Mike Borgonzi & Robert Saleh Reveal Titans Draft Plans at NFL League Meetings

Titans head coach Robert Sala and general manager Mike Borgonzi both spoke the last two days at the NFL league meetings in Phoenix

What did they reveal about the Titans draft plans? We're gonna break it down quote by quote. This is the music city audible

Let's get to it

Welcome everyone to another episode of the music city audible a Tennessee Titans podcast

I'm your host Justin Graver full-time NFL podcast producer for Odyssey and joining me as always sports illustrated's own

Justin mellow and the

Managing editor of Titan size.com. How's it going Justin? How you doing today doing well doing well as you'll see

I'm in my old school Portugal retro jumpsuit. They play a soccer game tonight

I guess the United States of America, so I'll be watching that one pretty closely. They're in Atlanta

I should have gone. I probably should be in Atlanta rare

I get an opportunity to watch them that close, but I'm doing well doing well Mike Borgonzi Robert Sala as you said

spoke at the annual league ownership meetings

Depending on how you look at it lots of good tidbits

I would say lots of good things for you and I to dissect. What do they really mean?

And what I will say to that is just first off

Obviously the head coach and the general manager of the team with the fourth overall pick in the draft is not going to go

Into a press conference setting with media and say oh here's what we're planning to do

So everyone everyone can write this down and remember that this is what we're getting. No of course what they actually revealed is

Nothing they didn't reveal anything and sorry for the the title and the clickbait little teaser to get us into the show

We know our regular audible armies here every day regardless

We appreciate you guys so much if you're new to the show and you clicked on it for the headline

We're glad you're here stick around. We're gonna break down these quotes

What they actually revealed though? I mean it requires you and I just need to do what we do which is read between the lines

Figure out what's true figure out where the kernels of truth are and what is a bold-faced lie?

And we're gonna go through and do that today

We're gonna start with Mike Borgonzi and then we'll come back and talk Robert Sala after the break

That's chronologically how it went so why not do it that way and Mike Borgonzi

I think there was a few things to take away. I'll just outline them

Brought big big picture broad strokes and then we'll break them all down

Number one was commitment to drafting the best player available

Number two was the competition and the current status of the interior of the offensive line and

Number three was the free agency approach the Titans took this off season but starting off with the best player available

He said numerous times when pressed by numerous reporters to Ron Davenport

East and freeze both said on social media that they asked multiple times about what the Titans want to do with that top pick

How much Mike Borgonzi values positional value and I was thinking about this also Justin because we've been talking about how we kind of

Believe Mike Borgonzi to be more of the old school football methodology which we've been equating with you know

A staunch regard for positional value

But if you really think about what a classic traditional footballist is

It's ground-in-pound. It's running backs do matter. But running backs don't matter was an analytics

New age new era modern movement. It wasn't a a traditionalist football view

So if we really think that Mike Borgonzi is like a died-in-the-wall traditional football guy

We might be under rating the importance of how he might view the running back position

But he said something along the lines of you can never have it enough pass rushers or you can never have too many pass rushers

Which is true seeing a lot of Super Bowl teams that have you know eight nine ten guys deep on the defensive line rotating

Consistently throughout a game to apply pressure to quarterbacks

We think the Titans are about eight deep right now and maybe they could add a ninth with the fourth overall pick or a second-round pick or later in the draft

And then he also continued to say we're gonna take the best player available

positional value is different depending on who you ask every draft is different every roster is different in what it needs

He says he thinks that free agency set them up well to go best player available and to not be pigeon-holed into a need which makes me think

Number one that none of this is really true and doesn't matter

But if we're gonna pretend like some of it is true

I think it comes from some kind of place of truth is that they are they feel okay about the roster right now

If the season had to start tomorrow like they're not feeling in dire straits at that defensive end spot for example

Because they don't feel they've been pigeon-holed into needing to draft that player now

I really do think this is a choose your own adventure scenario here

Yeah, they definitely have running backs that they're comfortable with and that's something that they talked about like Mike

We're going to talk about how he loves and we'll get to Robert's Hall after the break

But Robert's all also both of them said they love what's in the running back room

They think they have two good backs a great one to punch

Sala even specifically referenced Tony Pollard's 100 plus yard performance against the 49ers last year

Which I do think coaches tend to like take one game performances that they were a part of and weigh them more heavily than the entire season

And probably because you've got respect for yourself and the job that you do so when a player plays well against you

