Brian Callahan reunites with the franchise that fired him as New York’s quarterback coach, offering high praise for his former signal-caller despite a complicated past in Tennessee.
The Tennessee Titans have been focusing on and preparing for the Philadelphia Eagles all week.
Week 2 will tell us a lot about this team. If they can respond well to the 23-10 loss to the New York Jets in Week 1, the vibes about the team could change drastically.
The Eagles game will dominate the minds of the players for now.
Afterward, the Titans will see a familiar face who was with the franchise not long ago.
The Titans travel to the New York Giants in Week 3. The head coach is John Harbaugh, but former Titans head coach Brian Callahan is also on staff.
He is the quarterbacks coach of the Giants this year.
Callahan spent half a season with Cam Ward before getting fired last year. Callahan even worked with former Titans quarterback Brandon Allen in the preseason.
He didn't stick around with the Giants for long. He was signed by the Giants back in April and was released after underperforming in the preseason.
Giants media recently spoke to Callahan about facing his former team. Giants reporter Pat Leonard asked Callahan about his mindset ahead of the game.
Callahan said he was focused on the Giants Week 2 opponent, the Los Angeles Rams instead.
He did have kind words to say about Ward.
"Don't think about them at all at the moment, to be honest," Callahan said. "Have plenty on our plate to go get ready to play the Rams. I love Cam as a person and a player. I root for him, I hope for him. When we play him, I hope we do our part. But I'm fully focused on what we've got. We've got a tough game ahead of us and a lot of things that we gotta do well. And we'll worry about them next week."
Ward began to improve slowly as a quarterback after Callahan was fired. From Weeks 1-9, Ward struggled.
Then, he looked like a different player in the second half of the season. Ward led the NFL in touchdown-to-interception ratio. He threw for 1,409 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and one interception after learning under interim HC Mike McCoy.
While a lot of the blame was put on Callahan, and rightfully so, it wasn't all on him. Callahan deserves blame, but the Titans didn't necessarily set up Ward for success.
The Titans gave Ward an unimpressive cast of receivers. He started the year with Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett and Van Jefferson as his main receivers.
Lockett was dealt at the trade deadline, and Jefferson quickly lost his job to rookie Elic Ayomanor.
After the trade deadline, Ward's starting receivers were Ridley, Chimere Dike and Ayomanor. Ridley then broke his leg and was out for the year.
Ward is still growing as a quarterback; we saw evidence of that on Sunday. The Titans have given him more weapons compared to last year, however. There's also a reason that Callahan didn't work out in Nashville.
For now, Callahan wishes his former quarterback the best before the Giants see him at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 27.
