Nobody saw Chad Brinker’s Tuesday night resignation coming.

Well, nobody outside the Titans building at least. It was an abrupt front office shake-up that hit like whiplash on the heels of the draft weekend. Brinker, the President of Football Operations who had worked his way up the ladder from when he was hired to be assistant GM to Ran Carthon just three years ago, announced he’s stepping away.

All of the talk in the wake of this announcement is centering on Brinker’s time here in Tennessee, and the tumultuous conversation surrounding the ever-shifting power structure within the front office. This is just the latest in a string of rotating responsibilities. Some are happy to see Brinker go. Others are still wondering aloud what impact he actually had on this current iteration of the front office.

I’d like to take a moment to focus on what it means for GM Mike Borgonzi, who is now left to be the sole captain of this ship. This changes his role, both from a functional standpoint as well as an optical/narrative one. I find the changes to his actual daily activities to be pretty interesting, but I’m even more curious about how this sets him up narratively. Because it may sound harsh at first, but it’s true: Brinker’s departure can only hurt Borgonzi’s image.

GM Mike Borgonzi’s reputation is about to be tested

Chad Brinker’s stated reason for resigning now that the player acquisition cycle is over is simple: he’s a born and bred personnel man, and his job with the Titans was drifting further and further away from personnel. He cut his teeth in the Green Bay system, dreaming one day of getting to sit in the GM chair. When he left his football home with the Packers to become the AGM of the Titans, he thought he was taking the next career step towards becoming a GM candidate.

But life in Tennessee threw him more curveballs than anybody could have anticipated. People have a wide variety of opinions on how Brinker rose in Tennessee. The easy, cynical way to view it will always be that he clawed his way to the top, hungry for power. I believe the truth is a far less malicious. I believe he was extremely competent in very important areas, and Amy Adams Strunk trusted him to do the important stuff more than she trusted others. If you’ve ever climbed the ranks quickly in your line of work, you know that it’s usually due to the fact that you’ve made yourself highly useful to the right people.

I can’t yet say I know what forces played into this resignation. The charitable read is that he was in a dead-end position for somebody who wants to be a GM, and he’s resetting his career and love of the sport to get back on a GM candidate path. I think no matter what else may have impacted this move, this is a fundamental truth at the heart of his decision. But I can’t say I know for sure that it’s the only thing that went into this. Plenty will speculate on that in the days to come. I’d rather wait to see what I hear first.

Here’s what I will say today, though: Mike Borgonzi no longer has a shield for his reputation to hide behind. To be clear, he hasn’t been cowering behind Brinker. Borgonzi hasn’t had much of a say in this at all. This part of his optics has been out of his control. He’s just been a beneficiary of Brinker’s existence.

Chad Brinker carried the stink and skepticism that the years before Borgonzi’s arrival had bred in this fanbase. Borgonzi was hired by Brinker, and has thus far remained pure as the driven snow in the eyes of the public. He’s earned a good chunk of the praise he’s received, of course. He has (so far, seemingly) drafted well. He’s been process-oriented to a fault. He’s been well-spoken at the podium, and he’s added quality veterans with generally responsible roster and cap management. Early in his GM tenure, so far so good!

But there’s no doubt that Brinker has been the one handling the dirtiest jobs with the public. He’s been the one set up to answer for every organizational decision. He’s been the one ceremonially trotted out to handle the tough press conferences. We all joked about how useless Borgonzi was made to seem in some of these dual press conferences, where Brinker fielded tough questions and the GM sat in for… moral support? Fans have been happy to lay anything that has gone wrong in the past couple years at the feet of Chad and Amy. Fair or not, he has been a catch-all scapegoat.

Now, Brinker’s not around to be that anymore. Borgonzi is the only man in charge. He’s the one who has to answer for everything, good and bad. And as competent as the Borgonzi tenure has been so far from a roster standpoint, there is no question of if something is going to go wrong. In the NFL, it’s just a matter of when. I’ll tell you this much: everything seems rosy right now thanks to an exciting new coaching, free agent, and draft class coming it. This is a season for hope. But once the Fall rolls around, here’s a sobering fact: this franchise cannot go into another trade deadline already out of the playoff race. That won’t fly. Borgonzi and his staff know this.

As for Borgonzi’s actual job changing, I think he’s going to have do handle a lot more administrative duties and forward-facing “commander of the troops” responsibilities than before. When people say Borgo is the type to lock himself in the film room and grind tape all day, that’s not an exaggeration. He was hired to be a “super scout” type, and that he is. But now not only does he have to oversee all of the football administrative things that Brinker had a hand in (facilites, security, analytics, medical, etc.), but he also probably has to be a more active presence around the office.

Do I think he’s incapable of that? No, I have no reason to. But I don’t think it’s been how he’s operated to this point. So it’s going to be an adjustment, and some of it may involve Borgonzi having to step out of his comfort zone. How will he handle that? And how will his sterling reputation handle 100% of the slings and arrows for this franchise now that Brinker is gone? Only time will tell. I pray Amy Adams Strunk gives him plenty of it.