Locked On Titans - Daily Podcast On The Tennessee Titans - Tennessee Titans NEW GM Mike Borgonzi EXCELLENT HIRE, Titans Terrific Process & Next Steps Forward

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

The Tennessee Titans have made their decision at general manager and are hiring Mike Borgonzi of the Kansas City Chiefs. Borgonzi is a terrific hire for the Titans, but the Titans process was fantastic as well leading up to the move. Now the Titans have a ton of work to do to move forward, but it will start with building out a new scouting staff and making changes to the coaches as well.Subscribe to the TicTacTitans Film Channel:https://www.youtube.com/@TicTacTitansTicTacTitans Merchandise: https://dixons-dream.square.site/shop/tictactitans-gear/C3AAPNWXSXA6SBYG3USV2I7R?page=1&limit=30&sort_by=category_order&sort_order=ascFollow Tyler on Twitter @TicTacTitansFollow the show on Facebook @LockedOnTitansPodSubscribe to the Locked On Titans YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/LockedOnTitans/videosSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Turbo TaxReady for stress-free taxes and the most money back, guaranteed? Head over to TurboTax.com today and get matched with your Expert—who’s ready to take your taxes off your plate, so you can focus on your day.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the qualified candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFL. Terms and conditions apply.PrizePicksDownload the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFLGametimeDownload the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.FanDuelYou can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win or lose your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

The Tennessee Titans make a fantastic decision and hire Mike Borgonzi as their next general manager. I'm breaking it down on today's edition of Locked on Titans. You are Locked on Titans, your daily Tennessee Titans podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Titans Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Rowland, Titans fans. We have a general manager.

The Tennessee Titans are hiring Mike Borgonzi, the assistant general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. This is a fantastic decision for the Titans. Not only that, but it is backed by fantastic process as well. I'm going to talk about all of that plus what comes next now that the general manager has been chosen. Before I dive into it, I do want to thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen each and every day.

Remember, Monday through Friday, Tennessee Titans content all year round, always for free. You're not going to beat that anywhere else. Make sure that you get subscribed. Stay subscribed. It's your team every day here on the Locked on Titans podcast. Speaking of every day, shout out to my everydayers out there. Tune in Monday through Friday.

Couldn't do it without you guys. And if you aren't an everydayer, you need to be one because not only do I drop free content Monday through Friday, but I do bonus episodes with breaking news. Anytime anything happens, I have you covered all offseason long, and it is a big offseason. And speaking of that, the big offseason starts with fire in Rancarthon. It continues to hiring Mike Borgonzi from the Kansas City Chiefs. Again, 16 years he spent with the Kansas City Chiefs. Again, 16 years he spent with the Kansas City Chiefs.

He has been a recruiting coordinator. He has been an administrator of college scouting for the Kansas City Chiefs starting in 2009. Then manager of football operations. Then he was a pro scout for the Chiefs. Then he was the assistant director of pro scouting. Then director of player personnel. Director of football operations. Until he became the assistant general manager for scouting, then director of player personnel, director of football operations

until he became the assistant general manager for the Kansas City Chiefs. So he has worked his way up the entire ladder and done pretty much everything that you can do on your way up the football executive ladder here. Again, a ton of college scouting in that background was the administrator of college scouting. You get the pro scouting element as well.

And I think one of the big things is I talked about what the hire, who the Titans hire will mean about this general manager position because we had questions. Was this a true general manager job or was this just Chad Brinker's lackey? You know what I mean? Is this Chad Brinker's Robin? Is he the real Batman? And I think a guy like Mike Borgonzi, who

throughout the process, I didn't think that Borgonzi would be a legitimate option for the Titans because he wouldn't want to be Chad Brinker's yes man. Well, this tells me from the hire of Borgonzi, who was one of the top GM candidates in the NFL, interviewed for the Jets as well, like this is one of the top tier guys that was available. For him to pick Tennessee, that tells me that this general manager position is much more legit and much more traditional in terms of what their operations are going to be than maybe we wanted to believe when Ray Carthon was fired. And we heard that Chad Brinker gets the final say on everything. Like this tells me that this is a legitimate general manager job. And the NFL agreed with that when they allowed the Titans to operate this way.