You're like, oh damn he got me kind of thing, you know

Yeah, exactly

So anyway, the point is he spoke out of every side of his mouth saying that you know if you it's choose your own adventure in the sense that if you want to read this as

The Titans are set at edge and they're going to take the best player available

Well, the best player available by the consensus is Jeremiah love

Or you can read this as we can never have enough past rushers and we do care about positional value

So we're probably not going to take a running back at four because we're comfortable with the backfield

We like the backs that we have right now. You can read this anyway. It could mean anything you want it to mean

Obviously, you know how I'm going to choose to read it because I'm a big Jeremiah love fan

And I am going to choose to read like again, it's like it's my bias

I can't help but have bias in this with the way that with what I want the Titans to do

How I view the prospects in this draft that definitely creeps into my read of these quotes

But you know to me the we love our running backs is the same as Josh Rosen is our quarterback one month before the Cardinals went and drafted Kyler Murray first overall right

I think you could say that about everything and I know you weren't trying to

Disingenuine disingenuous whatever the word is. I know you weren't trying to be at be that but earlier when you said

I saved it in my mind

You know these teams that have won zero balls. They're eight nine deep at past rusher

And then you said well the Titans are about we think they're about eight deep right now

Let's be clear though

They're about eight deep on NFL roster worthy players

When it comes to good NFL players

They are about too deep at that position Jeffrey Simmons and John Franklin Myers

We don't know that anyone else. Yeah, Solomon Thomas is a 53 man roster player Jacob Martin

Jalen Harrell 53 man roster players until further notice

Femial Adagio 53 man roster player and tell Jermaine Johnson proves he could bounce back 53 man roster player

There's a good past rushers. They've got two of them

Yeah, I mean that is fair and I mean like we know this looking at the roster the edge is still one of the weakest spots on the team

It's obviously much better than it was at the beginning of February or beginning of March even

But it's not up to competitive status and that is something interesting that we're going to talk about with the free agency approach

Is he said that this isn't his preferred like going out and spending all this money and signing this many players

Is not his preferred way to attack free agency and if the roster was good

He wouldn't have to do that

But he basically said we had to do this this year because we had to get this team back to a baseline

Competitiveness level which tracks was something that I heard

Of a little before free agency around the time of the combine

I had heard from a trusted source that Robert Salas specifically told someone he thought the Titans roster was really bad

That the roster was a huge huge drawback and that

They needed to do something about it and they went and they did something about it which

That's what you want them to do you need they need to get to a competitive level

It's not Mike Morganzi's preferred way of attacking free agency. Yeah

Laughing because I could tell you don't usually get a ton of that info

Because I don't know that I would have said it was Robert Salas

I probably would have left it up to imagination regarding who said it but

Well, I mean it doesn't reveal my source Robert Saladin tell me directly

But I do think that it's it's it tracks like I wasn't sure when I heard that is this true or not

But then you see the way they approach create and see you hear Mike Morganzi say they need to get the roster up to competitive status

Sounds like the coach and the GM thought that I mean we don't even need a quote from Robert Salas to know that he's thought that like their actions prove that he thought that

And you didn't have to wait you said wait until phrase is watch them play football the last two years like we know

They're really terrible foot if I listen Mike Morganzi essentially got up there

When he filed said it was not my preferred method, but we had to get back to competitive football

He basically looked at those reporters and said did you watch us in 2024 and 2025?

I wasn't here for the first year you can't blame me

But we suck we suck we do and we had to go out inside a bunch of players to accelerate this process

Because how many times if I said on this show this year

Prior to free agency I said on this show you can't be a three-win team three years in a row

It's borderline unheard of

Heads roll and some of them have already rolled obviously, you know ran Carthon and Brian Callahan are largely to blame for these back-to-back three-win teams

But if you do it again

Those guys aren't in the building to blame anymore, right? So if a head's got a role now it's on your you know, it's on your seat

So, you know, it adds up like we said going into free agency. We know Mike Borgonzi

wants to be a draft and develop football team

But this team is so bad. That's what he just told you. They're so bad

We had to fill a lot of these holes because what did we you and I both said in order to draft them develop this team properly

It's gonna take five good years five straight good drafts. Guess what you don't get that long when the team is bad, right?

