With Tennessee Titans head coach Brian Callahan set to call the plays for the offense in 2024, new offensive coordinator Nick Holz won’t have that responsibility on his plate but will stay play a big role in the offense.
The approach to offensive game-planning and play-calling will be the same as the one Callahan worked under with the Cincinnati Bengals, where head coach Zac Taylor called the plays but Callahan had a lot of input and was instrumental in the implementation of the offense in general.
“It’s a little different than maybe you’re used to around here, having an offensive head coach that’s calling the plays with an offensive coordinator by title, that doesn’t call the plays,” Callahan said, according to Jim Wyatt of TennesseeTitans.com. “But it’s a setup I’m trying to emulate from how we were set up in Cincinnati with myself and Zac Taylor. And it’s a system that I know is important, and I know that it works.”
Holz kept it simple, saying he’s “just like a regular offensive coordinator, I just won’t be calling the plays,” per Broadway Sports Media’s Easton Freeze, and he hopes to take more and more off Callahan’s plate moving forward.
“(Most) of Nick’s job is to make sure the offensive staff and the offensive players and the offensive scheme keeps running all the moments I am not available to be there, particularly during the course of the week,” Callahan said. “There’s a preparation part of it that is critically important to me.”
“You need to be yourself first. I am not going to try and be Brian. We are different people in that regard,” Holz said. “As each day goes, just seeing a few more things I can take off his plate.”
“It is really kind of an open dialogue the whole time in how we’re trying to figure stuff out, and structure it this way,” Holz added.
When it comes to his coaching style, Holz said he is not a screamer and is focused on building relationships, which he believes empowers players to better do their jobs.
“Everybody has their own management style,” Holz said. “I don’t think you’ll see me as a yeller and a screamer or anything like that. But I think if you build relationships with people, you kind of empower them to do their jobs.
“I feel like the people I have worked for, they empowered me,” he added. “As a leadership style, the same thing with the players, ‘We’re going to give you this, and you keep going and we’ll build the connection in that regard.'”
One of the things that was attractive about the Titans job was the opportunity to work with quarterback Will Levis, who Holz will have a hand in developing. Holz believes Levis checks three important boxes.
“I hadn’t really watched very much of him, but I started watching him when I was with the Jags,” Holz said, per Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk. “The first thing that jumped out is the arm talent and the second thing that jumps out is the toughness. We talk about quarterbacks, the three things we’re looking for are decision-making, accuracy and toughness, and we saw all of that.”
Nick Holz said the chance to work with and help develop Will Levis is one of the things that made coming to the #Titans attractive.
— Terry McCormick (@terrymc13) February 14, 2024
You can check out more of what Holz had to say during the introductory presser, as well as comments from Callahan and defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson right here.
