Does the Titans’ hiring of Brian Callahan mean the Browns are about to lose Bill Callahan?

The veteran offensive line coach has drawn some of the highest praise in the NFL for years.

The Tennessee Titans have their new head coach: Brian Callahan, who was formerly the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. If you’re a Browns fan, or even a general fan across the NFL, one of the first thoughts in your head after reading that has to be, “Hmmm, does that mean Bill Callahan will follow his son to Tennessee?”

Bill Callahan has been regarded as one of the best offensive line coaches in the NFL. The interior of the Browns’ line has excelled for years, but any time there was an injury to a starter, the general theme was, “Don’t worry, Callahan will coach up the backup and make sure he’s ready.” We saw it when the likes of Blake Hance, Michael Dunn, and Dawand Jones had to step in over the years. Yes, there were still some issues, such as a decline in the run game, but instead of the line turning into a disaster, Callahan and company made it work. His reputation precedes him, and he seemed to be happy in Cleveland, even turning down an interview elsewhere for an offensive coordinator job in 2023. But working with his son is an entirely different story, as Brad Stainbrook of The OBR points out:

However, Connor Orr of Sports Illustrated posted a detailed article on Tuesday about the hiring of Brian Callahan, and this blurb about his father was included in it:

While it would be cool to reunite Callahan with his father, Bill, the Browns’ offensive line coach, it doesn’t sound like that is going to happen. The Browns have been fiercely protective of Bill in recent years, and he is among the highest paid assistant coaches in the NFL.

Although that makes it sound like the Browns will keep Cleveland, we’ll continue to monitor the situation — especially with the changes across the offensive coaching staff this offseason, if Bill were to say that he wants to join his son, it might be a bad look if Cleveland tells him “no” at this point in his career. If the Browns were to lose Callahan, they could look to promote assistant offensive line coach Scott Peters, who has worked with Callahan for the past four years.