The Tennessee Titans’ 2025 NFL Draft strategy seemed simple enough: Pursue players with character, football intelligence and a love of the game.
The Titans front office, reeling from three consecutive losing seasons, wasn’t shy about it, either, apparently deciding those are the qualities required to rebuild a franchise that settled to the bottom of the NFL last year.
It started Thursday night when the Titans did what everyone knew was coming and selected quarterback Cam Ward at No. 1 overall.
It continued on the draft’s second day with outside linebacker Femi Oladejo and safety Kevin Winston. While there might be some question about their immediate impact – Oladejo recently made a position switch from inside linebacker to edge, and Winston could miss time while still recovering from knee surgery – the Titans believe their talent and the targeted intangibles make the potential payoff worth waiting for.
“You want to change the culture of a program, you take guys like that, that love football, love the process,” new Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi says. “It’s a big part of it. Obviously, they’ve got to be good football players, but that part of it where once you start stacking guys in the locker room that all love football, they work, they hold each other accountable, then they really police themselves in the locker room. That’s how you change the culture.”
Work the plan
That process continued through Day Three of the draft and, assistant general manager Dave Ziegler says, it won’t be changing anytime soon, as the Titans attempt to restore themselves back to contention.
“I think it’s a pretty strong (emphasis) and I think it will continue to be that way. I think some of the places we’ve been – Mike, myself, (Titans president) Chad (Brinker) – and some of the organizations we’ve been with that have won and won consistently, you kind of see how culture impact that,” Ziegler says. “How much guys truly love the game, because guys that love the game are passionate about getting better. They’re motivated to improve. They elevate their teammates around them.”
The Titans are really back to a strategy that brought them success about a decade ago when former general manager Jon Robinson boldly stated multiple times that he wanted to build around guys who “loved ball.”
That strategy worked until the Titans somehow got away from it. They went from drafting high-character, smart football guys like Derrick Henry and Kevin Byard who loved football and helped reset the team’s fortunes beginning in 2016. The Titans then fell into the trap of being more tantalized by talent and overlooking things like injuries or character.
So, the question becomes how do you avoid such things as you rebuild a roster? Caleb Farley certainly had high character, but his injury history should have been a major red flag. How do teams avoid the pitfalls of talented guys like Isaiah Wilson (a first-round pick in 2020 from Georgia who played four career snaps) and Kevin Dodd (a linebacker taken in the second round in 2016, waived after failing to report to training camp in 2018) who simply had no drive for football in them? Can it be avoided, as the Titans hope they have done in the 2025 draft?
Look for the clues
Titans senior national scout Sam Summerville, who oversees the eastern half of the country in the department, says there are clues to be found in evaluations.
“I think that football character is something you can obviously see with the way we drafted this year,” Summerville says. “That’s something that is very important to (Borgonzi). All these guys we picked have extremely high-level football character. They’re captains on their team, leadership, their passion for the game shows in the way they play the game, the way they practice, the way their teammates talk about them.
“Those are things that I think are extremely important. And when we go out looking at players, that’s the starting point.”
Mike Boni, senior national scout for the western half of the U.S., also says such things do show up on film, practice preparation and in their interactions with teammates.
“You see football character show up on tape, how hard they play, their motor, their hustle. Their preparation for the game through the week will show up,” Boni says.
Summerville admits some guys are good at faking the passion for the game, and identifying them isn’t difficult.
“It’s easy to know that guy does love football,” Summerville says. “I think guys are able to fake sometimes the actual passion for the game, and it can be misconstrued sometimes as a guy loving the game. But there’s a difference between loving football and loving what football can bring to you.
“Football is hard, and playing in the NFL is hard. There’s going to be a lot of criticism, not only from your family members, your coaching staff and not only your team and organization, but criticism coming from all different areas whenever you do something right, wrong or indifferent.
“There’s the mental fatigue that comes from it. There’s psychological fatigue that comes from it, and there’s obviously the physical wear and tear on your body,” Summerville adds. “If you don’t love football, all that becomes exponentially harder. Having a guy that has passion for the game, that’s when you know they’re going to take the extra step.”