You Can Feel the Passion | Press Conference

You Can Feel the Passion | Press Conference

Uh, thanks for coming out. Um, you know, I thought it was a a good opportunity here, uh, with the by-week um, and the trade deadline yesterday. Uh, just to really talk about, you know, the roster right now, uh, take you into a little bit of the insight in terms of the decisions we’ve made, um, and just about the team in general. Um, and right now, you know, the results aren’t good enough right now. Um, and we understand that and we understand the frustration, you know, with the fan base. Um, and we know that we have to earn back the trust of this fan base. You know, one of the things, um, that was, you know, really appealing to me when I took this job was, uh, the passion that this fan base has. um you know, coming in here as an opposing team, you could feel that passion that it that it meant something to the community, um to families here. Um and I always said if I’m going to go somewhere, you know, I want to make it impactful. Um and you know, it it’s great to be in a place where people care about the team. Um and I’ve been here, you know, close to a year now. Um, you know, I have young kids. They’re in school. You know, I’ve got to meet a lot of people in the community. Um, and and I feel I feel their passion and I feel their frustration right now. And um, but we are doing everything possible right now uh to get this right and to fix it. And and we will. I I believe we will at the end of the day. Um, and you know, with all the negativity that comes along with losing, you know, it’s hard to see any positive signs. Um, but there are positive signs. Um, you know, I want to really thank um the coaches right now and the players um for their work ethic every day and energy that they come in with every day to get better here. uh despite the despite the losing. I’ve been around places where you know we’re having a tough season like this and um it’s hard to come to work and I don’t feel that here and and and I I think the coaches, let’s be real, this is a tough situation for them right now. They moved their families here. They want to come here to win and you know we haven’t done that yet and um but they come to work every day and their willingness to work with younger players here to develop them and I think they have developed them. Um uh I want to highlight the rookie class that we have. Um you know I think it’s a special class. I really do. And and not just because I was a GM who picked these players, but I do feel like it’s a special class and it’s it’s a class that we can build upon. Um they represent everything that we want in a Titan from day one. They stepped in this building. Um you know, their work ethic, their passion, their drive to get better. Um and they are getting better right in front of our eyes and and they’re all playing and they’re developing and that’s going to help us through the next eight games here. and and into the future. Um so, um another thing is we we have this player development program, uh that we started here. Um it’s really the best I’ve been I’ve seen and it’s been spearheaded by Dave Ziggler and Bryce Wasserman. Um and they work with all different departments in the building to to help these players develop on the field, off the field. Um and um so so those those are the real positive things that I see here despite uh the losing um which causes a lot of negativity. I understand that. Um I just want to take you into some of the roster decisions, a little bit of insight on some of the trades that we made. Um we are in constant evaluation mode here. Um with players, with staff, um and that comes, you know, with with players, it’s it might be talent, it might be scheme fit, it might be culture fit. You know, the word culture gets thrown around there a lot. So what is what do you mean by that? Well, it’s the habits that we want to have with our players to create a winning culture here. Um it’s it’s the team first mentality. It’s the accountability piece. It’s the attention to detail piece. Um it’s their willingness to to work and get better every day. So that’s what we’re looking for when we’re evaluating these players. Um and I I know the the first trade we made with Jarvis Brownley um was was I’m aware of it. It was controversial around here because he’s young player that you know was ascending. Um, and you know, you’re evaluating the fit and without getting into a lot of details, um, I like Jarvis and I think he’s going to be a really good player in this league. Um, we don’t have the culture right now sometimes, um, to help guys develop right now. And, you know, we thought at the time, you know, just some of the habits, um, weren’t conducive to building the culture right now. And I know that’s hard to understand because he was a young player and I wish Jarvis nothing but the best. Um the Roger McCreary trade. Um Roger, love Roger. Uh teammates loved him. You could tell they loved him. Um Roger’s a good player. You know, it’s part of the strategy when you’re looking at the roster and evaluating the market in terms of, you know, he’s an expiring contract and what’s he