Without being provoked, without so much as being asked about it, Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi described his decision to trade away second-year cornerback Jarvis Brownlee Jr., with the same word fans have been using in the month-plus since the deal:
Controversial.
“I know the first trade we made with Jarvis Brownlee was controversial,” Borgonzi told reporters on Nov. 5, one day after the NFL’s trade deadline and six weeks after trading Brownlee to the New York Jets. “I’m aware… We don’t have the culture right now sometimes to help guys develop right now. We thought at the time some of the habits weren’t conducive to building the culture right now.”
The Titans traded Brownlee, a 2024 fifth-round draft pick who’d started essentially since arriving in Nashville as a rookie, to the Jets along with a seventh-round pick in exchange for a sixth-round pick. The trade has paid instant dividends for the Jets; his 77.9 coverage grade in New York (per Pro Football Focus) would rank as the seventh-best in the NFL if extended over the whole year. Brownlee even made the decisive play in the Jets’ lone win this year, and now his role figures to expand after the Jets traded away All Pro cornerback Sauce Gardner.
Meanwhile, the Titans’ cornerback depth has shriveled into near-nonexistence since Brownlee’s departure. Nickel corner Roger McCreary also got traded away in a pick swap and oft-injured veteran L’Jarius Sneed is back on injured reserve with another quad injury. There go all three of the Titans’ opening-day starters.
Borgonzi elected not to go into specifics when asked which of Brownlee’s habits weren’t conducive to the culture the Titans are trying to build. He did say the traits he wants from players include: a team-first mentality, attention to detail, accountability and the willingness to get better every day.
As for the more telling part of Borgonzi’s admission, the part where he admits the Titans culture isn’t conducive to developing a player like Brownlee into that kind of locker room presence yet, Borgonzi tried to explain what he means by referencing his decade-plus stint in Kansas City.
“When you have a standard in the locker room, at some point when you’re winning a lot of games, when you bring a player in, they know exactly what they need to do or they know they won’t be there very long,” Borgonzi said. “There’s a standard there. So we’re trying to create a standard.
“Sometimes that’s hard to articulate to people and the fans. But when you’re in a locker room you feel it, and when you’re around a winning team you feel it. I certainly felt it in Kansas City. Every person that we brought in there, they knew right away. If Pat (Mahomes) and (Travis) Kelce were out there practicing every day hard, (expletive), I better be out there practicing every day hard. So we need to create that standard here.”
Borgonzi singled out defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons, himself a topic of plenty of trade speculation before the deadline, as one of those cornerstone-type example-setters. Simmons’ work ethic, his drive and his overall mentality toward his craft are what Borgonzi says made him indispensable. Borgonzi wants Simmons’ locker room presence to be the signifier of what the Titans’ standard will be.
Brownlee didn’t fit that.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.