Consider this the primer for a conversation that’s going to be had in Tennessee Titans circles again, and again, and again this spring.

If you are familiar with the fundamental philosophy GM Mike Borgonzi and President of Football Operations Chad Brinker have been pushing from atop the organization for over a year, you likely saw this coming. All of our focus in January has been on finding a new head coach to lead Cam Ward and company. In April, the focus will be on a second critical draft for Borgonzi’s front office.

But in the middle of these offseason landmarks lies free agency and a clash of conflicting realities. And new Head Coach Robert Saleh’s introductory press conference dropped some hints about the direction this may be going.

Borgonzi must thread the needle on ‘draft and develop’ philosophy

Here are the facts on the ground: NFL free agency begins the week of March 11th. The NFL salary cap continues to explode annually, reportedly set to cross the $300M mark for 2026 when officially set by the league office later this year. That would be a jump of $20M+ year over year, and nearly $100M more than it was in just 2022.

The NFL informed clubs today it is projecting a 2026 salary cap in the range of $301.2 million to $305.7 million per club, per source.

That would represent another significant jump from this year’s $279.2 million cap number, and nearly $100M than the $208.2M cap in 2022. pic.twitter.com/3Mr146H01C

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 30, 2026

Based on these estimates, the Titans are set to have a league-leading $100M in cap space to burn this spring, give or take a few million depending on cuts.

Borgonzi and Brinker have repeatedly hammered home their messaging on becoming a draft and develop operation. Supplement through free agency, and build the bones of your roster with premium positions in the draft. This is popular messaging from basically every front office in the league—Les Snead’s public “eff them picks” message is a rare one—but not every front office’s actions actually reflect it. The Titans keep insisting they mean it.

So herein lies the rub: how do you emphasize homegrown talent in the draft when you are retaining so few veteran contracts that you have $100M to spend in free agency? Cap rollover exists, and you certainly don’t have to spend all of it. But there are cap spending minimums to prevent teams from being full-blown cheapskate tankers, and you still have to field a professional roster at the end of the day.

So Borgonzi seems to have a square peg to try fitting into a round hole.

The Titans famously went on free agency spending spree under Ran Carthon in 2024. It was an extremely similar situation to where the Titans find themselves in 2026: league-high cap space, a barren roster thanks to compounding bad drafts, a young QB going into Year 2 with promise. It was ultimately a very ill-advised attempt to kick-start the Will Levis era while he was on a rookie contract.

The Titans will be trying to achieve the same general end goal with Ward in 2026, though you’d have to think their methods will differ.

Carthon’s two biggest splashes in 2024 were at premium positions. Tennessee came somewhat out of nowhere to win the bidding war for WR Calvin Ridley, and they traded a third round pick to the Chiefs (a deal negotiated by then-Chiefs executive Mike Borgonzi) for the rights to sign CB L’Jarius Sneed to a monster new deal. Those two contracts had a sticker price of nearly $170M combined.

The rest is history, as Sneed’s injury-riddled tenure is coming to a brutal end and Ridley’s future is up in the air after two downright disappointing seasons.

The 2026 Titans’ most glaring needs are at three premium positions: EDGE, CB, and WR. It will be temping to try throwing giant chunks of money at these problems. But I have heard both Borgonzi and Brinker say more than once, directly to my face, that we all know how “winning” free agency with giant spending sprees very rarely works. It’s bad process.

Robert Saleh’s intro presser added a new wrinkle to this situation. I was unable to attend this event due to prior Senior Bowl commitments, but I’ve spoken to  A to Z Sports coworkers and other colleagues who made it. One of their biggest takeaways from three different settings with Saleh and Titans leadership? Just how much they mentioned Amy Adams Strunk’s commitment to this offseason.

The number one commitment an owner can make to new staff is cash. She’s expressed consistent faith in Brinker and Borgonzi, and if she has Saleh convinced she’s going to give them the resources they need to fix this roster, I feel pretty good in saying they won’t be sticking to just small contracts in March.

As we near this part of the calendar, I’ll have plenty more to say on what I think their philosophy needs to be and which players on the market fit that. Generally speaking, I feel strongly about the philosophy that free agency must be used on non-premium positions and cheaper volume at premium ones. Set your floor by throwing bodies at CB and EDGE in March, by all means. But your star premium swings need to come in the draft.

I know the Titans front office generally agrees with this sentiment. But with so much cash to spend, I eagerly await seeing how this spring looks different from 2024.