I don't want to call it a you know moves out of desperation

But it like this is a more extreme example

But the New York Jets didn't have to go get Gino Smith to play quarterback this year

But they did because they're like damn we're bad. We can't be that bad again

We got to try to raise the floor of this thing so we could get a bit more time to try to fix it long-term the way we want to fix it

That's what Mike Borgonzi is doing by you know

There's no one in the corner room when free agency starts nobody

They can't draft three corner backs and play them all you're gonna be the worst past defense in the NFL

So you go get cordial flop in a long-tailed tailor and Joshua Williams

There's nothing on the defensive line that they like outside of Jeffrey Simmons essentially

So you go get John Franklin Myers and Solomon Thomas and

And Jacob Martin who is the fourth guy Jordan Elliott four guys all four

Who have previously played for Robert Sala at some point right like this is how you raise the floor on offense

You go get a bunch of guys the offensive coordinator knows a tight end alignment

And a wide receiver and a quarterback almost every position group in on offense in free agency

They went out and got a guy that the offensive coordinator previously coach. So I'm ranting

But yeah, I mean their actions told you this roster is terrible because he did not want to build the roster this way

But you've got to buy yourself a little bit of time

100% 100% agree and why you're on the subject of having nobody in the room and just maybe you have to draft a bunch of guys and start them

That's sort of what the plan appears to be at interior offensive line the final

The final big point from Mike Borgonzi the big takeaway here is and I think the the realist

Point that we can take away what we actually learned about the Titans roster approach and draft plans here

Like I had this noted in my notes just in that

Sometime between now and the draft but much closer to the draft that you and I do sort of a draft predictions

Titans draft predictions episode and I'd already made a note

That I wanted to predict that the Titans would draft two interior offensive lineman on

Between rounds two and five and I I believe that that is gonna happen and then you hear Mike Borgonzi go talk about it

Basically saying that you know, we yeah, we like

Austin Sloteman and we like Cordell Wilson and we like Jackson Slater and we want to you know

There's gonna be a lot of competition there and whoever is the best man will win the job and then

He's asked like well, would you be comfortable if two rookies were starting on the interior of the offensive line

And he's like well, you know this draft has a lot of depth at those spots this year

I think there's talented guys from the second round all the way to the end of the draft and you know when I was in Kansas City

We did that in 2021 we drafted Creed Humphrey and Tray Smith and and both of those guys started and you know it like

Repair the interior of our offensive line after he didn't say this part after we got destroyed in the Super Bowl by the Buccaneers and my homes was under pressure on every dropback

No, but they the he has experience with this approach now

I'm a little bit worried that that was like a special circumstance where Tray Smith had blood clots that pushed him to the sixth round

That have not affected his career at all and they were able to get a day two guard

In the sixth round and they were able to start him from day one

Creed Humphrey was a guy that everybody liked in the pre-draft process and they picked him in the second round

A high premium pick used on a center that started from day one

Look, it's not impossible to think that to think that Titans could do that and it works

It's pretty scary to rely on it and with your fallback plan being

Career backups in Austin Shlopeman in a second year fifth round pick Jackson Slater, which by the way

This is totally aside

Everyone seems to think that Jackson Slater was a six-round pick. I don't know if this is like collective consciousness

You keep making the same mistake polka husky actually wrote

Marcus was a six-round pick polka husk actually wrote in his article detailing Borgonzi's comments that Slater was a six-round pick

It's like one of those things where we all think Chick-fil-A used to be spelled without the C

But it's actually always been Chick-fil-A

Anyway

Yeah, so what does that call I can't remember what it's called

There's a there's a name for that effect somebody drop it in the comments

But anyway, it's you know, you're relying on a career backup in Shlopeman

For a second year fifth round pick who played like 18 snaps his work at your 32 something like that snaps his work a year and

Guy and Cordell Wilson who was a three-year starter before last season

We missed the entire season with a shoulder injury

But a three-year starter at a level that like if I was the bangles

I'd be trying to replace him every off season

So he might be the worst of the three of them. He's got the most experience and he's probably the worst of the three of them

I would rather he's definitely put he's definitely put the most bad tape out

Partly because he's played the most but also because he's not that good of a player

And so that's your fallback plan and your plan a is hope that the guys you like and have identified in the draft

As future starters fall to your picks and that you don't also and that you're okay giving up the opportunity cost

You have to give up which means you're not selecting a receiver a defensive end a tackle to build for 2027

A linebacker for solid the middle of solid defense a future starting cornerback like there's obviously sacrifices

You have to make if you decide you're going to take multiple interior offensive linemen and we I keep saying

I've said at a hundred times already this year Justin that the draft is not for 2026

