In looking ahead to the next game, the Tennessee Titans have been looking back.
Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll has been studying game footage of ...
... the Titans?
Yes, indeed. It's last season's Titans. Daboll's offense, as a result, is practicing against schemes that it went “against all training camp last year,” said tight end Gunnar Helm. The Titans surely aren’t alone in that. The New York Giants have been practicing against their recent past, too.
Such is the strange setup for a Week 3 matchup between the Titans and Giants. Seldom has the NFL experienced a game in which both coaching staffs are so uniquely familiar with players and plans on the other side.
Brian Callahan, last season’s fired Titans head coach, is quarterbacks coach and
passing game coordinator on John Harbaugh's first Giants staff. Dennard Wilson, last season’s Titans defensive coordinator, is now the Giants’ defensive coordinator.
Flipside to that is Daboll. Fired by the Giants last season, he’s now running the Titans’ offense.
All this intertwining has created some interesting discussions inside the Titans’ facility.
“Certainly, there’s talk when you're watching tape,” Daboll said. “We've had guys that have worked with coach Wilson and his system, and vice versa. There's guys that were there in our system. There's a lot of 'He said, she said,’ type of stuff.”
Daboll is due back to face the Giants franchise he coached from 2022 into the 2025 season, during which the Giants fired him after 10 games. Robert Saleh subsequently hired Daboll in Tennessee to work with Cam Ward, the quarterback that the Giants originally sought to draft when Daboll was there.
Callahan, of course, was a part of drafting Ward. That was before the Titans fired Callahan six games into his second and final season as coach. Callahan has become a central figure for this week's game, and not just because of his background. The Giants are in the middle of season-changing transition at quarterback, going to backup Jameis Winston as full-time quarterback after Jaxson Dart’s season-ending injury.
"I'm going to be very happy to see Dabs," Winston told Giants reporters this week, "because he gave me this opportunity to be a part of this organization. ... Unfortunately, Dabs ain't going to be on defense."
Daboll downplayed the emotions of his pending return. Of course, he did. That's what anyone who’s spent time listening to Daboll in media settings would’ve anticipated. He’s not one to spill guts publicly, and certainly not about all that ended up leading to the end of his Giants tenure.
“From top down to the bottom, really good people in that (Giants) building,” Daboll said prior to the Titans’ Sept. 24 practice. “But it's about our players. It's about getting ready for a game. I've been on a number of teams that have played (old) teams before.”
Yes, but none of those games were quite like this one.
Daboll and Callahan could be making history. This might be the first instance of two fired NFL head coaches, having swapped coaching staffs, colliding the following season as part of the other’s former team. (If there is an instance of that happening before, I couldn’t find it.)
It’s not just those two coaches, either.
Tim Kelly, a former Titans offensive coordinator under Mike Vrabel, is the Giants’ tight ends coach. The Giants’ offensive coordinator is Matt Nagy, whose recent brush with the Titans was that he missed out to Saleh in the head-coaching search this past offseason. Former Titans inside linebackers coach Frank Bush is with the Giants.
And, then, there's Wilson running the defense.
“Dennard is going to have a rolodex of stuff to throw at us,” said Titans offensive guard Peter Skoronski.
It'll work the other way, though, with Daboll and his Titans offensive staff, which includes offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo and quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney from the Giants.
Too much gets made of familiarity in the NFL. In such a small world, there aren’t many secrets. Franchises routinely sign players who’ve just been cut from an upcoming opponent, for instance, and when have you heard of that making a difference on a Sunday? As for NFL coaches, they have lengthy track records of working with or against others in their profession.
That said, this week’s familiarity between the Titans and Giants is on another – yet oddly equal – level between the sides. If there's an advantage to this, then the other team is going to have the same advantage.
So now what? What will it mean when seemingly everyone knows everyone?
“Now, it really comes down to the Jimmies and the Joes,” said Titans receiver Wan’Dale Robinson, who played previously for Daboll with the Giants. “You don't really worry about the X's and O's so much. It's more matchups and who you know you can go after. I'm sure on their side they are doing the same.”
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and hang out with him on Bluesky @gentryestes.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Who has the edge when everyone knows everyone? Titans, Giants get to find out | Estes
