With Robert Saleh now at the helm, the Tennessee Titans have officially wrapped up their coaching staff for the 2026–27 season. The team announced its final addition to the staff on Thursday, and it’s a kind of hire that raises a few questions.

“The Titans are expected to hire Dave Borgonzi as linebackers coach, per source,” insider Tom Pelissero revealed on X. “The brother of Tennessee GM Mike Borgonzi, Dave has been a highly respected assistant for years. Now he teams up with Robert Saleh, Gus Bradley, and company in Tennessee.”

It’s not unusual for general managers to bring in coaches they know and trust, but it is certainly less common when that coach happens to be a sibling. Regardless, the connection alone doesn’t define the hire, as Dave Borgonzi brings more than 15 years of NFL experience with him.

He entered the league in 2011 as an assistant with the Cowboys, spending three seasons there before moving on, and had later stints with the Buccaneers and the Green Bay Packers, building a pretty extensive resume, before landing a larger role as linebackers coach with the Colts, a position he held for four seasons.

From there, he took the same job with the Bears from 2022 through 2024 before returning to Dallas this past season, as the team finished 7-9-1 and missed the playoffs. But Borgonzi’s reputation around the league has clearly remained intact.

Because of the family tie, there were predictable calls about nepotism, but according to reports, Mike Borgonzi removed himself entirely from the hiring process, and Dave was chosen from a pool of eight candidates after a rather competitive hiring process.

Growing up in Massachusetts, the brothers’ football connection goes way back.

Mike Borgonzi played fullback at Brown University before beginning a front-office climb that eventually led him to the Chiefs, where he became assistant general manager, and was named the Titans’ GM last year.

Even with his reported hands-off approach, the optics invite nepotism calls, but he’s not the only victim.

Robert Saleh’s new addition draws nepotism claims

The Titans made another addition to their defensive staff recently, officially announcing the hire of Ahmed Saleh, who joins as a defensive assistant under head coach Robert Saleh, his cousin.

While his coaching journey hasn’t exactly been high-profile, it has certainly been steady and extensive. He began coaching in 2018 as a defensive graduate assistant at Colorado State University but moved to Madonna University soon after, where he handled special teams coordination and coached defensive backs, followed by stops at Northern Michigan University and Wayne State University.

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His NFL exposure has come through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, spending time with the 49ers in 2021 and Green Bay in 2024, and while those roles didn’t make him a full-time NFL assistant, they did put him inside league buildings and put the ‘NFL’ stamp on his CV.

The fact that he hasn’t previously held a full-time NFL coaching job is what has fueled much of the outside criticism, and the nepotism label surfaces quickly in situations like this. Be that as it may, it’s not a new dynamic in the league.

Four years ago, seven NFL head coaches were either sons or fathers of other NFL coaches, and family ties in coaching circles are quite common. Bill Belichick brought his sons, Steve Belichick and Brian Belichick, onto his staff with the Patriots, and Pete Carroll did the same with his sons during his tenure with the Seahawks.

Whether that trend should be reevaluated is a broader conversation, but in this case, Robert Saleh, like general manager Mike Borgonzi with his own staff decisions, is operating within a pattern the league has long accepted.