When Tennessee Titans GM Mike Borgonzi was hired last year, he made it clear in interviews and press conferences that the goal of 2025 was not to rush through a rebuild. Instead, the goal was to step back and take a long-term view of the situation and to set the foundation that this team desperately needed.
Rather than building a competitive roster or trying to get immediately better, the goal was to create pathways to playing time for young players. A big part of that was being conservative in free agency and bringing in players with a "planned obsolescence" quality, meaning that they were good enough to play, but the goal was to eventually replace them with rookies, even if the team suffered in the short term.
This was understandably frustrating for Titans fans who were forced to watch another three-win season and another name joining the franchise's HC/GM graveyard.
New Titans HC Robert Saleh could help accelerate the roster rebuild
However, the team has eaten their vegetables, and now it is time to reap the rewards. By design, the young foundation of this team is better than it has been in a long time, and Borgonzi's first draft class looks like a promising collection of talent. Most promising of all is the fact that the performance of these rookies should be just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the things that Borgonzi repeated often last offseason was that he was looking for the right personalities to help rebuild the franchise's culture. Players who wouldn't quit when things got hard and players who would have the internal drive to compete, whether they were winless or undefeated.
With Brian Callahan in charge, the Titans had to bring their own energy, and it seems that if they wanted to be great, they were going to have to do it on their own because Callahan was never going to demand greatness from them (including not pointing out the negative plays and how to correct them, according to Jeffery Simmons).
Life will be different with Robert Saleh in charge, and the players who are craving structure and someone who will push them to greater heights will get their wish.
Putting all of that together, you have a group of players that Borgonzi specifically targeted because of their leadership qualities and their work ethic. That group of players is transitioning from a rookie year where they had to dig down deep to get better because of the lack of discipline and instruction from the Titans' coaching staff.
Then you have Saleh, a man whose tenure with the New York Jets represented the best stretch that franchise had in a decade because of his elite defense. The same coach who chose to go back to the San Francisco 49ers as a DC instead of taking much higher offers from other teams because he wanted to go back to that organization and learn what made them so great, compared to a dumpster fire like the Jets.
Now Saleh 2.0 is heading to Nashville knowing exactly what he should and shouldn't do this time around, and that hungry foundation of talent is waiting, ready to prove themselves to him and to the NFL as a whole.
That is the perfect storm for this Titans team, and if Borgonzi nailed the psychological part of his evaluation, then exciting things will be happening for this franchise next year.