Titans hire Dave Gardi as executive VP of football operations
The former NFL senior VP of football operations becomes Brian Callahan's most experienced front-office partner as Tennessee tries to rebuild around No. 1 pick Cam Ward.
The Tennessee Titans announced Wednesday that Dave Gardi has been hired as executive vice president of football operations. Gardi spent the past 12 years at NFL headquarters in New York, most recently as senior vice president of football operations under commissioner Roger Goodell. He starts in Nashville on June 1.
What will Gardi actually do?
He oversees the non-football side of football operations: cap management, contract structures, league-policy compliance, and the operational side of football decisions. He reports directly to controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk, not general manager Mike Borgonzi. The structure is unusual in that it places Gardi parallel to the GM rather than below him, mirroring the Eagles' system where Howie Roseman has Don Smolenski as a parallel business-side counterpart.
Why did the Titans need this role?
Tennessee has cycled through three GMs in seven years and one head coach (Mike Vrabel) being fired despite a winning record. The franchise has lost institutional memory each time. Gardi gives ownership a stable, league-experienced voice that survives any future personnel change. The Titans' new stadium opens in 2027 and Super Bowl LXIV is set for Nashville in 2030; the operational complexity is increasing.
What is Gardi's NFL background?
He spent 18 years total in league offices: six with the Jets and 12 with the NFL. At league HQ he oversaw player discipline appeals, gambling enforcement, the Personal Conduct Policy, and rules competition committee operations. He was in the room for the 2020 CBA negotiation and was the league's point person on the 2022 Watson discipline case. His departure has been telegraphed for over a year.
How does this affect Brian Callahan?
Callahan stays as head coach in his second year. The Titans went 3-14 in 2025 and missed the playoffs by 11 games but Callahan's offensive system around rookie Cam Ward (No. 1 overall pick in 2026) is the long-term project the franchise is betting on. Gardi gives Callahan and Borgonzi the institutional structure to focus on football rather than salary cap mechanics.
What's the bigger picture for Tennessee?
Tennessee's 2026 offseason was about resetting the foundation. They drafted Ward first overall, hired Gardi, and continued to build out a young roster. Vegas opens the Titans at +25000 to win Super Bowl LXI, the longest odds in football. Ownership's focus is 2028 and beyond, when the new stadium opens and Ward enters his third NFL season. Gardi's three-year contract aligns with that horizon.
Players in this story
Sources
- Tennessee Titans: Titans hire Dave Gardi as executive VP of football operations
- NFL.com: Tennessee Titans hire Dave Gardi as EVP of football operations
- NBC Sports: Dave Gardi joins Tennessee Titans front office
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