going to look like next year. Um, and that’s the piece when you draft and develop players too that you have guys coming in here. It had nothing to do with because I didn’t draft Roger. It has nothing to do with that. Um, you know, we found uh there was some interest with Roger and it happened to be the Rams who had owned our fifth round pick um from a prior trade. And so we thought that was good value for us. Um, where we were at in the draft, we were missing that fifth round pick. So we had a fourth round pick which was at the beginning of the fourth and then we have a sixth round pick which was the beginning of the sixth. So that’s about a 80 spot move if the draft had happened that day. Um so we thought that was good value really just getting that pick back and that’s the reason why we did it. Uh Draymond Jones love Draymond. Um you know he’s really coming on here the last four or five games and I think that’s why a lot of teams had called on him. Um and you know we weren’t looking to move on from Draymond right now. Um, but we also have to think about the future of this program and where we’re at and um, you know, we had a chance to acquire a pick that from Baltimore that, you know, could be a high pick in the fifth and potentially could turn into a fourth round pick. So, let’s hope the Ravens go to the playoffs and Draymond has two more sacks and we can get a fourth round pick out of it. Um, that’s what the conditions were there. Um, and just really just the youth movement too of the roster I want to hit on. Um, you know, we have 11 players on the active rookies right now. Uh, two on IR with Femi and and and and Mullings and and hopefully get them back here at some point. Um, so that’s 13 guys on the active that are rookies. Um, right now that’s second in the league I think right now. I hope that’s right with um with New England uh for the most rookies on a roster. Um so, uh I know there’s gonna be questions uh about the head coaching search, which is um you know, we’re in the process of that and I just don’t think this is time really to talk about that part of it. Um, so with that, if there’s any questions, when you when you talk about the the habits conducive with Jarvis, I know you probably don’t want to get into the specifics of what those were, but can you talk us through what habits you want? Well, I think I touched on just the accountability uh piece, um, attention to detail, uh, um, you know, the, uh, willingness to get better every day. And um so I I don’t want to specifically, you know, touch on that because I Jarvis is a great kid and I I wish nothing but success for him. When you say that there are sometimes that you can’t teach that culture with the program you have now. Yeah. You know, it’s that’s hard to explain sometimes with the culture in the locker room. When you have a standard in the locker room at some point when when you’re winning a lot of games, when you bring a player in, um they know exactly what they need to do or they know they won’t be there very long. um there’s there’s a standard there. So, we’re trying to create a standard. Sometimes that’s hard to to articulate to to people in the fans, but what when you’re in a locker room, you feel it. And when you’re around a winning team, you feel it. Um I certainly felt it in Kansas City. Every person that we brought in there. Um they knew right away, you know, if if Pat and Kelsey were out there practicing every day hard, I better be out there practicing every day hard. Um so, we we need to create that standard here. and and and we do have some some pieces here. Um I want to highlight Jeff Simmons. Uh Jeff uh has been tremendous. Uh you know, Jeff was a player that came in this league and they were winning and he’s gone through some losing seasons here right now. Um and I I communicate with Jeff a lot and and Jeff is a big part of um why are we going to turn this thing around here. He is. He’s one of the better players in the league and his leadership uh with these young guys has been tremendous. Did you talk to Dallas about Jeff considering what Dallas gave up for Williams? I’m not going to get into who we talk we talked to 31 other teams for the past three weeks. Um so I I will not get into any particulars of any moves that we did not make. Um but I will say with Jeff just because you asked about Jeff and I’m not going to talk about any other players here. Um, Jeff is invaluable to us right now to where we want to go. When you say building for the future though, as you did with with Draymond, does that not enter into the picture with with Jeff as well as your probably your most valuable asset, you know, that that could be traded? Well, you have to weigh those options and um, you know, you say it’s a business, but like when you weigh those options, you look at it and you say, you know, what do we have here? and he’s a pillar here in this organization uh for what you want and um he’s one of the best players in the league in this position and um the way he works every day at practice. Um I don’t know if I’ve seen a a you know a defensive lineman superstar like him, you know, just just empty the tank every day at