Just In: Ex-Atlanta Falcons Top Megastar Sign Contract Deal With Titans….
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Titans are hiring Nick Holz to be their offensive coordinator, a source confirmed to ESPN.
Holz was formerly the passing game coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville hired Holz after he served one season as the offensive coordinator at UNLV.
Holz first got a coaching job in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders as an offensive assistant, a stint that included coaching Maurice Jones-Drew, his high school teammate at De La Salle High School in California. New Titans coach Brian Callahan was also a member of that high school team.
Holz’s ties to the Callahan family run deep. His first college coaching job came in 2007 when Nebraska coach Bill Callahan, Brian’s father, hired him as a video intern and offensive assistant. Callahan was hired to be the Titans’ offensive line coach yesterday.
Holz went on to become an offensive and operations assistant with Stanford. He also was an assistant quarterbacks coach, working with Andrew Luck.
The next job for Holz will be to help put together an offense that will properly showcase second-year quarterback Will Levis. However, Brian Callahan will call the plays.
The Titans also hired wide receiver coach Tyke Tolbert. Tolbert is entering his 21st season coaching in the NFL. He most recently served as the Bears’ wide receivers coach for two seasons. Under Tolbert, wide receiver DJ Moore posted 96 receptions for 1,364 yards and eight touchdowns last year, all of which were career highs.
The Titans are also adding former Falcons defensive coaches Steven Jackson (DBs) and Frank Bush (LBs) to join new defensive coordinator Dennard Wilson. It will be the second coaching stint with Titans for both of them.
Jackson, who played for Oilers/Titans from 1991-99, was the assistant defensive backs coach for Tennessee in 2016-17. Bush played for the Oilers in 1985-86 and served as the Titans linebackers coach in 2011-12.
The NFL Network first reported Holz’s hiring.
How the Washington Commanders hired Dan Quinn as head coach
DAN QUINN WAITED anxiously for his phone to ring.
It was Feb. 7, one day after he had interviewed to be the next coach of the Washington Commanders, and the silence, in this case, was not golden.
Four years after being fired as the Atlanta Falcons head coach, and following a successful stint as Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator from 2021 to 2023, Quinn believed the time was right to have a team of his own again. The phone, however, would not cooperate. So, instead of just letting him pace around his Dallas home, his wife, Stacey, suggested they ease the tension and go for a drive.
Meanwhile, in Mobile, Alabama, Commanders general manager Adam Peters was at a dinner with team scouts fielding call after call as he and Washington’s hiring committee finalized its decision about the franchise’s next coach.
Finally, that night, Peters called Quinn.
But there was no answer. Quinn had fallen asleep on his couch.
“He made me wait so long,” Quinn joked at his introductory news conference. “I’m not answering on the first ring.”
He did quickly return the call and Peters delivered the good news. After listening to the excited GM’s job offer, Quinn responded with two words: “F— yeah!” Then he hugged Stacey.
After four weeks and 14 interviews with potential candidates, Washington had its man and Quinn his team. Quinn had sold the Commanders’ hiring committee — consisting of Peters, owner Josh Harris, longtime NFL general manager Rick Spielman, former Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers and front office veteran Martin Mayhew — on his leadership traits, willingness to learn from failure and desire to work hand-in-hand with the front office. Aiding Quinn’s case were a flood of endorsements received on his behalf, including from Warriors coach Steve Kerr and Falcons owner Arthur Blank, who had fired Quinn in 2020.
Washington’s coaching search was not without intrigue. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was in the running before pulling out to remain in Detroit. Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinators Mike Macdonald and Raheem Morris were also considered, multiple team sources said, before Macdonald picked the Seattle Seahawks and Morris chose the Falcons. But according to sources heavily involved in the hiring process, Quinn — who led the Seahawks’ vaunted Legion of Boom defense as coordinator, guided Atlanta to a Super Bowl appearance as head coach and transformed the Cowboys’ defense into a top-10 unit — was never considered a Plan B.
“Every time we spoke with Dan, it became more and more clear that he was the guy,” Peters said. “Both times it was like we were speaking the same language. It was really, really cool, had a great connection, had a great shared vision, so it was almost right away that I knew Dan would be a great coach for us.”
