INDIANAPOLIS — Having the No. 1 pick in the draft made first-year Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi a popular guy at the NFL combine here last week.

It’s early in the process, and according to team sources, the Titans are undecided which direction they’ll go with the top selection.

Free agency starts next week, and if they get a veteran quarterback, it will tip their hand. But one thing is certain: The leadership group of the Titans believes there are good players at the top of this draft at a couple of positions.

Tennessee is one of five quarterback-needy teams picking in the top 10, but Colorado‘s Shedeur Sanders and Miami‘s Cam Ward are the only signal-callers considered worthy of top-10 picks.

The Titans met with both quarterbacks in Indianapolis, and they plan to host each of them and the consensus top two prospects (Penn State pass rusher Abdul Carter and Heisman Trophy-winning Colorado defensive back/wide receiver Travis Hunter) at their facility.

That will give Titans brass a chance to see how they interact with the staff. It’s a full day’s visit as opposed to the introductory 20 minutes teams get with players at the combine.

Sanders and Ward are coming to Nashville this week. Carter is set to meet with the team early next week. A scheduling conflict pushed Tennessee’s meeting with Hunter back to later this month.

The Titans will want to carefully consider Carter’s stress fracture (right foot) that held him out of the combine to feel comfortable taking him with the top pick.

Tennessee coach Brian Callahan said during his combine media availability that the team already has discussed how it would manage Hunter’s workload if they selected him and employed the two-way player on offense and defense.

So, what will the Titans do with the No. 1 pick in next month’s NFL draft? Here’s what we are hearing:

How the league views the Titans’ choices at No. 1

Tennessee’s plan for the No. 1 pick was a frequent talking point inside the halls of the Indiana Convention Center as executives, scouts and coaches bustled from adjacent Lucas Oil Stadium to various meetings as part of the NFL combine.

A few themes emerged from talks with dozens of league personnel:

• Ward is the consensus No. 1 quarterback in the draft — by a comfortable margin, according to some. But Sanders’ pocket-passing ability as a deft processor is appreciated and will make for an easy NFL transition, thus he becomes a slightly better fit for a Brian Callahan offense in Tennessee, according to multiple scouts.

• Those same people believe the Titans’ three primary options will be Ward, Carter and trading out of the top spot.

• The majority of league personnel surveyed by ESPN believe Tennessee prefers to trade out.

• Questions abound about how eager teams will really be to trade into the No. 1 spot. The New York Giants (No. 3) and New York Jets (No. 7) are among teams that have interest in moving up, according to ESPN senior national NFL writer Dan Graziano. But some around the league question whether the talent in this draft necessitates a move, due largely to the lack of top-end quarterback prospects.

The Titans have at least six weeks to sort through it all. The sense in talking to multiple sources with the Titans is the franchise will conduct a thorough process before coming to a decision.

The Titans face a lengthy rebuild, and while a young quarterback with upside can expedite that process, so can more draft capital. The Titans are projected to have around 22 picks through the next three years, and Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker stated a desire to make 30 picks over the next three years, with 12 of them being in the top 100. It’s a part of the Titans’ formula to “draft, develop and retain.”

But Tennessee currently has two picks in the top 100 (Nos. 1 and 35), so trading back would give them more picks to get closer to those figures.

The Titans have made it known they’re open for business. But that doesn’t mean they’ll entertain just any offer.

“If someone’s trading up for a quarterback, that means there’s a lot of value in it,” Borgonzi said. “It could be another position as well too. Anytime you trade out of the No. 1 pick, you expect a big return.”

Trading back offers Tennessee the chance to replenish an uneven roster and still get an impact player — perhaps Sanders at QB — somewhere in the top 10.

Multiple evaluators polled believe a package of picks — say, a future second-rounder and an early Day 3 pick — might be enough for a team such as the Giants to move from No. 3 to No. 1. Teams picking high might be hesitant to part with a future first-rounder, given that those teams aren’t slam dunks to be in contention a year from now and might hold onto prime positioning in the 2026 draft.

