NASHVILLE – Mike Borgonzi has been hired as the next General Manager of the Tennessee Titans.
Borgonzi, who previously served as Assistant General Manager with the Kansas City Chiefs, will arrive in Tennessee with an impressive background and great reputation.
On Friday, the team officially agreed to terms with Borgonzi, who has spent the past 16 seasons with the Chiefs.
The hire comes after a thorough search that included interviews with ten candidates, including six interviews done in-person this week at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.
A press conference is expected early next week in Nashville.
“Mike’s experience speaks for itself: he has been part of the core team that delivered four AFC championships and three Super Bowls over the past five seasons,” said Titans Controlling Owner Amy Adams Strunk. “It’s the type of standard I want to build here in Tennessee. I know we have a lot of work ahead of us, and I’m excited for Mike to get started.”
Ultimately, the pairing of Borgonzi with Titans President of Football Operations Chad Brinker was viewed as a perfect fit moving forward as the franchise aims to regain its footing following a tough stretch.
“During Mike’s 16 years in the league, he has been a key part of transforming the Chiefs from a two-win team to a three-time Super Bowl champion,” Brinker said. “During our meetings, he articulated a clear plan to build a championship standard in Nashville through consistency, discipline, and hard work. I’ve admired him for many years and I’m thrilled to add him to the team as our general manager.”
Strunk and Brinker, along with President and CEO Burke Nihill, head coach Brian Callahan and others on the football staff, met with Borgonzi in Nashville earlier this week as the team conducted its search to replace Ran Carthon, who was dismissed at the end of the 2024 season.
During his interview with the team, Borgonzi shared his vision to help build and sustain a winning culture in Tennessee, doing so with a draft and free agency strategy aimed to create an identity focused on character, and commitment. His plan is to help build a championship roster in Tennessee.
Borgonzi comes from a Kansas City organization which has shown the ability to have sustained success. He’s played a role in putting together three Super Bowl winning rosters, including back-to-back Super Bowl teams (LVII and LVIII). The Chiefs have participated in four of the last five Super Bowls (LIV, LV, LVII and LVIII) while winning eight-straight AFC West titles and appearing in six AFC Championship Games.
In an interview with TennesseeTitans.com on Friday, Brinker raved about Borgonzi’s preparedness, and shared vision.
“He’s literally thought through everything you could possibly think through as a general manager,” Brinker said of Borgonzi. “He’s mapped out the entire plan from everything he believes in, which is the same thing we believe in here, the draft, develop and retain model. From that to everything about being a general manager, in particular when it comes to the evaluation from pro to college, the calendar, what that looks like, the meetings … to his plan on working with the coaching staff to the player development side of it, player engagement, sports medicine. He literally had a plan for everything. And then he’s also been at a place that’s been able to execute that plan at a high level.”
With the Chiefs, Borgonzi worked his way up through the ranks.
In 2021, Borgonzi was promoted to Assistant General Manager of the Chiefs after serving three seasons as the club’s Director of Football Operations (2018-20) and three seasons as the club’s Director of Player Personnel (2017)/Co-Director of Player Personnel (2015-16).
According to the Chiefs, Borgonzi supervised and directed the club’s college and professional scouting operations while closely supporting and advising General Manager Brett Veach with the club’s roster management and player acquisition via the NFL Draft, NFL free agency, street free agency, waiver claims and trades.
Prior to his current role, Borgonzi spent one year as Director of Football Operations in Kansas City. Before then, he took on the entirety of the Director of Player Personnel position in 2017 after serving alongside Veach as Co-Director of Player Personnel for two years (2015-16).
Borgonzi served as the club’s Assistant Director of Pro Scouting (2013-14) and as the club’s Pro Personnel Scout (2011-12) where he evaluated all professional players, recommended free agents, oversaw free agent workouts, evaluated college players and assisted the coaching staff with advance scouting reports for the teams’ upcoming opponents. In 2010, he served as the club’s Manager of Football Operations. Borgonzi joined the Chiefs in 2009, serving as the club’s College Scouting Administrator.
Prior to joining the Chiefs, Borgonzi served two seasons as the Assistant Recruiting Coordinator at Boston College (2007-08).
Brinker noted when Borgonzi arrived in Kansas City the Chiefs were coming off a 2-14 season in 2008. Another 4-12 season then followed. But the results, and culture, ultimately changed.
“Our goal is to build a consistent winning football team that ultimately will bring a championship to Nashville,” Brinker said. “And, hopefully every year we can be one of those four to eight teams that is competing for championships, that is ultimately what we’d like to get to. And, Mike has been a part of that.
“So, hopefully he can bring that with him here, and we’ll work together.”
In addition to Borgonzi, the Titans also conducted interviews with Dolphins Senior Personnel Executive Reggie McKenzie, former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff, Buccaneers Assistant General Manager John Spytek, Seahawks Senior Director of Player Personnel Matt Berry, Colts Assistant GM Ed Dodds, Bills Director of Player Personnel Terrance Gray, Browns Assistant GM & VP of Football Operations Catherine Hickman, Bears Assistant General Manager Ian Cunninghan and Packers Vice President of Player Personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan.
But it was Borgonzi who landed the job.
“Mike should have been a general manager two years ago. He is ready for this job. … And this was the place that he wanted to be,” Brinker said. “When he came in the building, he said it just felt like a family here, and it reminded him a little bit of Kansas City and what they have been able to build there.
“Now we still have a lot to do from a culture perspective in our building, but he can see there’s some good bones here. We have some really good people in this building, and he’s looking forward to getting in here and helping us start turning the culture around and start turning over this roster and really working side-by-side with me and others. … He just said he felt something special when he left this building, and he felt like it was the right place for him.”
“We’re really excited to get him,” Brinker added. “I think this will be a great partnership, that’s what this is. And there’s a humility to him that I love, and what he represents and who he is as a human being. I believe this will be a really good partnership.”
