Before joining the Tennessee Titans as their head coach in 2024, Brian Callahan was the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals from 2019-2023. That means he held that position in 2020 when the Bengals drafted quarterback Joe Burrow with the top overall pick. Fast forward to 2025, and while his position is head coach instead of offensive coordinator, Callahan finds himself in a similar situation in Tennessee.
The Titans have the top overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft, and as the event approaches, the likelihood increases that the Titans will select Miami quarterback Cam Ward with the top pick. The organization continues to reiterate that everything is still on the table, that if the right offer comes along they'd be willing to trade out of that first pick. But no one has figured out what that looks like yet/
Because the Titans are in such desperate need of a solid solution at quarterback and Ward is the top quarterback in the draft, he's met with the Titans and worked out with them, and every sign indicates that they will pick him if they keep the top pick. When Callahan did this with Burrow in 2020, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic and most of their meetings and sessions took place via Zoom. Those sessions were recorded, so Callahan recently went back and reviewed them.
Brian Callahan sat down with @bykevinclark on Monday and had some really interesting comments about working with rookie Joe Burrow. Extremely encouraging stuff, but also, they're clearly preparing to select Cam Ward. pic.twitter.com/8bE7YMabmn
— Justin Graver (@titansfilmroom) April 2, 2025
"I went back and watched those first handfuls of meetings just, more for perspective," Callahan said. "I still see Joe as I saw him when I left, which is this, top-of-the-league, best quarterback in football arguably. But I went back and watched all of those just to see where he was in that process. It was good for me to see because you don't remember that sometimes. The amount of work it took to get where he was and a lot of that is a credit to Joe, but there were definitely things that we did developmentally. Both in how we taught the scheme, how we introduced it, what we asked of him, how we structured game plans that first year and those are all things that I've sort of revisited just to have some perspective on what it looks like."
Callahan jogging his memory on how he and the Bengals' coaching staff handled the implementation and development of Joe Burrow certainly points to the Titans likely drafting a quarterback. Whether they keep the top pick and select Cam Ward or trade down and go for someone else remains to be seen. But if we're being honest, if the Titans don't trade out of the top spot, they're almost certainly selecting Ward.
This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: Titans' Brian Callahan remembers drafting Joe Burrow
