Brian Callahan hands Titans’ play-calling duties to QB coach

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Titans head coach Brian Callahan is passing play-calling duties to quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree.

Callahan is just 3-17 in his tenure with Tennessee, including an 0-3 start this season heading into Sunday’s game at Houston (0-3).

“It’s a pretty easy thing to do when trying to help the football team win,” Callahan said Tuesday. “They hired me to be the head coach — and part of that process was being involved in the offense — but my job is to be the head coach of the football team and I think that this (change) allows me to do that job a little bit better, pay more attention to some things that might require my attention and be more present. We’re 0-3. We’re trying to get better.”

Callahan said Tuesday morning he would step back from the in-game play-calling role but will help formulate game plans and have input during the game along with offensive coordinator Nick Holz.

Hardegree, 41, was hired as Tennessee’s quarterbacks coach in 2024 and interviewed to be offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears in the offseason. He crossed paths with Callahan as a quality control coach with the Broncos in 2014. Callahan was an offensive assistant in Denver.

“I lean on him a lot, trust him. He is a really, really good quarterbacks coach,” Callahan said of Hardegree at the NFL Scouting Combine. “There’s two parts to coaching: obviously the schematic part, and the position coaching part, technique and details and fundamentals. I think Bo is excellent at both. I don’t think Bo is going to be with us forever. I think he is going to be calling plays, and I think Bo will be a head coach at some point, too. He’s an excellent football coach.

Hardegree has NFL play-calling experience when he served as interim offensive coordinator for the final nine games of the 2023 season with the Las Vegas Raiders.

–Field Level Media