‘We’re taking the best football player’ — Titans GM Mike Borgonzi sends clearest message yet on the Jeremiyah Love vs. EDGE decision

I pressed Mike Borgonzi on premium players vs. premium positions, and his answer was illuminating.

Easton Freeze — Tennessee Titans Beat Writer
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The Tennessee Titans have a massive decision to make with the fourth overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Everything has seemingly boiled down to Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love vs. the top EDGE options in this class. Here at the annual NFL Owners Meetings in Phoenix, I spoke with Lions head coach Dan Campbell about drafting a running back like Jahmyr Gibbs—who Titans GM Mike Borgonzi compared Love to at the combine—and his comments threw fuel on this fire. Read about that right here.

Later on Monday, we caught up with Borgonzi himself. I tried to dig into his thoughts on the process behind drafting a running back so highly, and his answers to my question were pretty illuminating.

Mike Borgonzi talks premium players vs. premium positions

That is what this all boils down to: premium players versus premium positions. It’s a big positional value debate, with a financial value debate tacked on for good measure. I asked Borgonzi how he parses out better players at devalued positions vs. players a premium positions that aren’t quite at the same level of master. Without using their actual names, of course, this was a question about Love vs. EDGE thinly veiled as a general philosophy question.

“Yeah, I mean some of these guys that have the same grade of premium positions, you know, quarterbacks, tackles,” Borgonzi explained, “I always come back to say for us, where we’re at right now, We want to take the best player available right now. Depends on your roster construction as well. But you know, I would say where we’re at, we’re taking the best player available.”

I responded by attempting to clarify: so you’re not paying attention to positional value, just getting the best football player?

“I mean, it depends,” Borgonzi said, stepping back. “Everybody has different opinions on positional value. But, yeah.”

I pushed one final time: if a guy in your mind is far-and-away a better football player than another guy, you don’t really care what position they play?

Borgonzi’s response was succinct: “We’re taking the best football player.”

That… is enough to make you think! Now this time if year, you just never know. Perhaps the drumbeat of BPA, BPA, BPA is just the safe going line for this Titans front office. Perhaps it’s a fib! We are in the thick of #LyingSeason, after all. And an important note to make here is that we still do not actually know how the Titans have Love stacked against Reese, Bailey or Bain in terms of pure NFL talent. We can only assume based on how we on the outside have evaluated these players.

That consensus evaluation from the draft industrial complex, though, has Love as the second best overall player in this class at worst. Many believe he is the best. So no, I’m not ready to call these comments proof-positive of an impending Jeremiyah Love selection on draft night. I’m not all the way there on that yet.

But here is what I am taking away from this: If the Titans select somebody else over Love, they’ll need to explain why they saw that player as being better at football than Love is. This is a crystal clear flag plant from the Titans GM: we are taking the best football player. Full stop. There’s no grey area in that statement.

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