Ex-GM built Oilers, Titans
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Floyd Reese, the general manager who assembled the roster for the Tennessee Titans’ lone Super Bowl appearance, died Saturday. He was 73.
His family told the team of his death. Reese had cancer and was with his family when he died at his Brentwood home just south of Nashville.
Reese spent 21 years with the Oilers-Titans as a coach and executive, and he remains the winningest general manager in franchise history. He is to be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor this season.
“He built a team that saw sustained success and helped guide our franchise in the toughest of times and the highest moments,” controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk said. “His keen eye for talent led him to some of the best players in our team’s history, which led the team to some of our greatest accomplishments.”
He drafted a trio of Associated Press NFL Rookies of the Year starting with Eddie George in 1996, then Jevon Kearse in 1999 and Vince Young in 2006. He made Steve McNair, a co-NFL MVP in 2003, the No. 3 overall pick in his second draft as general manager of the then-Houston Oilers. Reese called McNair and George, the 14th pick overall in 1996, key building blocks.
Reese’s selection of Kearse at No. 16 overall in 1999 proved the final piece of the Super Bowl team. Kearse anchored the defense with 14½ sacks, still a rookie record.
The Titans went 13-3 that season reaching the Super Bowl as a wild-card team.
Tennessee went 104-72 between 1999 and 2009 for a .591 winning percentage, though Reese’s contract was not renewed after the 2006 season while Jeff Fisher remained coach. Only Indianapolis, New England, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia won more in that span than Tennessee.
Reese was linebackers coach for four seasons with the Oilers before moving to the front office in 1990 as assistant general manager. He took over as GM just as the NFL instituted the salary cap, which Reese said in 1997 was the toughest challenge he faced in that job.
Together, Reese and Fisher oversaw the franchise’s departure from Houston in July 1997. The then-Tennessee Oilers played that season in Memphis and 1998 at Vanderbilt University, with team offices behind a doctors’ building in Nashville. The team was renamed the Titans before the 1999 season.