Browns tab Callahan as team’s offensive line coach

Bill Callahan, a former head coach in the NFL and NCAA, is the Browns’ new offensive line coach.

Bill Callahan, a former head coach in the NFL and NCAA, is the Browns’ new offensive line coach.

Tom Pelissaro of NFL Network was first to break the news. A league source confirmed the report Jan. 21.

Callahan, 63, will also carry the title of Senior Assistant under Browns new coach Kevin Stefanski. Callahan has been a head coach with the Raiders, at the University of Nebraska and with the Redskins.

Callahan’s experience as a three-time head coach could help Stefanski deal with new responsibilities Stefanski must deal with as a first-time head coach such as scheduling details of practice, overseeing the team as a whole instead of just one segment and budgeting his time to work with the media.

Assistant coaches often become collateral damage when a head coach is fired and replaced.

Bob Wiley was the offensive line coach from 2016 through the first eight games of 2018 under Hue Jackson and then the last eight games of 2018 under interim head coach Gregg Williams.

Wiley was fired and James Campen hired to coach the offensive line when Freddie Kitchens was named head coach in 2019. Now Campen is out after one year and Callahan is in.

Cleveland is Callahan’s 11th stop on a coaching journey than began in 1980 when he was an assistant coach at the University of Illinois.

He coached with five NFL teams before being hired by the Browns — the Eagles offensive line from 1995-97, as Raiders offensive coordinator from 199891 and then as Raiders head coach from 2002-2003 (1517), assistant head coach/offensive line coach with the Jets from 2008-11 and offensive coordinator/offensive line coach with the Cowboys from 2012-14.

Callahan moved on to the

Redskins as their offensive line coach in 2015.

He was given the additional title of assistant head coach in 2017 and then went 3-8 as Redskins interim head coach when Jay Gruden was fired after five games.

The four-year gap between his time with the Raiders and Jets was spent as head coach at Nebraska, where he went 27-22 from 2004-07.

BRIAN BLANCO — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Redskins interim coach Bill Callahan and Panthers coach Ron Rivera speak following a game Dec. 1in Charlotte, N.C.