The Tennessee Titans front office looks a whole lot different heading into 2025.
During Senior Bowl week, it was officially announced that new Titans GM Mike Borgonzi had hired Reggie McKenzie as Vice President/Football Advisor and Dave Ziegler as Assistant General Manager. And how you feel about them is like a Rorschach test for what you value most in leadership.
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Meanwhile, the Titans coaching staff made some changes too. Headlining the moves was the addition of John Fassel as the new Special Teams Coordinator. Also added was Tony Oden as Passing Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach, and Rayna Stewart as Assistant Special Teams Coach.
It was also announced Colt Anderson would not be returning to the Titans staff, as Special Teams Coordinator or in any other coaching role. Chris Harris (Passing Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks Coach), Justin Outten (Tight Ends Coach), and Anthony Levine (Assistant Special Teams Coordinator) had expiring contracts and are not returning to the team either.
Out with the old and in with the new. Or perhaps you could look at it as in with the old and out with the new? Because the biggest fundamental shift in Titans leadership heading into 2025 is experience.
Fassel has 20 years of NFL experience and is known as a brilliant Special Teams mind. Oden brings 19 years of coaching experience, and Stewart has been playing or coaching since 1997.
Back on the front office side of things, the Titans now employ 3 current or former NFL General Managers. Ziegler and McKenzie were both the GM of the Raiders, from 2022-2023 and 2012-2018 respectively.
The Titans have heaps of experience in the building that they were deficient in last season. That's the biggest overall change that they've made, and they've been quick to make the adjustment following a failed 2024 campaign. Head Coach Brian Callahan and GM Mike Borgonzi spoke with the media at the Senior Bowl, and I asked them both about this intentional shift.
"Yeah, you learn so much your first time through it and there's just... you reflect" Callahan began.
"And this is for Dennard (Wilson) and Nick (Holz) and everybody that was in these first-time coordinator roles. You have so many things that you look back on and see where you can be better. And I think that, you know, Dennard learned lessons, I learned lessons, so did Nick, and you're always gonna be better for it. I think all these challenging situations that we had this year, I think growth occurs when you're in those really kind of uncomfortable moments over the course of the season. And I'm really excited about where we are heading into year two, that I feel like a whole different person, with so much more clarity to what is to come and how we're gonna do it and where we can improve. That's why I can't wait to get going. That's why I'm here doing this."
This was a concern with Callahan's first staff, himself included: Sure, these are all exciting young coaches deserving of their new roles. But they are young and they are new. They've never done this before! Aside from Brian's father and OL coaching legend Bill Callahan, this was a pretty green staff. A lot of guys in roles they'd never been in before.
Of course, elevating bright young talent is how you get the next stars in the league, from players, to coaches, to management. But when a group is green in a lot of places at once, sometimes that inexperience shows. And it's hard to say we didn't see any of that in 2024.
Mike Borgonzi spoke on his experienced additions as well. "Yeah, I've known Dave (Ziegler) and I've known Reggie (McKenzie) for a long time" he explained.
"Tremendous people, first of all, very respected in the business, tremendous evaluators, they'll be a great sounding board for all of us. They've both been in the chair before, just a ton of respect for them. And I think if you talk to people in the league, you'll hear the same thing about it. So yeah, they're just excited and they'll be part of the whole process. It's the college, the pro, get things aligned and organized. We're excited to have them, so it's an opportunity."
As a first-time GM himself, I asked Borgonzi about the importance of having this level of experience around him as advisors.
Yeah, it's a great sounding board. There's... you can prepare for this job all you want. There's always gonna be things that come up and they've had experience where they're at. So that's a great sounding board for me. Surround myself with good people that are smart, that have had experience.
Now of course, in order to be a former GM still working in the league, it means you had to have had a rough run that led to your firing. And that's the Rorschach test of it all. To have experience, you have to have failed. Which matters more to you as you evaluate the additions? Past failures as a black mark against them, or experience of successes and failures lending to seasoned knowledge and abilities?
When you've done your job for a long enough time, you've seen just about everything there is to see. You've found yourself in most every position before, and you know what works. The Titans are hoping that an injection of experience across the board like this will go a long way in elevating the operation as a whole.
