Amy Adams Strunk had a chance to step around her general manager on the biggest decision of the Tennessee Titans’ season, and she didn’t take it. When New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh called the Titans’ controlling owner directly about Jeffery Simmons, she gave him the same answer Mike Borgonzi had already given the rest of the league: the All-Pro defensive tackle wasn’t available.
The Athletic’s Jonathan Jones reported the call in his weekly column Friday night, citing multiple sources. Giants general manager Joe Schoen had already reached Borgonzi and been told no, so Harbaugh went over both of them. One GM who heard about the call told Jones it broke the code among the league’s top football decision-makers, who only deal with each other.
Strunk left the Simmons call to Borgonzi
Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Strunk has empowered Borgonzi to make the football decisions in Nashville, and that held even with a former Super Bowl champion on the other end of the line.
It held again a few days later. After a 1-6 start, the Titans’ brain trust met Tuesday and decided to start listening on Simmons, and Borgonzi sent him to Chicago for a 2027 first-round pick, a 2028 first and a 2027 fourth, with a 2028 fifth coming back to the Bears. Chicago general manager Ryan Poles has known Borgonzi since their days at Boston College and worked alongside him in Kansas City. The Giants likely couldn’t have matched that price anyway. Jones noted New York doesn’t own a fourth- or fifth-round pick in 2027, leaving only its first three rounds as real trade currency.
There’s history between Harbaugh and the Titans, too. Tennessee had preliminary phone conversations with him in January after the Baltimore Ravens fired him, and the two sides set up an in-person interview. The Giants locked him up before he could board the plane.
Simmons was giving Tennessee plenty for its money before the deal. Through seven games he had a 76.7 PFF grade, 12th among 126 qualified interior defenders, with 24 pressures and four sacks, as we wrote this week. Moving a player like that is a statement about where the franchise stands, and Strunk let her GM make it.
Now Borgonzi holds a bounty of 2027 picks with the Titans sitting No. 2 in the draft order, and the owner just showed everyone, including a Super Bowl-winning coach in New York, who gets to spend them. The rest of the Titans trade rumors before Nov. 10 will run through him.
More on the Tennessee Titans
- 3 Bengals Weaknesses Tennessee Can Attack in Cincinnati, and 2 Titans Flaws to Cover Up
- 6 Make-or-Break Players Who Decide if the Titans Can Spring a Week 8 Upset in Cincinnati
- Cincinnati Bengals’ Passing Game Gained Its Best Chance to Break Loose With Jeffery Simmons trade
- Joe Burrow Gets a Titans Pass Defense Ranked 26th by Success Rate, and No Jeffery Simmons
