Brian Callahan- Meet the Candidate- Part 7 of 12

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Sorry to whoever asked for Anarumo, I already have a list of candidates written out 1-12, it's just ironic this one was next. I'm not trolling you. 

 

Brian Callahan, OC-Cincinnati Bengals

                Brian is the son of longtime coach and OL guru, Bill Callahan. For those that still can’t put a name to the face, he was the guy who lead the Raiders against their former coach (Jon Gruden) in 2002 and then ran off to Nebraska for a while. Anyways, his son is the subject of this write up today. I personally think Brian Callahan can be a successful coach in the NFL and may be one of the Bengals’ best kept secrets.

                The 39-year-old was born in Illinois and partially raised there before later moving to California. He would play QB for the UCLA Bruins as a walk on from 02-05 not putting together much playing time. His biography literally states he played in 13 games as a holder on PATs over 4 years. After graduating he worked in Football Operations for UCLA and later coached Wide Receivers. He got his first shot in the NFL in 2010, serving as an offensive assistant for Mike McCoy during Josh McDaniels’ stint with the Denver Broncos.

                After McDaniels was fired, John Fox was hired to lead the Broncos in addition to their new QB- Peyton Manning. Mike McCoy was retained as OC and a number of his staff stayed as well including Callahan. Callahan held the role of Offensive Quality Control Coach in 2011 and 2012. He would be given the role of Offensive Assistant from 2013 to 2015 often bouncing around to different roles and duties. He would be hired by Jim Caldwell in 2016 as Detroit’s QB Coach but would be dismissed with Caldwell’s staff at the end of 2017 following his firing.

                Jon Gruden would pick up Callahan for his first season back in the NFL. Callahan would fill the QB Coach role on Gruden’s staff for the 2018 season but would be picked up by Zac Taylor the following year as OC for the Cincinnati Bengals. Since Callahan and Taylor took over the offense in 2019 the Bengals have finished the following in total offense each season:

-          2019- 26^th

-          2020- 29^th

-          2021- 13^th

-          2022- 8^th

-          2023- 21^st * Season in progress.

      Now, same as some other candidates out there- Callahan is a coordinator that is not a playcaller. The HC Zac Taylor (a McVay disciple) calls the offense. But, like I mentioned in the Frank Smith thread, does it matter? Mike McDaniel didn’t call plays in San Francisco and Zac Taylor didn’t call plays in LA. If I were to hire Callahan, the one thing I do like is even though he doesn’t call plays, he has been coordinating the offense and working with the same play caller for 4-5 years straight.

        Poking around in the minds of the Bengals’ fanbase, none of them really seem to have an opinion on Callahan. The ones that did would prefer to see him call the offense than Taylor. Many of them believe they have too many key offensive pieces to not have a consistent Top 10 offense. If you think about it-Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, Jamar Chase, Joe Mixon, and Tyler Boyd is quite a bit of fire power to not have consistent results.

        Overall though I have to say I think Callahan is one of the more interesting candidates whose name really isn’t coming up much. While I am sure he used his father’s connections at some point he has never worked on the same team as his dad or under his dad unlike other candidates mentioned here previously. He was a part of a SB winning team. He got to witness the brilliance of Peyton Manning firsthand. He worked with seasoned offensive minds like McCoy, Kubiak, Caldwell, and Gruden. Yet still has had exposure to the “young offensive minds” like Taylor who learned from McVay and Philbin.

        I doubt the Panthers and Callahan end up agreeing to a contract. If they do, I don’t think it would be the Panthers' worst choice, probably not their best either. It would probably be the worst choice Callahan could make. I can’t imagine the pressure of stepping into this job without the last name Johnson, Belichick, or Harbaugh after the fanbase has been force fed those names for 3 months.