practice. It’s impressive. And and when when your best player does that and younger guys look to him, that that’s what you want. That’s what I’m talking about being a standard. Mike, in talking about building culture fit, obviously you drafted Cam number one overall and you feel like he brings the intangibles you’re looking for. Yes. And that can be a franchise quarterback, but what do you see from him so far? Because it looks like he has struggled probably more than most number one overall pick should entering the league. He looks like a rookie quarterback playing on um you know a team that had the number one pick last year and and he is uh he’s developing and he’s developing with a lot of other rookies too as well, right? So we have two rookie wide receivers out there playing Jim and Eller playing out there. Um, so, so they are learning together and they’re only going to be better because of it. And I have full confidence that Cam, um, because of his work that ethic, because of his drive, um, that that he will fix, uh, things that he needs to fix, just like every quarterback in this league though, and and I have full confidence that he’s going to get there. You promoted uh, McCoy to interim. Yeah, part of the rationale there was not to disrupt the defense with with Dard, not to disrupt special teams with bones. Um, those things have been disrupted by by trade. Defense certainly has been disrupted by trade. Those guys seem to have a little bit more fire than Mike who’s punting from in inside opponent’s territory. Uh, you’re getting more conservative coaching from Mike than you got from Brian. What do you think of the job that he’s given? I think Mike’s doing a great job holding everything together here under the circumstances, Paul. Really. Um, and and Dinard is a is a hell of a coach. Um, and I I have conversations with Dinard all the time and you know, before we made these trades, it’s it’s not like we make these trades and don’t have conversations and and you know, he you know, is he going to agree on all the trades? No. But I think at the end of the day, he understands it. Um, and he understands that um that you know, he has a job to do. But um you know, you say you got a job to do, that’s a responsibility to do the job. But you know, his willingness to still do the job is is is why he’s a good coach. Wouldn’t you like to see things be a little less conservative given that you guys have nothing to lose in terms of of the approach from the head coach? Yeah, I mean, you still have to make smart decisions out there. He’s the head coach and he’s going to make decisions that he feels best for the team. Um, and when there’s opportunities to be aggressive, we’ll be aggressive. But, um, but Mike’s done a tremendous job here under the circumstances here too, um, of of being the the head coach here. You look at Jeffrey Simmons, like you mentioned him as a top player, and you look at what Dinard has been able to do, and then you trade away Draymond Jones. What does it say what Dinard has been able to do in the last, you know, few games without Simmons and what’s left of your outside linebacker’s group? Yeah. I know he’s he’s he’s done a tremendous job. It’s he’s a great coach. Um we had you know six sacks last week. Um and you know we have Ardan coming back um here hopefully here after the buy. Um so you know having Ardan back and and eventually we’ll get Jeff here back. Um we’ll see how how he looks here after the buy. Um, but you know, tremendous job. The whole staff has really uh Tony Odin, his willingness to to to work with younger corners and and guys that we claimed off off the waiver wire. Um, you know, because of losing guys from trades and um, you know, injuries with with Sneed. Um, so it’s been uh it’s been difficult for them, but like I said, like they come in here every day and their willingness to work and try to get these guys better um has been impressive because I like I said, I’ve been in other situations before um where you know you’re losing the culture in the building’s bad. Um but I don’t feel that here. I I don’t some other things you’ve seen, Mike, I guess, from the from the draft class and how unfortunate, I guess, that Fei had injury he did that kind of halted his progress. Mhm. What are maybe some of the other highlights from the from the draft class? Yeah, I mean, I think they’re all contributing. Obviously, you know, he was a starting quarterback in the league here that that had some really good moments. Um really highlevel throws. Um and and once he puts everything together with some consistency um you know which I which I think he will um but he he’s been impressive. Uh his leadership’s been impressive. Like I I told you the whole group’s been impressive in terms of the leadership. Um you know Kevin you know coming off the ACL you know basically under a year and then we got him back out had a little setback but he’s starting to to play and come on and you see flashes of it. uh his speed, his athleticism um and and then you know the three guys we took in the fourth with Alec and Chim and Gunner um have all contributed and you know DK I think leads the league in