It's for 2027 and beyond

Well at the interior offensive line the draft might be for 2026 too

Yeah, I'm

I'm choosing not to believe him and

Like help help me out in the comments. Let's talk through this

I'm choosing not to believe him and I don't think it's just because I think it's stupid and I don't want it to be true

I'm sure I actually think it's because he's too smart in my opinion for this to be true and listen

If this is the case and this is the plan and this is what they go forward with

And it backfires like it probably would

Because the Tracemith Creed Humphrey example is one in a thousand more often than not right

Where it actually worked so well immediately

If this backfire if this is really the plan in it backfires

We'll drag him every single Monday after watching cammore to get sacked seven times per game and get hurt and

Misrubisky's in the game like we'll drag him all the time. This is not a good idea. This is not a good plan

I don't think he's telling the truth. I hope he's not telling the truth and I think he's not telling the truth

I just again, maybe it's my own

You know fandom bias, but I think he's too smart of a GM. I think he's too good at what he does

To actually be willing to just leave this up to chance to actually protect his second-year quarterback

Who's coming off a season ending shoulder injury

Quair quotes because it happened in week 18, but it would it was a multi-week injury if it wasn't week 18 right

It was week 13. It would have been season ending more than likely, right to actually try to protect that guy with maybe rookie interior lineman

Or someone like cordelle voulson

If things go poorly

This coming season

I think the one thing that I'll stay hung up on is how did you spend

295 million in free age 300 million now

I think they've done some extra one-year deals with like I think you know since it was the number was 294

300 million in free agency and you neglected the offensive line when you've got a rookie

You know coming off a rookie season sophomore number one overall pick who had a shoulder injury

So if things don't go well. He doesn't figure this out

I will not be able to get past that now look

I agree. This is not the episode for this but

I like the interior of this offensive line class. I keep mentioning names that I keep realizing that I like it quite a bit

Logan Jones out of Iowa Sam Heck out of Kansas State Conor Lou out of Auburn

Jagger Burton out of Kentucky Brian Parker out of Duke tre zoom out of Texas A&M

There's another Jake slaughter out of Florida like all those guys

I just mentioned are capable of playing center all of them Matt Gulbin out of Michigan States underrated

Tegan Trost Missouri

Two guys I really like who haven't gotten a lot of attention

You know how much I love Keelan Rutledge the guard out of Georgia Tech a manual pregnant on and chase bizantes are high-end

I think more of on the premium side of the I think I put Rutledge in that bucket too

I put the three of them together

But that's the high-end side some of those first ones. I mentioned you know Jagger Burton Brian Parker

I think these are fourth round picks more than likely

But I really like like I like the interior of this class now reality is gonna punch me in the face next year

Like it always does and hardly any of them will pan out because that's the nature of the NFL draft beast right like you like

You kind of want to see the good and everyone because the draft is fun and exciting. It's positive

But when you look back you always say this in reality

So few of these guys actually pan out and and turn into good NFL players. So

I mean he'll he's gonna draft I think he probably drafts two of the guys

I just mentioned Alex Harkie out of Oregon. They've been connected to a guy that could play guard. So

Travis Burke to tack a lot of Memphis. I know we're not tacking a talking tackles

But they've been connected to some linemen and we've got a bunch of guys

You know, I do think it's a good interior class, but risky business

um

I think Jim Wyatt mentioned in the article

Kevin Zitler who they have not resigned but haven't closed the door on but it didn't sound like anything was imminent either

Broken record. I'll say it every week bring back Kevin Zitler draft a center hold a three-man competition at center between your rookie

Austin Slotman and Jackson Slater and I could get on board with that plan. I can't get on board with rookie next to rookie

I'm with you. I do think there is more to the Zitler stuff than is being reported

I think we've had commenters speculating and I think they're probably right that Kevin Zitler doesn't necessarily need to go through the

or April OTA sessions in the at the point of his career he's in

Right as the entering is 15th year and also the Titans offseason activities start before

Every team that didn't fire a head coach

The Titans have an earlier start because they have a new head coach. That's the way the the rules work

They get to start earlier to begin installing the new head coaches whatever

So yeah, Zitler I think like just like we talked about when we found out the Corey 11 plan the you did the digging and reported that Corey 11

The Titans were interested in talking to Corey 11 after the draft depending on how the draft goes

I think it's probably true for Kevin Zitler as well and I think Kevin Zitler is probably like yeah, that's fine