“What they do in free agency might inform what their plans are for the top pick,” a high-ranking personnel man with an NFL team said of the Titans. “If they go and sign, say, Sam Darnold, they might feel less of a need to draft a quarterback high.”

Darnold is considered the top free agent quarterback and could command a contract worth more than $30 million per year. Among available options are Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, Justin Fields, Daniel Jones and Jimmy Garoppolo. The Titans have not declared their intentions on which veteran they prefer, but they are expected to sign one, which could have implications for last year’s starting QB.

“[Will] Levis could be the odd man out in that equation,” a veteran NFL personnel man said. “I think they are tired of the backbreaking turnovers.”

Levis was 2-10 as a Titans starter last season and had 18 turnovers (12 interceptions, six fumbles) and 13 touchdown passes.

Meanwhile, Ward’s stature appears to be growing through the process, not just because of his physical traits but his personality and presence.

One NFL front office member marveled at Ward’s resolve when recalling the Miami-Georgia Tech game Nov. 9 on a gray day in Atlanta. Ward’s Hurricanes were behind 21-10 in the third quarter when he put the offense on his back, orchestrating two touchdown drives with a series of impressive throws. Miami ended up suffering its first loss of the season, 28-23, but the executive noted Ward was a fiery competitor who remained levelheaded amid chaos.

“He really impressed me that day,” the executive said of Ward. “He was very comfortable in that setting, having to bring his team back in a big-time environment.”

Another executive who was in attendance that day: Brinker.

One AFC executive said he would rank Ward fifth if the Miami quarterback had been dropped into last year’s star-studded quarterback class — just behind Bo Nix but ahead of Michael Penix Jr. and J.J. McCarthy.

Of some importance to the Titans isn’t just how much Ward impresses them but how much he has impressed the Cleveland Browns (with the No. 2 pick) and the Giants. The feeling around the league is the Browns will be very tempted to take a quarterback.

“They’ve put themselves in a position to have to take one,” a national NFL scout said of Cleveland. “They need a college QB because of the cost control and the money they owe Deshaun [Watson]. But they are one team that will do anything, make any trade, so it feels like anything is possible with them.”

Meanwhile, the Giants also are looking for quarterback help. Exclusive rights free agent Tommy DeVito is the only Giants quarterback under contractual control.

“They’ve put themselves in a position to have to take one,” the scout said of New York.

The prevailing theme out of the combine was the Giants would renew focus on Ward or Sanders since the Matthew Stafford trade fell through. Wilson considers the Giants an option in free agency. And Rodgers to the Giants has gotten some traction in league circles as a possibility that both team and player would consider.

“[Rodgers] could stick it to the [Jets], not have to move from his New Jersey home, and he was known in Green Bay as welcoming rookies and young players with open arms,” a veteran NFL agent said. “I think he’d be a good quarterback to be a one-year bridge to a draft pick.”

The hierarchy in Tennessee plays a pivotal role here. In late January 2024, the Titans promoted Brinker to president of football operations, promoted Ran Carthon to executive vice president/general manager and hired Callahan as coach. Tennessee fired Carthon less than a year later, prompting Brinker to run a GM search that landed on Kansas City Chiefs assistant general manager Borgonzi. While controlling team owner Amy Adams Strunk was the common thread in all of these decisions, Brinker was a heavier influence in Borgonzi’s hire than he was with Callahan, given Carthon’s absence in the process.

That’s not to say Callahan doesn’t have support in the building. Callahan is well-respected there and has kept his staff largely intact. But he is a second-year coach coming off a three-win season while Borgonzi gets a fresh start. Such uneven timelines can work but don’t always work. Tennessee’s strategy over the next two months, including at the quarterback position, will show whether it is all-in to help Callahan now or embarking on a rebuild that is typically difficult for coaches to survive.

The view from Nashville

Taking a quarterback with the top pick requires short- and long-term considerations. But Callahan may not have much time left if he struggles in 2025.

