In time, Mike Borgonzi may prove to be a great NFL general manager. For now, he did the most obvious thing and took Cam Ward No. 1 overall out of Miami. There was a small chance that the Tennessee Titans were going to play with their food and take someone like Abdul Carter out of Penn State, who went No. 3 to the New York Giants a few picks later, instead. What are we even doing here?
Borgonzi appeared on Thursday's episode of The Rich Eisen Show, talking about the new franchise he works for and the status of his team's quarterback room. To put it bluntly, Borgonzi again tried to be clandestine when it comes to announcing his well-telegraphed intentions. He said that incumbent Will Levis had a shot at retaining his job. Well, why draft Ward No. 1 overall then if that were the case?
While I appreciate Borgonzi not wanting Ward to skip steps, they now work for the Titans for a reason.
"I think the expectation is, you take a quarterback No. 1 overall, that he's going to uplift your franchise and be that guy. But part of our job here is to manage expectations as we go through the process here. Eventually, that's what we want it to become. But we want to take the proper steps to make sure he's ready to go out there and play, whether it be Week 1, or Week 2, or Week 3."
Borgonzi did give us somewhat of the answer we wanted when he talked about Ward's upside.
"If he hits the ground running here in training camp, he'll be out there Week 1."
Then, he quickly countered by saying that competition will bring out the best in both quarterbacks.
"I think that the competition brings out the best in everyone. Will's a young quarterback that's still developing, but any time you take a quarterback with the No. 1 pick, your anticipation is that he's going to one day lead the franchise, and be a franchise quarterback."
Here is the clip of Borgonzi's appearance on The Rich Eisen Show where he talked about the Titans.
What would it signify to the fanbase if Levis was the one starting for the Titans in Week 1 this season?
Mike Borgonzi is fooling no one in Tennessee Titans quarterback battle
Let me put it to you this way. Borgonzi does not willingly leave a well-run front office like the one he had been a mainstay for on the Kansas City Chiefs to go to a struggling one in the Titans if you did not plan to get better at quarterback immediately. I may not be the biggest fan of Ward's game, but he projects to be a sizable upgrade over Levis. Head coach Brian Callahan also has to win in year two...
Levis offered a ton of talent as a college football star at Kentucky, but he has been consistently inconsistent whenever he does not have Liam Coen giving him the answers to the test. Unless he leaves and goes to play for the AFC South rival Jacksonville Jaguars, Coen's new employer, we may just have to accept that this is who Levis is. When it comes to Ward, we still have so much left to see.
To best tie a bow on this, anything other than seeing Ward starting Week 1 for the Titans tells us one of three things. One, the Titans are not interested in being markedly better right away this season. Two, Tennessee may still not know what it is doing because three, Ward may have been a reach as the No. 1 overall pick to begin with. You do not "unretire" Warren Moon's jersey so that Ward can ride pine.
If Ward does not beat out Levis to become the Week 1 starter, we have a huge problem on our hands.