So throughout this process, I thought the hire would tell us about this general manager job and how real it is, and Mike Borgonzi taking it tells us that it is very, very real. So again, a ton of experience for Mike Borgonzi, and you think about what he's been involved with in Kansas City and the type of winning and the type of excellence that they've had over the last few years. And quite honestly, it goes even further than when Patrick Mahomes showed up.

Think about the Alex Smith Kansas City Chiefs and what they were able to accomplish as a team and how often they were winning games and getting things done there. So I think that you look at Mike Borgonzi's body of work, the positions, the ladder that he's climbed throughout the process, and then you look at Kansas City again. Since 2015, when he became a big shot, they've won over 100 games. They've gone throughout major runs in the playoffs,

and that includes Patrick Mahomes, but again, before Patrick Mahomes as well. So look at the draft and development system in Kansas City. Look at their offensive line with a guy like Creed Humphrey or a guy like Trey Smith from Kansas City. You got some critical free agent acquisitions like a Juwan Taylor, like a Joe Thune. You look at what they've done at wide receiver. They found Tyreek Hill throughout this process.

They found Xavier Worthy. They found Rasheed Rice, who's been a contributor. They found a lot of guys. Obviously, you go to the defensive side of the ball, taking care of a guy like Chris Jones at the linebacker position, Leo Chanel and Willie Gay, and then the secondary. They found LeJarius Sneed. They found Trent McDuffie.

Like, there has been so many examples of draft development success in Kansas City, and I know that it's easy to say, oh, they had Patrick Mahomes, they're going to win everything, but football is so much more complex than that. You need a good football team, and especially when you have an expensive Chris Jones and an expensive Travis Kelsey and an expensive Patrick Mahomes and an expensive Tyreek Hill. It's even more critical when you're paying these people and you have this kind of bill that you draft and develop and find cheap players to add to the mix. And that's what the Titans have been sorely missing over the last few years. Going back to

John Robinson in 2020, when he just completely started botching all the drafts like that's, that's exactly what the Titans need is somebody to come in here and be able to win through the draft. We tried free agency. That's never going to work sustainably. That's the what the Titans need is somebody to come in here and be able to win through the draft. We tried free agency. That's never going to work sustainably. That's the old school rule in the NFL. So bring it in, Mike Borgonzi. Again, I think this is an excellent hire for the Tennessee Titans,

but not only is it an excellent hire, again, I think this was an excellent process. I know that there's a lot of skepticism in the Tennessee Titans right now, but I think that we can at least take some solace in the fact that the Titans had very, very good process during this whole entire process. Do want to let you guys know that today's bonus episode is brought to you by Intuit TurboTax. Are you tired of endless waiting, wondering, worrying about your taxes? Well, now that's a thing of the past. You see, taxes don't need to be complicated or stressful.

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The Tennessee Titans hire Mike Borgonzi as their general manager, the assistant general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs. There are still some things to be ironed out. I want to talk about the Titans process here and then what comes next kind of to finish things out. But thank you for making Locked on Titans your first listen. Make sure that you are an everydayer so you don't miss any of the free content that I put out all offseason long.

But again, Mike Borgonzi, great hire by the Titans. And look, here's the reality. I get if there's skepticism with what the Tennessee Titans have been doing lately after seeing the Titans fire Mike Rabel and then fire Rancar Thon and the Chad Brinker usurpage, I'll say, I'll call it, of Rancar Thon. All the decisions that the Titans have been making off the field and then the on the field product being so bad as well. I get that there is a level of skepticism and it's fair for Titans fans to say, why should I believe that this is a good hype?

Why should I believe that this is going to be a good thing for the Titans when we thought that about Rancarthon? And I'll tell you, that's completely fair if that's the way that you want to look at it. You're perfectly fine. But what I'm going to judge here, and all you can do in life, it's a life lesson, is good process.

