While he is now the head coach of the Tennessee Titans, Brian Callahan will always be connected to Joe Burrow.

The pair had a great run of success as Callahan was the offensive coordinator during Burrow’s entire time with the Cincinnati Bengals. In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Robert Mays, the coach compared Burrow to a famed quarterback he worked with in Denver:

In 2010, Brian Callahan began his first job with the Denver Broncos as a coaching assistant before moving up to an offensive assistant. Callahan regularly worked with Peyton Manning and had many opportunities to see how the quarterback legend operated.

When Joe Burrow became a Bengal in 2020, Callahan, whose father, Bill, has worked NFL sidelines since 1995, had already been the team’s offensive coordinator for a full season. While the quarterback was injured his rookie year, he helped Cincinnati become one of the best offenses in the league and has made two AFC Championship Games and a Super Bowl.

The only thing that has prevented Burrow from truly becoming one of the game’s great players is injuries. The quarterback tore his ACL in his first year and missed the last six games of his rookie season.

Burrow again ran into injury problems in 2023, as a lingering calf issue kept him from playing up to his full potential to start the year. Once he knocked that issue off, he looked like his old self for a spell, but then he suffered a wrist injury that knocked him out for the year’s second half. Though he has made progress on his rehab recently, it hasn’t all been sunshine and roses on his road to recovery.

There is some fine evidence to back up Callahan’s comparison to Manning. Burrow is currently the NFL’s all-time leader in completion percentage, having been successful on 68.0% of his 1,895 career NFL passes. Burrow is also skilled at avoiding interceptions, as he has only thrown interceptions on 2.0% of his career passes.