Despite that, Callahan said he won’t allow his immediate future to influence what he believes the Titans should do. Callahan believes obtaining and coaching as many good players as possible will yield the desired results.

And there’s a degree of intrigue with the potential Ward possesses.

“You’ve got to do your best to find which quarterback is best for your football team whether it’s immediately or down the road,” Callahan said. “You never want to sacrifice what you think is ready now versus what could be a great player.”

Borgonzi has seen it before: A prospect that has areas for improvement but brings tremendous upside to the table. In 2017, Borgonzi and the Chiefs took a dynamic quarterback out of Texas Tech named Patrick Mahomes.

The Chiefs focused on what Mahomes could do best when evaluating him and believed they could fix the things he needed to improve upon. Their approach worked, as shown by the seven consecutive AFC Championship Game appearances since Mahomes took over as the starter in 2018.

“Some things you would look at [with Mahomes] coming out of college and you’d be like, ‘Man, we got to fix that,'” Callahan explained. “But it ultimately ends up being what’s one of his superpowers as a quarterback is the ability to create and do things off the structure that when you watch him on tape in college, you were like, ‘Man, how do you rein that in?’ And the answer is you don’t want to.”

Like Mahomes, there are questions about Ward’s gunslinger approach and tendency to play out of structure. But Ward appears to have a higher ceiling than Sanders, and he won over Titans coaches in Indianapolis.

The Titans’ brass believed Ward checked all of the boxes during their meeting at the combine and seemed like a fit for the Titans, if he were the pick.

“Ward’s got that grit and determination to prove other people wrong where he wasn’t highly recruited and had to go to Incarnate Word, go to Washington State and then every place he was at Miami, he performed at a high level,” Borgonzi said during the combine.

The Titans could sign a veteran quarterback and still draft Ward or Sanders. Tennessee will have some interest if Darnold hits free agency. But that’s only at the right price — in the $30 million per year range, according to a team source.

play

Darnold or McCarthy? Schefter details Vikings’ QB decision

Adam Schefter joins Pat McAfee to discuss how the free agency market is affecting the Vikings’ quarterback decision of Sam Darnold or J.J. McCarthy.

Borgonzi told ESPN such a scenario only works if they have the right veteran. He wants someone that is willing to help groom a young quarterback despite knowing he’ll eventually take over as the starter. That’s what the Chiefs had with Alex Smith when they drafted Mahomes.

Levis, who is the only quarterback under contract, will get an opportunity to compete for the job with whoever they bring in, according to the Titans.

The Sanders meeting at the combine was the second in-person interaction. They also met in January at the East-West Shrine Bowl. Both went well, according to team sources.

“He’s mature and has a really poised way about him,” Callahan said after their first meeting. “You could tell he’s a guy who has been in the spotlight and knows how to handle himself.”

Sanders’ three best attributes — processing, timing and accuracy — are the pillars Callahan emphasizes in quarterback play. This is one reason some believe Sanders would be the better fit for Callahan’s scheme. But scheme fit doesn’t cement Sanders as the pick.

“I would never pass up talent for what is thought of as a system fit,” Callahan told ESPN. “You have to have a system or something that guides your thought process. But talent always supersedes that. Our job is to highlight that talent and put a player in the best position to succeed.”

If the Titans decide not to trade back, Carter, Hunter, Sanders and Ward are the most likely prospects to be the first pick, and team sources have indicated to ESPN that Ward would likely be the pick if the Titans stay put.

The Titans have a lot of holes to fill and limited resources over the first two days of the draft to address them. While there’s always pressure to win in the NFL, the current staff believes they don’t have to take a hurried approach to building the roster.

“We want to build it the right way,” Borgonzi said at the combine. “If we think a quarterback is the right decision at that time, we’re going to take it. If we don’t think so, then we’re going to fill another void on the roster to try to help us out. But we’re certainly not going to make rash decisions just because we’re trying to fix every hole here in a matter of three months.”