Sarah Bailey

In the days following the 2026 NFL Draft, there was an early rumor that the Titans were making additions to their scouting staff (via Titans insider Paul Kuharsky). Nearly two weeks later, the Titans finally announced a number of changes to their front office.

The updates included only two external additions of note; Shane Normandeau has been hired to join the Titans as director, pro scout, and Shepley Heard has been named an area scout for Tennessee. Normandeau has been enjoying a return to the personnel side of things as a pro scout for the Vikings the past two seasons after working for two years as football operations coordinator in Cleveland. He joined the Browns as a scouting assistant, holding that role for two years seasons following a football operations internship with the Colts.

Heard is arriving in Nashville following a 21-year tenure with the Falcons. Starting as a scouting assistant in 2005, Heard served two years as a pro scout before spending the next four years as an area scout. He worked the next six years as a regional scout, splitting him time covering the east and west regions, and was promoted to director of pro personnel in 2019. After Terry Fontenot took over as general manager two years later, Heard was demoted down to area scout, where he remained until getting let go after the draft.

There were several promotions in the personnel department. Assistant director of college scouting Mike Boni was named director, college scouting, coordinator, scouting Patrick Woo was named manager, college/pro scouting, regional Wes Slay was named national scout, scouting assistants Alex Kline and Geo Leins were named pro scout and area scout, respectively, executive assistant to the general manager Kristen Van Iderstine was named coordinator, player personnel, and coaches assistant Kevin Perez replaced Van Iderstine as executive assistant to the general manager.

Boni has 20 years of NFL experience with nine in Tennessee. Turning to scouting after coaching at the high school and Division III college levels, Boni spent two years in minor roles in Buffalo before working nine seasons with the Cardinals, two as an NFS scout and seven as an east area scout. He joined the Titans in 2018 as a college scout, moved up to national scout in 2019, and was promoted to senior national scout in 2024 and his most recent role last year.

Woo started as a recruiting intern at Penn State before working as a scouting coordinator for the Senior Bowl. He found his way to the Titans in 2018 and was promoted to college scouting coordinator a year later. He earned a second promotion to his most recent role, and this year’s elevation is already his third in Tennessee. Slay is entering his 13th season with the Titans after joining the team in 2014 as a scouting assistant. He was promoted to midwest area scout before landing in his most recent role.

Kline and Leins were additions to the Titans front office last year. Kline turned to the personnel side of things after his career as a player led him first to coaching. He worked as director of player personnel at Memphis and director of college scouting at Pitt before joining the Titans. Leins also originally came out of college with recruiting roles at Campbell, UCLA, Wake Forest, and NC State. He debuted in the NFL in 2023 as a scouting assistant with the Dolphins before joining the Titans last year.

Van Iderstine has started her climb up the personnel ladder after joining the team last year. She had previously worked a scouting combine internship and Norma Hunt fellowship with the Chiefs and had collegiate experience as director of football administration at Brown and associate director of football recruiting operations at Stanford. Her replacement, Perez, joined the Titans last year after working equipment and football operations internships with the Jaguars every year since 2020.

In operations, the Titans promoted team operations assistants Nick Hardesty and Kieran Gilbert to director, team operations, and coordinator, team operations, respectively, and assistant to the president of football operations Nicole Kesten to chief of staff, football. Hardesty earns his promotion after five years with the team with prior experience in football operations with the Volunteers in Knoxville. Kesten started her NFL career in Tennessee two years ago as the senior executive assistant to the president of football operations, earning title bumps in each subsequent offseason.

Lastly, in the data analytics department, out is director of football research and development Sarah Bailey, according to ESPN’s Seth Walder. Bailey joined the Titans in 2023, coming over from Los Angeles, where she started in 2017 as a football analyst for the Rams before being promoted to manager – football analytics in 2020. The team also announced that chief of staff of football strategy Bryce Wasserman has been promoted to football counsel/head of football research. This is his third promotion in four years after coming into the role of director of team strategy in 2023.