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Before Brian Daboll was in full-bloom love with Jaxson Dart, he tried to con the Titans into letting Cam Ward slip into his hands with the Giants.
The irony, of course, is that Daboll now is coaching Ward as Titans offensive coordinator after he was fired as Giants head coach during Dart’s rookie year.
“Brian actually tried to convince me not to take him last year and I still joke with him about that,” Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi said Wednesday on NFL Network.
How exactly did that conversation go?
“I was coming back from getting a coffee,” Borgonzi laughed, implying the conversation happened at the 2025 NFL Combine, “and he sits me down on the wall and he’s like trying to tell me to take somebody else. He’s talking up this player. It didn’t work, Dabes.”
Who could that mystery player have been?
Heisman Trophy-winning two-way unicorn Travis Hunter, who had a disappointing injury-plagued rookie season for the Jaguars after he was the No. 2 pick?
Pass-rusher Abdul Carter, who the Giants ultimately took with the No. 3 pick? Dart, who the Giants took after trading up to No. 25?
Had the Titans passed on Ward, the Browns would have likely taken him without trading the No. 2 pick to the Jaguars.
The Giants tried to trade up from No. 3 to No. 1 and reportedly offered their 2026 first-round pick to get Ward but the Titans never budged.
It worked out well for the Giants (not so well for Daboll) because Dart actually had the better rookie season and Carter came on strong late in the season.
Borgonzi and Daboll go back at least to 2012, when the former was a pro scout for the Chiefs and the latter was their offensive coordinator under head coach Romeo Crennel.
And now Titans head coach Robert Saleh has the quarterback (Ward) that he was hoping Zach Wilson would be during his tenure with the Jets, as well as the experienced offensive play-caller (Daboll) that he hopes can develop him.
Daboll also brought former Giants quarterbacks coach Shea Tierney with him to the Titans.
“They spent time with (Ward) last offseason,” Borgonzi said. “They had a vision for him. That’s important.”