You don't know if things are going to go bad or good. You can never know that in life with any certainty. You have no idea. All right. But all you can do is have good process. And while the Titans have had bad process with how they fired Mike Frabel and hired Rand Carthon and fired Rand Carthon and promoted Chad Brinker, that's been bad process. But this general manager hire, Mike Borgonzi for the Titans, has been good process. This has been good process to go through the 11 general manager candidates that they had in their first interviews, narrow that down to six finalists and go through that

from all different kinds of organizations that do things in different ways and come from different trees per se,, you know, like coaching trees, but different management trees. And to get all this different feedback, not only does it allow you to cast a wide net to get the best candidate possible, but also it allows you to extract intel from all of the different candidates all over the NFL. How do the Colts view this roster?

How do the Buccaneers view the Titans situation? How do the Browns, with their analytical background, how do they view the Titans organization? And you can get input from all these different people. How do the Packers, who are great at drafting and developing and have a young, good roster, how do they view this roster? What would they do? What would your plan be, John Eric Sullivan? Okay, great. Thank you for that information. We'll take that into consideration. And then you have all of that information going forward. So what the Titans have done here, is it going to work? Is it not going to work? I don't have that answer for you. I can't know for certain if this is going to turn things around for the Titans or if the Titans are going to be able to build something like what the Chiefs had or had at least before Patrick Mahomes because you can't bank on getting a Patrick Mahomes at any point in time no matter who your general manager is that's lightning in a bottle and you got to get lucky and quite frankly the Titans just haven't got that lucky so can Mike Borgonzi do this we don't know I'm not going to tell you that I know for certain that he can but the process to hire

him has been fantastic this was a great general manager search executed properly with a wide net of candidates. This was a smart path for the Tennessee Titans. And quite honestly, again, you don't know what's going to happen in life. You don't know if things are going to work out. All you can do is have great process and follow the right plan. And that's what the Tennessee Titans have done here. So I love the hire of Mike Borgonzi. process and follow the right plan. And that's what the Tennessee Titans have done here. So I love the hire of Mike Borgonzi. Again, ton of experience out of Kansas City,

has climbed his way up the ladder, has been a part of their draft and develop dynasty, finding Patrick Mahomes and all the winning that they've done basically since 2015 when he got promoted to a serious big time position. I mean, we aren't in the building. We can't know what Mike Borgonzi was responsible for, what he wasn't, which players he liked, which players he didn't, what decisions he made and didn't. But all we know is they know what they're doing in Kansas City, and hopefully he's one of the guys who is one of the main reasons for it.

And according to what we're hearing and seeing after this decision has been announced, that seems to be the case. Brett Veach, the Kansas City Chiefs general manager, on his right-hand man, Mike Borgonzi, going to the Titans, according to Albert Breer, quote, long time coming, one of the hardest working guys in the business, Tennessee made the right choice. And look, at the end of the day, again, whether it's true, false, right, wrong, I don't know. But the picture was painted that Rand Carthon was not a hard enough worker. And if that's the case, then getting somebody

is one of the hardest workers in the business. I trust Brett Veach. Now, the problem is you heard all these things about Rand Carthon as well. This is what people say when people get hired in the NFL. Hardest working guy, deserves it, made the right choice. Nobody's going to come out and say, what are they doing? You know, well, I guess that does happen sometimes, but just not very often.

But again, you only hear positive things. That's what you want to hear. So I love the hire. I love the process that the Titans made for the hire. I love the fit with Chad Brinker. Remember, these two were points of contact with each other during the LeGarrius Sneed trade. Now, they weren't the only people making decisions,

but they were the ones who called each other, got on the phone, talked about what they wanted to do with that trade. So there's a relationship there and an avenue of communication between Brinker and Borgonzi that I think is important as well to make sure that everybody's on the same page. Because that's really what the Titans need right now is they just need everybody to be on the same page. And this hire of Mike Borgonzi represents an opportunity for that to finally actually happen, we hope. Now the question becomes, what happens now? All right, we know Mike Borgonzi is going to be the general manager of the Tennessee Titans.