allpurpose yardage right now u the punt return he had the other week you know you talk about a dependable player now that that’s what he exemplifies um and Gunnar you’ve seen in flashes um and he’s going to be you know a really good uh player for us in this offense Um and then you know Jackson is on the on the active right now in a reserve role and just hasn’t had a chance and and Mullings was doing some good things on teams before you know he had the ankle injury but um you know really happy to see um their progress so far. You talk about earning the trust back with the fan base. One thing that I think the fans don’t trust is with the dynamic between you and Chad and kind of the opakeness in terms of, you know, what your responsibility is and what Chad’s responsibility is and when it comes to trusting this team to get it fixed, Chad has been here for a lot of the recent mistakes that were made in some capacity or another. So, what are the job responsibilities and why should the fans trust you and Chad to get it right? It’s a a good question. Um, and it’s a fair question. Um, and with Chad, you know, I can go back to when we were in Kansas City. Um there was a few of us that were on that staff there um that ended up um being um two and 14 I think that 2012 year it was myself, Ryan Ples, Brent Tillis. Uh Ryan Ples is a GM now. It’s Beers. Um I’m here. Brent Tillis uh is a VP of operations with the Carolina Panthers. Um, so what I’m trying to say is that like even though there’s uh, you know, we were losing at the time, there’s still really good people in the organization. I get the question. I I do. Um, and Chad is invaluable to me. Um, uh, Chad hired me, Amy hired me to, um, to to really construct the roster. That that’s what they hired me for. Um, and they empowered me to do that. Um, and what Chad does is, you know, he has knowledge in scouting. He’s got knowledge in the salary cap, um, strategy. Chad is really smart. Um, and Chad supports me with all the decisions that I make. And it’s no different in every other organization. You can say the titles and who’s who’s above who. It’s the same structure in every organization. And it’s it’s you got the GM, you have your, you know, VP of of strategy cap, and then you got the head coach. And whatever title you want to give them, those are the three people that work together to make decisions. And there’s no one person that like, you know, if he’s got the 53, this, like, I’m going to go rogue and just make a pick. But they they empowered me to make those decisions here, you know, to to to draft players, to sign players, to construct the roster. Um, so fair question. I I I get it, Jared. Um, but just to just to give you a little insight on that, how much input will you have in the selection of the new coach talking working within that framework? Yeah. Um, good question there. Um, you know, we’re in the process with it now, but um, you know, one of the things that me and Chad have talked about too is, you know, the GM and the head coach work together every day. Um, so I think it’s imperative that, uh, that we make this decision who’s the best leader of this organization coming forward. I know I don’t want to touch on the head coaching topic, but I do want to mention this though. Um but you know me and Chad have had conversations and it’s important that you know it’s a fit not only fit for the organization we want a leader here. I don’t care if it’s defense offense um that they have a working relationship with the GM myself um so um you know we’ll come together we’ll make the best decision for them. Where where has been since the injury and would you expect him to play again this season? Yeah, I just saw LJ uh yesterday. He’s he’s he’s doing great. You know, he’s he’s rehabbing. Um to answer your question, I I don’t know yet. Um he’s still going through the process of of the rehab right now, but uh Jerus is in in good spirits. So, is it a reacation of last year’s injury? It it’s similar. I don’t know exactly what it’s it’s it’s similar. Um so, yeah, I don’t want to go too much detail into it. The medical there there was a lot of of people maybe that that thought you guys might be more active leading up to the to the trade deadline as well. Yeah. Um I wonder how much did did injuries maybe to some players uh play a part in in maybe not making more deals? No. No. Uh you know, we we we look at everything and and the value of it and who’s valuable for the team right now. Um and there’s some guys who are on expiring deals uh this year that we’re still have eight games here to evaluate and they’ve done some good things. Um so yeah, I guess maybe to follow Yeah, just to follow on that. I guess how much do you balance as you said building for the future but you still want to have field a somewhat competitive team? Sure balance there. We got eight games left. Um and you know if we thought there was a value there like I said we talked to 31 other teams. I’m not going to get into every discussion we had and um you know a lot of teams have have called us obviously um you know we weren’t looking to acquire players at this point. Um it’s more for draft capital