NASHVILLE – The Titans found their general manager.
Now, one of the top priorities for GM Mike Borgonzi and the team's football staff will be to find a franchise-changing quarterback moving forward.
Will it be one of the top quarterbacks in the upcoming NFL Draft? Armed with the draft's top pick, the Titans will be in a position to take Miami's Cam Ward, Colorado's Shedeur Sanders, or any of this year's draft-eligible QBs.
Will the team identify a quarterback in free agency? Several veteran QBs currently on other NFL rosters are expected to be available when free agency begins in mid-March.
What about Will Levis? He's a player the franchise drafted two years ago to be "the guy," and he remains under contract. Mason Rudolph, who started five games for the Titans in 2024, could be another potential option.
"We're keeping an open mind on this," Borgonzi said on Wednesday, "but the quarterback is the most important position arguably in sports, so you have to solidify the quarterback position. So, we're going to turn over every rock. Whether that's free agency, draft or we have quarterbacks on the roster here. Will, we're going to give him every opportunity to play and to compete.
"But we're going to attack this thing. We're going to be relentless attacking this until we find the answer."
Borgonzi knows the importance of having a franchise-changing quarterback.
He joined the Titans after spending the past 16 years with the Kansas City Chiefs, where quarterback Patrick Mahomes helped change the fortunes of the franchise.
So, what's Borgonzi looking for at the position?
"Well, you have to have the physical arm talent, obviously, to make every throw in the league," he said. "Accuracy, decision making are big parts of it. The way you process coverages, the game's changed a little bit, too. So having mobility, not just a pocket passer. And of course, the leadership part is a big part.
"They are the face of the franchise. They're your leader. They're the ones that are going to stand in front of the team every day and they're going to follow him and that's what they do. They follow Patrick Mahomes, they follow Joe Burrow. That's what they do, they set the tone. They're the most important—arguably the most important position in all sports."
Borgonzi will join Chad Brinker, Titans President of Football Operations, and head coach Brian Callahan at the East-West Shrine Game in Dallas this weekend before the group heads to Mobile, Ala., for Senior Bowl practices at the beginning of next week.
Borgonzi said the team will do its homework.
"The quarterback position, you need to go in person and see that player whether it's practice, all-star games. So that's going to be a very important part of it," Borgonzi said. "And then sitting down, meeting with the player and having Coach Callahan, his staff, talk to him as well. That's a big part of it.
"When we went through with Patrick (Mahomes), we identified him early. It was a rare skill set that you could see. We took it through the process in the spring, and we brought him in the building, met with him at the Combine to really figure out his football intelligence, which was very high. And then we had a plan for him when we drafted him, we had Alex Smith at the time, and we were disciplined with that plan. There was a lot of temptations to play him, especially when we saw him in training camp. But we stuck to that plan and that was part of the development of the quarterback, those things that he needed to improve on. And we had a first-class person in Alex Smith that really took him under his wing and taught him that. So, every quarterback's different in terms of the development and what they need, and that's the important part for us to figure out here in the spring."