I'll keep myself in shape. I'll work out on my own. I don't need to report to team

Offseason optional team activities and they'll get that done when

If they need to now I'm with you in the sense that like if they go draft to interior offensive lineman

And they feel great about starting them from day one is that gonna make them think oh we don't need Kevin Zitler when in reality

It's like why not have the fallback plan and the upside of a rookie like you like you could do both

You could get the rookie in the building

Hope he wins a competition

But also have Kevin Zitler there because you know he can be a good quality starting right guard

But to be blunt with you too like the rookie's not beating Kevin Zitler in a cup

There's no competition if they bring Kevin Zitler back

They're drafting that rookie in the fourth round to do what they did with Jackson Slater this past year

Develop up behind the scenes and hope you can replace Zitler in 2027

That would be the smart that's what I would do like I would bring back Zitler

And I would still draft hopefully draft a future starting right guard in the fourth round right like it's especially the fourth fifth round

You get a guy there just like you got Jackson Slater a year ago in the fifth round

So that should be the plan and listen we're probably over reacting because you bring up a good point

Kevin Zitler hasn't retired. He wants to play. He's going to play in my opinion

He has a plan his plan is probably to do what you just said skip OTA's everything voluntary and come in when he wants to come in

And maybe they've already got a backdoor deal done who knows right like the times have 60 million in cat space

They're not gonna have a hard time bringing Kevin Zitler back if they want to bring them back one year eight million dollars

One year up to 10 million 11 million max. I don't think he gets more than that

You know what the figure is he signed for like nine million last year. It's gonna be the same figure because he played well

But he's too old to have you know a crazy amount of leverage and ask for 15 million dollars a year. So

Hopefully they've got a plan hopefully it's bringing Kevin Zitler back

Hopefully Mike Borgons he's lying through his teeth. I have a feeling he is because I like him

I mean it in a positive he doesn't get here and tell you what he's actually thinking

We're gonna take a break and then we're gonna talk about what Robert Salah said at the annual league ownership meetings

Okay, welcome back

Yes, so the offensive line for the Titans interior offensive line by far the biggest concern

I have about this team as we head towards the 2026 draft and I think they're gonna

Resources into it. Sorry. I don't want to cut you off

I didn't see this coming like going into the offseason. I was like oh, they probably reside

You know Zitler I predicted they were gonna keep cushion berry. I mean we didn't know about the shoulder thing

Like yeah, it's you know, so you could get better, but I think it's pretty good now. It's like wow

They've got nothing at two of the three spots

And on cushion berry, you know, he signed with the bills who resigned countermegovern

So now the bills got both the centers at the Titans could have been trying to have on their team

And he's gonna be a backup, but hey, he signed with Buffalo, which means he passed a physical

But but in my opinion I think it more so defense Mike Borgonsy. He signed one year. There's like three million

I think it was it was really low to be a remember to be a backup

He didn't decide to go be a starter somewhere

Yes, he didn't even go somewhere where he can compete

Like nobody thought he was a starting caliber center at this point

So they did the right thing moving on from cushion berry

That's not where the mistake was made the mistake was made by not having a better initial plan to replace

Right being caught off guard by the center market that I like I

Will still say I think they thought countermegovern was gonna hit the market and that they were gonna be able to go after him probably and

That they didn't expect Tyler Linderbaum to get $29 billion or whatever he got

So yeah, I think that that happened and now they're pivoting and the pivot is the draft

But onto Robert Sala

Robert Sala had other interesting things to say we can do let's do a quick rapid fire session really quick

I'm just gonna say things that he talked about if you want to jump in and say something put your hand up or cut me off

So he talked about the backup quarterback situation. He said

Like he wouldn't close the book on will levis will levis and Mitchell tribusky are gonna compete to be the backup quarterbacks

Mike Morganzi echoed that about will levis. Let's call this what it is

BS

Will levis is not part of the Titans plans. He will likely be traded

Hopefully be traded so the Titans have another pick to use if he's not traded by the draft

They probably don't trade him until the end of august

But let's be real about this one. Uh, I don't care what you the fan think of will levis if you didn't think you got a fair shot

Because Brian Callahan's a terrible head coach. That can all be true. It doesn't matter. We've moved on

They drafted cam ward. They signed Mitch tribusky. There's no chance will levis is part of the 2026 plans

Mitch tribusky is not a number three quarterback when they signed in it was to be the number two