What happens now? Well, it looks like Borgonzi is going to be looking to shake things up with the Titans scouting staff right away. Ex-Raiders general manager Dave Ziegler is a possible add for Mike Borgonzi, according to Albert Breer, somebody who he'd be looking to bring in to be one of his top lieutenants in the scouting staff. So that's an interesting choice. And I'm sure we're going to hear more about other options that Borgonzi is going to look to bring in. And I think that's what we need. One of the things that disappointed me most about the Rancarthon era is when Rancarthon was hired, a lot of Mike Vrabel and John Robinson scouts were kept, the people responsible for 2020 and 2021 and 2022's draft classes.

I didn't want anything to do with any of those people. So they hired Rancarthon, but they didn't really go out and change the scouting staff in any meaningful way. And I think we look back now and could say it's probably because they didn't trust Rank Arthon and maybe Rank Arthon was unprepared for the job and he just couldn't go out and hire a bunch of his own people because he wasn't quite ready for it. He wasn't prepared. And that's why Mike Vrabel was worried and said that you need somebody over Rank Arthon to help Rank Arthon learn because he just doesn't quite know yet.

So I like the fact that right away, we're bringing in new blood to the organization. We're changing the scouting staff. Like the Titans need to change the way they've been doing things. And I think getting rid of a large portion of the scouting staff is the right way to go going forward. We can talk about the general manager and the coach and all the big titles, but I think a lot of the behind-the-scenes titles need to be changed around

and they need some new blood in the organization as well. But again, great hire, great process for the Titans. I love what I'm hearing already about next steps and changing out the scouting staff and hiring his own guys. Mike Borgonzi would be looking to do that. But also, the Titans need to make changes on the coaching staff. I mean, we got a report from Jeremy Fowler close to the end of the season that Brian Callahan was safe, but there expects to be some changes on the coaching staff.

I want to see Cole Anderson replaced. Now, I know a lot of people have said, well, the Titans special teams did get better at the end of the year. And yeah, I guess so. But two is better than one. It doesn't mean it's 10. You see what I'm saying? Like, just because you improved from being god-awful historically bad doesn't mean that

you've improved to be good enough. And I would be a little disappointed if we don't get a Colt Anderson change on the coaching staff. But that should come next. But looking forward, the Titans have to clean up their own house. We're going to talk about this here probably in just a couple of weeks, quite honestly, maybe like seven or eight episodes from now, maybe sooner. But the Titans have some decisions to make.

Are they going to cut Harold Landry? Are they going to bring Amani Hooker back? Do they want to re-sign Dylan Radins? What are they going to do at linebacker? Are they going to keep Kenneth Murray around? Is that what they're going to bring Amani Hooker back? Do they want to re-sign Dylan Radins? What are they going to do at linebacker? Are they going to keep Kenneth Murray around? Is that what they're going to do? Are they going to trade a cornerback because they have Jarvis Brownlee Jr.

who can be a starter? Would that be an option for him? Like the Titans have a lot of not even free agency, not even the draft. The Titans have a lot of internal issues that they need to get through. So getting Mike Borgonzi, hitting the road quick, very first day coming in, like Chad Brinker said, very first day coming in prepared, getting to work, all ball, all day, get in the office, get to it, no naps, blah, blah, blah. And I think Mike Borgonzi is the type of guy to do exactly that.

So will it work? We can't know, but it's a good process. It's a tremendous candidate, and I think it's an excellent hire for the Tennessee Titans. But that's going to do it for this bonus it's an excellent hire for the Tennessee Titans, but that's going to do it for this bonus edition, emergency edition of the Locked on Titans podcast. I'm going to be back with you guys on Sunday night, Monday morning to go into more of the background of Mike Borgonzi, talk about all the pelts that he has on the wall and how he can help the Tennessee Titans. So very excited for that, but that's going to do it for me today. Make sure you get subscribed, stay subscribed, throw a thumbs up on the video. If you're watching live on YouTube with that being said, I am your host, Tyler Rowland, and this was locked on Titans.