for the future. Um, but yeah, that that all comes into play. You guys plan ahead and so you you know who is on an expiring contract. You you know with with room to change your mind throughout the rest of the season who you’re probably planning on bringing back versus maybe not planning on bringing back, what you’re going to offer who. When you reach a deadline like this and you have in mind who maybe you you don’t have in the plans right now, I think some fans look at that and say, “Well, why wouldn’t you get something anything now for a guy that’s going to walk in eight games for nothing?” what how does how does that factor into your decision making? You have to weigh all those options. Um but you know a lot of the guys that are on expiring deals have have done some good things here. Um so you know we’ll continue to evaluate them and and to see if you know they’re they’re fit here for the future. Um so we still have eight games a lot of games left here to evaluate them. You talked about when you took the job about how if you took a young quarterback, you had to have a plan for the young quarterback and you compared that to Kansas City and we know the plan in Kansas City where Mahomes sat the bench and what was the plan for Cam and how has that changed because I would assume that the plan wasn’t to fire the coach six games from the draft. Um yeah, would Mike Tyson say everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face, right? Um, but yeah, I mean there there’s a plan for him and the plan right now is for him to still develop and he has been developing and I I give credit to to to Nick um and to Bo and to Mike uh on his development. That’s part of it, the development plan. Now, will the offense change next next year? Maybe. Um, but in terms of the fundamentals, the mechanics, understanding how to play the position, I think we got some really good coaches here to develop them. With the amount of um cap space you’re going to have Yeah. next year and with the thinness of the roster, how much uh are you and your department forecasting at this stage what you might be doing with that money given who’s scheduled to become available? Yeah, I mean we’re starting free agent meetings here in uh the early December. Uh but we’ve been watching the free agents and and building a board similar to a draft board uh with free agents in the league and trying to figure out their market value and trying to figure out our needs at the end of the season. Um so all that goes into it. Yeah. So I mean we’ve been those discussions going on right now. Paul, how much are how much can you do there realistically given what reaches market um at at the prime positions where you need help? Yeah, I mean we we can do, you know, we have a lot of cap space and um like I said, you know, we’re going to have to that’s why it’s hard when you have the philosophy. You have to stay disciplined to it too, Paul. Um and we use free agency really to you have to feel the roster and you have to be competitive at the same time. Um, but you know, in the future, we want to draft and develop these guys, but you know, there will be opportunities to if we see a player that deems that it’s going to help us and we’re thin at the position, um, we’re going to attack it. So, is there a way to do both of those things? Be a draft and develop team, not want to try to buy a roster, do the thing in free agency we see teams do and fail to do, but but still have so much money you have to spend. Yeah. I mean, there’s a balance to that, right? there is a balance because you you have to see where the locker rooms at, how many young players you have on your roster at the time. Um, in in my uh I guess experience and listen, there’s all different ways to build a team and I’m not knocking anyone else on how they build their team. It’s just our philosophy. Um, it’s built through the draft and there’s going to be opportunities to supplement players um when you feel you have to. Um, but you certainly want it to be, you know, having your roster consist of more younger players with that are drafted to really build the culture you want. In terms of in terms of the roster, you’ve talked about Jeff being a cornerstone. You talked about the rookies being building blocks. How many building blocks do you feel like you have on this roster currently? Is it 20, 15? Th those are things we’re going through right now. So, you try to identify, you know, at least, you know, I think Cam is one. You know, I think some of these rookies can be. Um, I think Jeff is one. Um, you know, and I’m not going to go through every player on the roster, but you try to identify maybe like three, four, five guys, and you saw that in the past with Kansas City, it’s like the same four guys that have been there for that whole run there, right? Um and um so yeah, I do think there’s some there’s some cornerstone players here that can be part of this. Some of them are younger now and they have to develop um and we need to continue to add to that.

Titans GM Mike Borgonzi addresses reporters on Wednesday at Ascension Saint Thomas Sports Park.

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