This is we like to vandre sweat at the NFL combine press conference and then traded to vandre sweat

16 hours later. Yeah, I'm not buying it think allowed to truth on this one

No, that one's that one's dumb. Uh, solid talked about John Franklin Myers and talked about how he said

I think the exact quote was something like

John Franklin Myers erases the run game on his side when you put him at end and talked about all the flexibility

positional flexibility and versatility that Franklin Myers has to play end on early downs and then he called him over the last five years

One of the best interior pass rushers in the league. So look they don't think they need

An additional defensive end starting level for early downs

They're going to put John Franklin Myers in that role

Now there's a couple ways to read this one because it could say oh, well then, you know

He's bumps inside you got your main johnson on one side who's rushing from the opposite end spot

Could they be looking for a DPR designated pass rusher type of guy somebody like a Jacob Martin

Who comes on the field for third downs and just gets after the quarterback or somebody that they draft on day two

That's like we think this guy needs a development to be a starting

Three-down end, but he can get after the passer or is that a David Bailey thing where it's like yeah

We don't care if David Bailey's a little weaker against the run because he can get after a quarterback

So we're going to draft him at number four overall if he's there and he won't play first and second down

But he'll come in on third downs and and try to wreck shop like I think there's a few ways to read that one

But the point is Robert Sella loves john Franklin Myers

And he's going to use him all over the defensive line and he kind of erases some of the edge concerns

But to the point you've continued to make just because he races a little bit of edge concern

If he's not playing on the interior, he increases the concern on the interior

Yeah, that's how I feel about it. I won't I won't be long winded on it because I mean Jeffrey Simmons is so dominant there

That it still makes you feel better because you got at least one and you know

Maybe best player in the league at his position at that spot

But then you are asking Jordan Elliott and Solomon Thomas to probably play a bit more than I'd like them too

But there's a reason they went out and got both of those guys

They've played in this system. They've played for this coach

They've played for some of these assistant coaches before

So there's obviously some comfort level with having them on the field and

You know tbd because it depends on how the draft goes

But if the plan is to kick john Franklin Myers outside on early downs

Then there's obviously you know quite a bit of comfort level in playing Thomas and Elliott

And then you can just draft your my love and not think twice um

He was also he he talked about um cam ward said he's progressing well in his recovery

He can't work directly with cam ward on the field or even talk scheme with him right now installation of playbook stuff

That stuff is against the rules right now. They're not allowed to work together until I think it's April 20th

Is the day that they are allowed to begin their offseason program again with the new head coach

They can start sooner than the rest of the league who didn't hire a new head coach this year

But he also talked about that cam ward's progressing well in his recovery

Said he's not going to put a timetable on it, but he's doing well

But one thing that he does he sees cam ward in the building and he he continued

He said this at the combine I think or maybe even before

But he said it again at the breakfast today that he's just so impressed by the fact that cam ward

Walks around the building knows everybody's name interacts with every staff member from the highest level to the lowest level

Is just a personable friendly guy and just I mean that's the kind of person you want as the face of your franchise leading your offense and leading your team

So nothing but good things to say about cam ward also talked about any mechanical

Improvements that cam needs to work on and talked about how his throwing motion is his throwing motion

And they're not going to mess with the throwing motion

But the one thing they do want to make sure they do is make sure when he's doing his dropbacks

That his feet are tied to his progressions, which is the same thing we've heard about you know every quarterback coach

Talks about every quarterback in the same way every offense is like this

The feet have to be married to the eyes and that's what they're working on with cam right now

I was as big as problem last year when they weren't it's when he got himself in trouble right it's when he was inaccurate or through

Interceptions or whatever you know ball security issues

um

It's he's got a whole lot of season to work on it and get better. I didn't think it was god awful by any strategist

Didn't think it was good enough and I couldn't get better and he'll become a much better quarterback if he could

Get it going in the right direction, but not a whole lot there robert saw was excited to work with cam ward

Are you gonna let the episode I know we're not done

But are you gonna let the episode end without the point like the bias on this show

I'm kidding of course that he said he likes what he's got in the running back room

I know you alluded to it earlier, but that was a pretty interesting quote the regarding the

Some of it like you said some of it you can interpret. They're gonna draft your my love

Some of it you can interpret that they're not going to robert saw I said I like what we have in our running back room

And robert saw is actually the one who said I like to vandray sweat and then traded him two days later

So I'm not put in any stock into their like it's the same as will levis if I'm if I know

