Issue #219: Change

By Derrick Ernst

October 16, 2025

4-19

This was the record of Brain Callahan during his time as HC in TEN. It’s no coincidence that a “transfer” of play calling a few weeks ago was writing on the wall. From what I understand, there were rumblings in Training Camp about Callahan’s status being up in the air. If it was “always” inevitable that his time was going to be cut short, might as well rip the bandaid and try other solutions rather than continuing patch work. In my opinion, what TEN needs is a more seasoned presence leading their team and one they can get behind for years to come. I’m talking Mike Vrabel and Jeff Fischer tenures (the longest two in team history).

Unrelated, how do you value the success of a HC? Is it by way of wins? Winning percentage? Super Bowls? Etc. For Callahan this would be 4, .174, and 0. No matter what figure you land on, none are pretty. I tend to prefer win total more than all else. Sometimes I look at a winning percentage and get a little discombobulated about one’s success relative to others. It also doesn’t account for longevity. Whether you’ve coached one game or 100, you’ll have a winning percentage, but that’s what it’s good for, comparing success across different time frames. To each their own.

What I really wanted to dive into is the kind of success (or lack thereof) teams have had in letting their HC go mid-season. Including Callahan, there have been 12 mid-season firings since ’21. That’s a lot more than I was expecting.

Let’s dive into a few:

Matt Eberflus

• Team: Chicago Bears

• Let go in: 2024 (Week 12)

• Record before: 4-8 (.333)

• Replaced by: Thomas Brown

• Record after: 1-5 (.167)

Josh McDaniels

• Team: Las Vegas Raiders

• Let go in: 2023 (Week 8)

• Record before: 3-5 (.375)

• Replaced by: Antonio Pierce

• Record after: 5-4 (.556)

Frank Reich

• Team: Indianapolis Colts

• Let go in: 2022 (Week 9)

• Record before: 3-5-1 (.389)

• Replaced by: Jeff Saturday

• Record after: 1-7 (.125)

Matt Rhule

• Team: Carolina Panthers

• Let go in: 2022 (Week 5)

• Record before: 1-4 (.200)

• Replaced by: Steve Wilks

• Record after: 6-6 (.500)

Urban Meyer

• Team: Jacksonville Jaguars

• Let go on: 2021 (Week 13)

• Record before: 2-11 (.154)

• Replaced by: Darrell Bevell

• Record after: 1-2 (.333)

Before you ask, ChatGPT was my assistant in gathering all of this info. If you notice something looks off, blame AI. I also asked it to summarize all 12 mid-season firings since ’21, but it only came back with these five. If you thought I had any biases against these five, again, blame AI.

Let’s summarize:

• Average week let go: Week 9

• Record “before” total: 13-33-1 (.287)

• Record “after” total: 14-24 (.368)

It’s not a great outcome no matter how you look at it. I’m sorry to say this TEN fans, but you probably don’t have much to look forward to the rest of the season. But hey, it can’t get much worse! Also, here’s a neat graphic I came across. Get this, the last four QB’s drafted No. 1 overall have seen their HC let go during their rookie season. Why isn’t this more well-known? Maybe it’ll start to be? The curse of the No. 1 overall picked QB strikes again!

New Toys

So this guy has been all the rage the past few weeks:

His stats speak for themselves, but he’s definitely one “the kids” are hyped about. How can they not be? The dude ripped off his shirt on Amazon’s postgame show last Thursday. There’s something to be said about giving the crowd what they want, especially when the crowd is full of Giants fans (sorry).

Believe it or not, I was “this close” to picking Cam as my trade target in my first Sunday Scramble a few weeks ago. So much for that. It’s incredible how quickly situations can change (and how others view them). Cam has gone from just another guy on your bench to a must start and one some have even changed their team name for. I want to resurface something I said about Skattebo in our July 10th issue:

“I think Cam will take a lot of patience to work, but when he does, he’s going to be the hottest ticket in town. Tracy will probably be starter to begin the season, but I suspect his opportunities will wane over time.”

BINGO! “Hottest ticket in town” is right. I bet a lot of people have been trying to find ways to trade for him. Not so fast. His manager’s know this and will demand a very hefty premium for him. Do this instead. If there is someone else on their team that interests you, trade for them. Chances are that they are more concerned with keeping Skattebo that the leash they might have on others is not as tight.

In other news, I’m not holding my breath, but I audibly said “finally” to myself when I saw this headline:

Not sure what has taken so long? Just last week he saw the most targets in a game (7) since the 8 he saw in week one. For WR’s with 20+ receptions, he has the 4th lowest YPC (just ahead of J. Downs, C. Olave, and D. Samuel). What hasn’t helped Hunter’s fantasy case yet is that through six games, he’s only seeing the field 63% of the time (on offense). Any uptick will be welcomed, but until we start seeing more consistent production and more red zone action, he doesn’t deserve a starting roster spot.

The more we talk about this, the more I’m convincing myself that we need a rookie issue soon — one that compares their fantasy performances thus far relative to their ADP. Maybe Sunday!