NASHVILLE, Tenn. – When Mike Borgonzi spoke of the two holes on his offensive line at the owners meeting in March in Arizona, he said there would be options for the Titans late in the draft.
They would be able to find smart, tough players who might lack traits but could play.
Fifth-rounder Fernando Carmona, selected 142nd, and sixth-rounder Pat Coogan, picked 194th, seem to plug right into Borgonzi’s description.
“These guys have played a lot of football and they really do fit the definition of tough, smart, dependable,” Borgonzi said. “They epitomize it. Physically, with the size, I think they can come right in here and compete.”
Coogan (6-foot-5, 310 pounds) started out at Notre Dame, where he played in the 2025 National Championship Game for the Fighting Irish, and finished at Indiana, where he won the title in January.
He’s got short arms, but he brings the toughness and mentality that all good teams and good lines have. One impassioned pregame speech at Notre Dame went viral. The Titans only completed their connection with him in the last week – his 30 visit was Monday.
Pat Coogan really gave this speech vs Indiana and then transferred to Indiana 😭 pic.twitter.com/R5XucvtgmF
— Top Tier Notre Dame (@TopTierND) August 20, 2025
“I think everything that I present – smart, tough, dependable, reliable, trustworthy – it’s what this organization is about and is going to continue to be about,” Coogan said. “So I’m really just excited to get to work. That’s what it takes, it takes work. Everything is earned. No good thing comes easy. Stepping up to this league, it’s going to be hard, and that’s good.”
He’ll have a chance to play if he can beat out veteran Austin Schlottmann and perhaps Jackson Slater, who may contend for right guard instead. But former Titans scout Blake Beddingfield sees limited lateral mobility and some stiffness, and thinks Coogan will have some trouble making adjustments on the second level.
Coogan is looking forward to getting to know Carmona, who will compete at right guard with Cordell Volson and Slater.
“I met him at the combine, we were in the same group, great dude, really great dude,” Coogan said. “I don’t know him well. I am sure we’ll get really close.”
He knows another member of the draft class quite a bit better, having gone to high school with the Titans top pick, Carnell Tate.
Pat Coogan and Carnell Tate went to high school together. #Titans pic.twitter.com/jP1wz1Fz9j
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) April 25, 2026
Carmona moved from tackle to guard for his final season, and said he came to love the phone-booth, tight-quarters operations.
In draft prep, Carmona worked with veteran line coach Duke Mayweather
“Honestly, that’s one of my biggest blessings coming into this whole process,” Carmona said. “Just the knowledge that he has and the people that he’s worked with, he got to spread that wisdom onto me.”
That meant Carmona worked with top prospects Vega Ioane, Keylan Rutledge and Kadyn Proctor.
He also credited a coach from his time at San Jose State. Josh Oglesby, in helping him formulate a playing identity.
“I think the way it’s going to help me in this league, you have to be nasty,” he said. “I’m about to go up against some of the biggest freaks in the world and I got to be able to go out there and compete and get after them and that starts by being nasty.”
He took that too far in a highly publicized incident in the Liberty Bowl, when he stomped a Texas Tech opponent. Carmona apologized on social media and addressed it during his conference call.
“It’s not the kind of player I am at all and it’s something that I had to grow from and learn how to control my emotions while I’m on the field and being able to keep a level head,” he said. “I think I did a great job this past offseason working hard with some mental coaches and just trying to work on being able to stay more consistent and not go too high or go too low.
“It’s something that I’m extremely embarrassed about, and it will never happen again.”
Beddingfield said Carmona flashes the skills to be a starter.
“He just needs to be more consistent with his hand technique,” he said. “He has the size and finishes his blocks well.”
New offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo is known for his ability to develop players. In Carmona and Coogan, he isn’t getting great athletes, but he is getting tough, enthusiastic players to work with who seem to have moldable qualities.
Borgonzi in on record that the Titans can make it work with that.
“The toughness part always shows up,” Borgonzi said. “That’s the intangibles part: They're tough, they’re smart. Sometimes they are so smart that they know some of their limitations as well. They are so technically sound.
“When you have some of these guys playing next to each other, that are kind of the same way, they make up sometimes for whatever kind of limitations they might have with their toughness and their technique and their fundamentals.”