Just from being a logical person who follows football that will levis is not factoring into the 2026 plans

Then I know I can disregard if I choose to again choose your own adventure the way you read these these quotes

I will choose to disregard the fact that he likes what they have in the backfield that he thinks it's a great one-two punch

A lot of what these guys say in these settings is either a prepped in advance because they know what questions are gonna be asked

I mean the most eye-opening part uh the most

2023 hard knocks off season with the New York Giants great season of hard knocks seeing Joe Shane act like a bumbling fool

When he didn't really want to re-sign take one bark Lee

But the best part about that was when they showed his meeting with the like PR director

Whoever person is preparing him for a press conference and he's like you're they're gonna ask you about this

What what will you say and Joe Shane says something and the guys like

I wouldn't say it that way and Shane's like oh I'm kidding. I'm kidding

No, here's what I'm really gonna say like they prepare for this stuff. That's number one and number two

They know that the people they're asking them questions

Just need a quote to go write a story and everyone's gonna forget about it in a week's time or less, right?

So sometimes they just speak just to speak

It's like have you ever been in a job interview and you got a question you weren't ready for and you just start speaking off the top of your head

And you're like I hope this sounds good it makes sense, but it doesn't actually have to mean

Much about your plans for the future. It's just this sounds good in the moment and they can go right a quote on it

and like there are a few

Pillars I think that these guys rely on which is like always praise everyone they ask you about

That's like pillar number one if somebody asks you about somebody

Shower them with praise and number two is don't ever tell them anything definitive, right?

Like those are the biggest pillars in this situation

So I think this is just like oh they asked me about the running backs

Well, it's my first pillar. Oh shower them. Okay. I love Tony Pollard

I love Taj Hsperous what's something else I can say positive about Pollard

Oh, he had a good game against us in week 15 Tony Pollard

He ran for a hundred yards against us. I look back at that game. I think it's a great one two punch

That sounds like a good football thing to say, right? Yeah, I'm gonna pop you right there. We get it

We get it we get it and listen

I like Mike Borgonzi so far because I do think that his job and fans forget this

I mean they shouldn't but his job is into you know

Brian Callahan told us everything he was thinking for the most part

Doesn't mean that you're good at it you're good at your job or you're gonna feel the good football team

I don't care if Mike Borgonzi gets up there in life through his teeth every time

I think he's old school and he believes in protecting information

And he believes in playing his cards close to his chest because he believes in the competitive nature

Of football

Uh, and he believes that it gives him a competitive advantage by you having no idea what he's thinking

I don't care. I do not care if he lies every time he gets up there

What I care about is that he builds and feels a good football team

That's all I care about right. That's the job. That's what we need him to do

So TBD on that but I don't care if he says he likes to vandray sweat and then trade some

I find the hilarious that he could get up there and say we'll take the best player

And he knows everyone's immediately gonna go to Jeremiah Love and then he says you you always need more past rushers

Robert Salah by the way I thought one thing I caught

He said

Talking about the game changers or playmakers in the draft. He said Jeremiah Love and the three ed rushers now

I don't consider it a slip up

But I wonder if it indicates that they think our velle Reese is a past rusher and not aligned definitely do

Yeah, I mean or he could think he's a linebacker and to protect the information just say the three past

You know like my point again choose your own adventure right like I think that's possible too

So they didn't tell us a whole lot of anything

But all that matters is that they've got a plan and it's better that we don't figure out because if we figure it out

Then the Arizona cardinals figure it out at number three overall the New York Giants figure it out at number five overall

And that puts you in a bind never let anyone know what you're thinking

Yeah, I absolutely

And I think that on that note like he said all four of those guys can change the game with one play

Didn't tell us anything about where they're leaning

Mike Mike Borgonsi did say at the combine that if you can rush the passer you line him up and let him rush the passer in reference to our velle Reese

I do think I think it's pretty well known now that most of the NFL

Like we've heard this from like the Daniel Jeremiah's of the world that most of the NFL views our velle Reese as an ad rusher at the next level

So um, it is what it is there

This is the thing comes into play right if you can rush the passer you're gonna do that because it's way more important than the other thing that you can do

Right um, but that's pretty much it that covers what was said at these uh

Bracken like Robert Thomas spoke at the AFC coaches breakfast Mike Borgonsi was just pulled aside in the hotel and talked to a group of reporters

There's no video of Mike Borgonsi out there at all not a single one of the guys in that scrim pulled their phone out to record him answering a single one of these questions

