robinson and scouts, but only talk to Carthon, Callahan and Brinker through a screen.
Carthon and Callahan's in-person meetings with their top OL candidates will be reduced to what they arrange as part of their 30 in-person visits to their headquarters and what they coordinate at pro days when Bill Callahan is certain to be involved as well.
Carthon spoke of the interview process at the combine when he met with the media Tuesday.
"Let's get to the questions we really need answered," he said. "We're talking work ethic or if they have any quote-unquote red flags. That's here. Then also being able to get those same meetings in top 30 when we bring them in our building you have them for a whole day and even visiting with them maybe at their pro days or prior to their pro days.
"So getting as much exposure to the person. The tape is the tape. we've seen it. We've seen it in the fall. We're watching it to this very day. But getting as much exposure to the people is going to help us."
The team clearly doesn’t feel that missing those meetings live is that big of a concern.
Kyle Shanahan of the 49ers is not here as he finalizes a search for a new defensive coordinator, and his staff has also stayed home. Three other coaches are also not coming at all: Sean McVay, Matt LaFleur and Mike McCarthy.
As for the coaching staff remaining in Nashville…
“They’ve got to evaluate,” Callahan said. “All our scouts will end up doing this work, they are all here, they will end up doing this work. They are the ones who have evaluated these players, they’ve talked to these players, they can finish that process.
“All this stuff is filmed. They’ll watch all of it when we get back. They’re spending time evaluating the tape, which is really way more important for them.”
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