I was surprised when the Browns not only let Bill Callahan leave for Tennessee but let him leave without compensation. Callahan, after all, might be the best offensive line coach in the game. Take him away from Berea, and that may diminish Cleveland’s offense.
It was classy that the Browns will willing to allow Callahan to join his son (Brian Callahan is the new coach for the Titans) but I would have thought there would have been a late-round draft pick involved.
Callahan has been with the Browns since 2020, and he’s considered an important cog in one of the league’s best ground games. Cleveland ranked 3rd, 4th and 6th in rushing in his first three seasons. His work last year was probably his best. The Browns lost Nick Chubb in their second game and had all kinds of OL injuries yet still ranked 12th in rushing.
"He's been arguably, in my opinion, the best offensive line coach in football for a long time,” Brian Callahan says. “His experience and his wealth of knowledge. He's probably forgotten more football than I know. And so, it's a huge asset to us to have him.”
If, in fact, Callahan is the difference-maker he’s portrayed to be, we should all be looking for Cleveland’s running game to decline a notch, while Tennessee should probably punch above expectations.
I played around with some numbers on this, however, and I can’t lay out statistics that demonstrate the value of a good offensive line coach. Off the top of my head, I can think of three other heralded, elite offensive line coaches: Alex Gibbs, Dante Scarnecchia and Mike Munchak. With each of those guys, I remember there being multiple stories of concern when they were leaving teams. But looking at the before-and-after numbers from the teams those guys have left, I don’t see a big, meaningful changes in the numbers.
Instead, the last five times teams have lost great OL coaches (these three guys, anyway) those teams on average have run for an average of 166 more yards the next season, while averaging two tenths of a yard more per carry. An average of 2 fewer touchdowns per season, but the rushing numbers overall have been similar – there hasn’t tended to be a meaningful collapse.
| TEAMS WITH STANDOUT OL COACHES | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Coach | Att | Yards | Avg | TDR |
| 2003 | Denver | A.Gibbs | 543 | 2,629 | 4.8 | 20 |
| 2009 | Houston | A.Gibbs | 425 | 1,475 | 3.5 | 13 |
| 2018 | Pittsburgh | Munchak | 345 | 1,445 | 4.2 | 16 |
| 2019 | New England | Scarneccha | 447 | 1,703 | 3.8 | 17 |
| 2021 | Denver | Munchak | 455 | 2,025 | 4.5 | 16 |
| 2023 | Cleveland | Callahan | 518 | 2,017 | 3.9 | 15 |
Below see the stats for those same five offenses the next year (after losing a great OL coach). Numbers that have improved are tagged with black dots.
| TEAMS LOSING STANDOUT OL COACHES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | Att | Yards | Avg | TDR |
| 2004 | Denver | 534 | 2,333 | 4.4 | 13 |
| 2010 | Houston | 423 | •2,042 | •4.8 | •20 |
| 2019 | Pittsburgh | •395 | •1,447 | 3.7 | 7 |
| 2020 | New England | •502 | •2,346 | •4.7 | •20 |
| 2022 | Denver | 444 | 1,935 | 4.4 | 11 |
| 2024 | Cleveland | ? | ? | ? | ? |
I’m not suggesting the Browns won’t miss Callahan at all, but I can’t say with any certainty that there’s going to be a meaningful decline in their rushing production. With their OL healthier and Nick Chubb probably coming back in October, they may run for more yards in 2024.
—Ian Allan