00:00But the big news here to start our show, the Tennessee Titans, after losing once again
00:07this weekend to the Vegas Raiders, they have fired second-year head coach Brian Callahan.
00:12Of course, the Tennessee Titans home to this year's number one overall pick, Cam Ward.
00:18So once again, Joe, we see a number one overall pick's head coach fired during their first
00:23season, the Titans' axe Brian Callahan.
00:25Yeah, and rightfully so.
00:27I mean, they were gifted a victory a couple weeks ago against Arizona.
00:30They stepped up.
00:30It was Cam Ward's best performance, 268 yards.
00:34They put up points in the fourth quarter.
00:36You thought it would continue in back-to-back road games against Las Vegas, completely one-dimensional.
00:41Conservative.
00:42They're down by two scores.
00:43He's running the football on first down multiple times, down by two touchdowns with seven minutes
00:49left.
00:49Completely pathetic effort.
00:51Lack of enthusiasm.
00:52And hopefully a change that'll benefit Cam Ward with an interim staff.
00:56But whoever they get in there, Kev, they need to evolve.
00:59They need to get some playmakers on the outside, outside of Calvin Ridley.
01:03But besides that, he couldn't coach up Will Levis.
01:05Certainly couldn't coach up Cam Ward.
01:07This is a really interesting spot where I think for Tennessee, in hiring Brian Callahan,
01:13year number one, the results were really bad.
01:15And there might have been some temptation in the room to move off of Callahan.
01:18But you're right to bring up Will Levis.
01:20Because Levis was bad.
01:21So it's like, ah, it's maybe not his fault.
01:25But sometimes when you get a coach in the building, you think about where are they from, right?
01:28Everyone grabs usually McVay tree, Shanahan tree.
01:32The Titans went to the Zach Taylor tree.
01:34The Bengals don't even like having the Zach Taylor tree in their own building.
01:38So that automatically was a little bit odd.
01:43You look at offense right now, last in yards per game, second to last in points per game,
01:49last in offensive EPA, offensive guy.
01:53It's not a defensive issue.
01:55They're the worst offense in football.
01:57That wasn't supposed to be the case.
01:59Cam Ward was supposed to give them a little bit of juice here, Joe.
02:03And it just has not happened.
02:06And we've seen this team check into these games.
02:09Big spreads.
02:10Heck, the market moved towards them going into the matchup with the Raiders, right?
02:13No Colton Miller, no Brock Bowers for Vegas.
02:16And the Titans never had a chance, really, to cover that football game.
02:20They scored 10 on a really, really bad Las Vegas Raiders defense.
02:23Yeah, and you think about the defense for Tennessee that hasn't played all that bad.
02:27I mean, they've been opportunistic.
02:29Their linebacker play is solid.
02:31They're very good against run support with Simmons leading that front seven.
02:34And at the end of the day, when your offense is out there, you want to see explosive chunk type of plays.
02:39And we didn't see it.
02:40It was limited and often, limited and not often for the Tennessee Titans.
02:45But they have playmakers.
02:46I mean, Tajay Spears, Tony Pollard at the running back position.
02:50They draft Gunnar Helm, the tight end out of Texas.
02:53There are some playmakers.
02:54But from an offensive perspective and philosophy, Brian Callahan was like a deer in the headlights.
03:00But we've seen this, Kev.
03:01Look at the situation with Aaron Glenn and how bad that defense is, right?
03:05He's supposed to be a defensive mastermind.
03:07Yet, that defense has been pathetic.
03:09So, again, these coaches get into the situation.
03:12And they're playing not to lose.
03:14And they lose their identity.
03:15And at the end of the day, they're better coordinators, maybe, than they are head coaches.
03:20The questions, really, for Tennessee, though, now that you've made this move, is what can you expect this season?
03:26Updated win total checks in, three and a half, minus 110 either direction.
03:30They have one win currently on their schedule.
03:33But what you can expect from this team depends a lot on what you can expect for Cam Ward.
03:37I want to take everyone back to draft night, where Cam Ward, everyone said they felt bad for.
03:44There's never been a number one overall pick talked about less.
03:48We keep focusing on the Colorado kids, right?
03:51The trade-up for Travis Hunter, the slide for Shador Sanders.
03:56Cam Ward should thank his lucky stars that he is the least talked about, number one overall pick.
04:00I like Cam Ward.
04:01I think there's a chance he is good.
04:04I know there are highlight throws on tape.
04:07But the in-between is the worst quarterback in football.
04:10He is the worst quarterback in football right now.
04:13His QBR is a 25.
04:15A 25, it's dead last.
04:19His passer rating is only higher than Joe Flacco.
04:22His pro football focus grade is only higher than Jake Browning.
04:26Shout out to Bengals.
04:27This is, I guess it's all connected.
04:30Joe, Cam Ward, where are you at?
04:34Because people will, I think rightfully, feel bad for him that this has played out the way it has.
04:39But he's certainly a part of why this has gone this way.
04:42Yeah, a little bit.
04:43I think you make the assessment that he's similar to Caleb Williams last year.
04:46You see the good.
04:48You see the bad.
04:48You see the ugly.
04:49And look at the weapons around him.
04:51I mean, you know, outside of Calvin Ridley, I mean, that wide receiver course, it's one of the worst in the NFL.
04:58And then you topple on top of that, put the conservative play calling, whereas in long third down situations, they don't open up the offense until they're trailing by double digits.
05:07You can't build a quarterback in that capacity and expect him to progress in an NFL scheme when you're not developing talent and an offensive philosophy around his strengths.
05:19Certainly a different offense than what they ran in Miami when he put up numbers.
05:23A much different offense than what he ran at Washington State.
05:26We're not seeing him run and utilize his legs as much as he did on the college level.
05:32He wants to be a pure pocket passer, and I get that.
05:35But at the end of the day, that's why I think potentially, and we brought it up in the break, a coach like Cliff Kingsbury, an offensive mind potentially, that can develop a game plan much to Cam Ward's strengths, isn't a bad situation.
05:49But they have to be proactive, and they have to get talent in there to coach it up as well.
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