AFC Notes: Brian Callahan Press Conference, Ran Carthon, Shad Khan, Jaguars, Titans

Jaguars 

The Jaguars elected to fire HC Doug Pederson and retain GM Trent Baalke on Monday. When speaking to reporters, owner Shad Khan said they need to fix the head coaching position but feels “a lot of things are working well” with their front office administration. 

“We have a lot of things that are working, that can always be improved and will improve, and there are other things that are not working that need to be fixed,” Khan said, via JaguarsWire. “So, the coaching, that is an area that we need to fix now. But certainly, over the last few years, we built a football administration and a lot of things are working well there.”

Khan continued to defend Baalke, saying they’ve added “building blocks of players” without trading away draft picks.

“I think if you look at the body of work, certainly over the last five years. You look at the building blocks of players we have that we’re building the team around, you look at your salary cap, you look at the number of draft picks we have now and also making sure that our key players are getting paid. All of that has happened and we haven’t mortgaged a future so to speak,” Khan said. “Some of the decision-making, do we pay our players or let them walk and then replace them with the draft and improve the players? That’s happened in the last two drafts. Number one receiver and right tackle would be something that comes to mind right away. So, I mean we can get into the granular things but overall, I think it’s pretty good.”

Khan thinks they have a desirable job available. 

“Now, we’re in a moment of opportunity for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I am energized by what is possible with all we have to offer our new head coach and look forward to a process that’s already begun.”

Titans

With the first overall draft pick officially locked up, Titans HC Brian Callahan told reporters that the team would consider all options at quarterback. The team has already had an exit interview with QB Will Levis and will now be searching for a new general manager as well.

“We’re in a position to potentially draft a quarterback,” Callahan said, via the team’s website. “We’re in a position to, with the cap stability and flexibility we have, to potentially sign a veteran quarterback. And, so, we’re going to explore every avenue to do that. There are a lot of ways you can do this process and we’ll unturn every stone to find out what the best one is for us. There’s a lot of work to be done between now and those decision-making times. But yeah, I think it’s very clear that that’s a position that we have to do our due diligence on and our work on both in free agency and into the draft.”

Titans

The Titans moved on from GM Ran Carthon on Tuesday and HC Brian Callahan has already spoken to the media saying that he knows he can get better results next season.

“I know I’m a good football coach, and I know that I am going to be a good head coach,” Callahan said, via the team website. “But this is certainly not the result I anticipated. And I am going to have to do a much better job. It is embarrassing. I do not like standing up here talking about having the first pick in the draft. I don’t like it. I don’t like the fact that we won three games. It’s not the standard that I set for myself. . . . It does motivate me. No professional that likes to compete likes to be embarrassed, and there’s feelings of that when you only win three games, and I am determined to not let that happen again.”

“Ultimately I have to do a better job as a head coach, so we are not in this situation again at any point,” Callahan added. “I don’t have any interest in repeating this season. I don’t want to be in this position again, and I am fully determined and resolved to get us to a point where we don’t have to talk about how many games we’ve lost, we can talk about how many games we’ve won.”