Tennessee Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker said Tuesday he is leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities, another tidy personnel move inside a franchise where power is concentrated at the top and the people doing the work are expected to absorb the consequences. Brinker joined the Titans in 2023 and was elevated to president of football operations the following year, then watched the team go 12-39 during his time in Nashville, including 3-14 each of the last two seasons.
Who Has the Power
In January 2026, the Titans streamlined the roles for Brinker and general manager Mike Borgonzi as the team prepared to hire Robert Saleh as head coach. Borgonzi led the search that culminated in hiring Saleh. The structure was spelled out for fans by controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk, who said Borgonzi would serve as general manager “in the most traditional sense — pick and support the players, oversee the coaching staff — while Chad will continue to lead everything else about the football team.” That is the hierarchy in plain sight: the owner sets the terms, the executives shuffle responsibilities, and everyone else is left to live with the results.
Brinker framed his exit in polished corporate language, saying in a statement, “It has been an honor to serve as president of football operations of the Tennessee Titans. Over the years, I’ve understood and embraced my role as the leader of the football strategy, but as I’ve spent less time in personnel, I have a renewed conviction that it is time to return to what I love and move towards my next chapter.” The phrasing is all forward motion and self-actualization, the usual language of elite institutions when they rearrange the deck chairs and call it a transition.
The People at the Bottom Pay the Bill
The record on the field under Brinker was 12-39, with the Titans finishing 3-14 in each of the last two seasons. Those are the numbers that land on the players, the coaching staff, and the fan base, while the decision-making remains insulated in the executive suite. The article does not describe any grassroots response, mutual aid, or horizontal organizing around the team’s struggles; the only organized power on display is the franchise itself, with ownership and management controlling the direction.
Strunk thanked Brinker for his time with the franchise and praised him as “an exceptional talent with deep knowledge of the game and the ability to connect big-picture strategy to execution.” She added, “While it is difficult to lose him, I understand his decision and will do whatever I can to support him.” The language is warm, but it comes from the same top-down apparatus that decides who stays, who goes, and who gets to define success.
What They Call Order
With Borgonzi leading the Titans’ draft room, Tennessee selected Ohio State wide receiver Carnell Tate with the No. 4 overall pick in last week’s NFL draft. The draft pick is another reminder of how the machine keeps moving even as the personnel above it changes. Brinker’s departure, the January restructuring, the hiring of Saleh, and the draft all sit inside the same controlled system, where ownership, executives, and coaching hires shape the franchise while ordinary fans are asked to treat each reshuffle as meaningful progress.
Brinker’s exit leaves the Titans with another leadership vacancy in a structure that has already been reorganized in the same year. The franchise’s public statements present the change as orderly and respectful. The results on the field, and the concentration of authority behind them, tell the more revealing story.