Titans kicking off Callahan era in Chicago

CHICAGO (WKRN) — Brian Callahan could not have picked a better spot for his first game as head coach of the Tennessee Titans. 

Callahan and the Titans are in Chicago to take on the Bears, a team he admitted was his favorite growing up: “I mean, my dad’s from the South Side, my mom’s from the North Side. They are all Chicago, and I grew up a Bears fan. That’s the teams that I watched were Chicago sports teams. I was a Bears, Blackhawks and Bulls fan as probably a lot of people were in the ’90s.”

These two teams have a ton in common, building around young quarterbacks with proven receivers and running backs. The question remains, though, how good are Will Levis and Caleb Williams?

The Bears took Williams first overall out of Southern Cal and he has Chicago fans on tilt with the thought of having a quarterback who can finally rival the best in the league.

“A really dynamic player. Really fun as a fan of quarterbacks to watch him play,” Callahan said on Monday, Sept. 2. “But then they’ve added a bunch of weapons. Keenan Allen’s been doing this for a long time. He’s still able to get open at a relatively high rate these days, and obviously with D.J. Moore and drafting Rome Odunze, they’ve got some real players on offense and the ability to score a lot of points. They’ve got good backs, they’ve got a good tight end. I mean, it’s a much-improved football team.”

Not only does Callahan have his hands full, but so does his first year defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson, who is expected to blitz early an often against the rookie QB. If Williams has time, his receivers are good enough to really make the Titans pay.

• Bears wide receivers 2023 stats –
  • DJ Moore – 96 Rec. 1364 Yards, 8 TD’s
  • Keenan Allen (Chargers) – 108 Rec. 1243 Yards, 7 TD’s
  • Rome Odunze (University of Washington) – 92 Rec. 1640 Yards, 13 TD’s

The Titans did add two lockdown corners in the offseason in L’Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, both of whom are healthy and ready to play on Sunday, Sept. 8. However, neither player practiced during open periods with the team since Awuzie was nursing a calf injury while Sneed had his own program to deal with a knee issue, so we have not seen this Titans secondary play together.

Meanwhile, the Titans are leaning heavily on second-year quarterback Levis ,who Callahan believes has the stuff to be a franchise quarterback after seeing what he did during eight starts last season.

• Will Levis 2023 Stats – 58.4% Passing, 1808 Yards, 8 TD’s, 4 INT’s

Callahan has stressed making the easy throw for Levis and increasing his completion percentage up closer to 70% for the season. If the preseason is an indication, Levis is getting the message. He completed 11 of 13 passes, 84.6%, as the Titans’ first team offense scored on every possession it played.

This is not the preseason, though, and Levis knows the Bears defense played at a top 10 level the second half of last season: “I’m very impressed. They look really good on all levels. The line’s ready for a big front up front with what they got going on there. Good rushers on the outside; good strong, penetrating rushers inside; and then they performed as well as they did, especially towards the end of last year for a reason. You see the turnovers, you see the ball disruption.”

A Bears defensive front led by Montez Sweat will put a lot of pressure on a young Titans offensive line that has a rookie at left tackle in JC Latham, a second-year player at left guard in Peter Skoronski, and a third-year player at right tackle in Nicholas Petit-Frere. Petit-Frere should see the most of Sweat, who not only led the Bears in sacks last season (6), but the Washington Commanders (6.5) after a mid-season trade.

Expect Callahan to use his running backs a lot in this one in pass protection and in the passing game. Both Tony Pollard and Tyjae Spears are more than capable of chipping in and helping out in protection, but Callahan also pointed out they are able to recognize pressure and get open quickly. That is the kind of “easy” throw Callahan wants to see Levis take advantage of.  As a result, the Titans could be leaning heavily on Spears and Pollard to put pressure on the Bears linebackers and pile up the yards after the catch.

The line has been as high as Bears (-4.5) but was down to (-3.5) on Saturday, Sept. 7 with some belief in the Titans pouring in.

Here’s one stat in the Titans’ favor: the last 15 quarterbacks to go first overall are 0-14-1 in their first NFL start.