Maybe he asked for that we don't know, but if you want to go watch that you can't

Um, all of the Robert Salah answers were posted by the Titans beatwriters

So Easton Jim Wyatt to Ron PK all those guys are posting everything that um, that Robert Salah said at the breakfast

I don't know if the Titans will post it on YouTube some teams have done it some teams haven't I hope they do because I'd like to just sit and watch it from

Front to back instead of watching it in like a series of one-minute clips, which is what I did but it is what it is

Um, I think the biggest takeaways are the Titans will probably be drafting interior offensive lineman not one but multiple

That we don't know what they like it depends on what they're bored

Who that whoever their board says is the best player at pick number four

They're gonna pick that guy and I don't think they're gonna worry about positional value

So the question isn't do they care about positional value?

It's do they think that Rubin Bane or David Bailey is a better player a better football player than Jeremiah love and

Camward recovery is on track. That's not a big thing, but it's worth noting and

German John Franklin marris is gonna play outside on early downs

I mean those are the big takeaways that I had from this

It's not a lot

But I do think the interior offensive line thing that's like a real thing like even if they're not gonna rely on those guys to be starters

They're gonna draft them in this class and anybody doing a seven round Titans mock that doesn't have at least one

But again, I would say two interior offensive lineman. You're doing it wrong

That is my final takeaway

Justin if you have anything else to say say it now and then we're ending this episode

Yeah, I'm gonna give the final word to myself because I think you forgot one thing you want to mention

Robert Salas said that they plan to have a joint practice with the Carolina pastors. I believe some time in august

um

He said we're gonna be quick on this because I don't know how interesting joint practice news is in April

But he essentially said that he thinks they're very important and he'd like to have one with every priest

He's an opponent so he wants to schedule. I think three separate joint practices

What I also found interesting is he only wants to do one session per team

He does not want to do the back-to-back

Joint practice days a lot of teams do

He said most of the time the second day is just a bunch of guys fighting

So he wants one joint practice per preseason opponent and he puts a lot of stock into joint practices

So expect to see a bunch of those this summer

It'll be great content for you and I in the middle of that dead part where we're asking about what we're gonna record about

And the times have three joint practices coming up. So that'll be fun

I'm so glad I remembered this a quick sending all our love to John Glennon

uh

Our local Nashville beat writer who revealed yesterday

um

He's been off at Twitter for a couple of months

I reached out to him a couple of weeks ago and I had a conversation with him. Obviously wasn't my news to share

um, but he shared publicly

Yesterday that he has been battling cancer and that he's been undergoing treatments

Sorry, I really like John and uh moon forum and um

Just thrilled to hear that things are going pretty well for him so far

You know, I'm to have him back this market is better with him

um

Absolutely, it really is

Well, you and I were lucky enough to work with him for a little bit over at Broadway sports

Hell of a great journalist that I think a better person

And Carol ought about John and he's I mean, I think he's doing I mean, I think he's doing better than I am right now

Because he's in he's in really good spirits treatments going really well for him and I'm thrilled to hear it

How we're going to continue rooting for him. So send all your wishes of love and and and you know health to John

Because he's great and this this city the market national the city of national the state of Tennessee

It's so much better with him in it. So uh, so glad that he's back

Yeah, he's you know, I believe planning to write

Uh this summer. He's got himself back to a point where he's um in good enough health to write

And that's good news for all of us read John's work. I was reading John's work. I don't want to age him

But I was reading John's work. I think what I was 13 14 literally like when I was just discovering my love for the Titans

He was one of the big ones that I relied on for information and he's so good at what he does

And he has been for the better part of you know two three decades now and so all our wishes to John wish him a wish him a

Uh, all your love and good and good uh good good wishes if you can on twitter there

Yeah, great great point Justin. I'm really glad you said that well said praying for John and his family and uh

Yeah, go find him on twitter and send him a message. Just say hey John we're all rooting for you

Happy that you're gonna be back right in this summer because we miss your work. So um

Good shot there Justin really really glad you said that

That will do it for this episode of the music city audible podcast

Make sure you subscribe to the channel like the video comment below

What did you take away from workonzi and solace comments at the NFL league meetings and we'll be back tomorrow

Turning our attention back to specific draft focus and prospects and

Topics on that regard. So until then you all stay safe out there

Hold your loved ones close tell everyone you love that you love them because life is short

And uh until then

tighten up

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