Titans GM Mike Borgonzi Shares What Led to Amani Hooker Trade

The Tennessee Titans said goodbye to another high-performing player before the trade deadline. 

This time, it was safety Amani Hooker. Hooker was traded to the Buffalo Bills on Tuesday for a second-round pick. 

The Titans are now without two defensive leaders after trading away Jeffery Simmons and Hooker. 

Hooker didn't have all the Pro Bowls and All-Pro nods that Simmons had, but he was a valuable player nonetheless. He leads the NFL with five interceptions after picking off Joe Burrow three times in the Week 8 loss. 

It made sense that the Titans decided to trade Hooker. The team isn't competitive right now at 1-7. The games have been closer, but the Titans still can't find a way to win football games. 

Because of this, the team has tried to gain as much draft capital as possible ahead of the 2027 NFL Draft. General Manager Mike Borgonzi made it clear that his goal was to get at least 12 top-100 picks in the first three years of his tenure with the Titans. 

On Wednesday, the General Manager spoke to the media about his trade deadline moves. He shared that, as with Simmons, the plan wasn't originally to trade Hooker. 

It seems that Bills GM Brandon Beane made him an offer he couldn't turn down, just like Bears GM Ryan Poles did with the Simmons trade. 

Borgonzi had received calls from Beane leading up to the trade deadline on Hooker but had turned them down. They then ran into each other at the Notre Dame-Miami game over the weekend, and Beane eventually upped his offer to one the Titans couldn't turn down. 

"You know, just like the same situation with Jeff, you know, we weren't looking to move Hook," Borgonzi said. "We had some calls on him. You know, Brandon Beane from Buffalo had called me for really the last week on it, and I said no at the time. Ran into him at the Notre Dame-Miami game the other night. Said he'd stay in touch and, you know, it came together pretty fast. So, he called me around 11:30 in the morning yesterday, 12, probably noon. And he just came out with an offer. We went back and forth, you know; we felt like it was the best decision really at the time to, you know, much like Jeff, to really accumulate draft capital, you know, accelerate the process here to really build this thing here." 

The Titans were in a position to be a seller at the trade deadline. They lived up to that label by sending Simmons and Hooker to contenders. 

Losing players of that quality is never fun. A lot of Titans fans revered Simmons and Hooker because of the impact they had off the field as well.

At the end of the day, the Titans need to get draft picks to try to get back to winning ways. This team hasn't had a winning season since 2021. 

The Titans are on the verge of another losing season in 2026. Borgonzi is trying to expedite the process of this rebuild with extra draft capital. 

Borgonzi has had success with recent drafts. The Titans will need him to continue that trend if they want to get back to the postseason.