The Tennessee Titans have found their new general manager after the team made the hiring of former San Francisco 49ers director of player personnel Ran Carthon official on Wednesday.
Carthon is the 15th general manager in franchise history and will now be tasked with turning around a Titans team that finished 7-10 in 2022.
The situation is a fairly ideal one for a first-year GM, as Tennessee doesn’t need a full rebuild and can retool and be right back to contender status in 2023. That said, nobody can guarantee what the approach will be.
The reviews for the hire have been all positive, as Carthon is well-respected around the league and is considered a rising star. Hopefully that will translate to success in Nashville, but only time will tell.
Now that the Titans have found their new lead man in the front office in Carthon, our staff is weighing in on the move.
Ryan Sikes
I really like the Ran Carthon hiring for the Tennessee Titans. He’s a guy with a nose on NFL draft-eligible talent, which should in turn help to create more hits in upcoming draft classes.
I also like that he’s coming into the Titans’ organization with fresh eyes and will be able to provide some new direction working alongside head coach Mike Vrabel.
The first move Carthon makes this offseason will be very telling of his approach as a former outsider who now has his hands in the weeds with a Titans organization faced with several difficult decisions to make.
Tyler Rowland
The Tennessee Titans got a good one — Ran Carthon was born for this. Child to an NFL player, raised in football like Bane was raised in darkness.
Carthon had a coffee cup in the league as a player, but football operations was his destiny. Carthon has been a scout and has run pro personnel, with the range of focus going from college reports to juggling trades, free agency and waivers throughout his career. He’s done it all, and at 42 years old he has a modern view of the league that the Titans desperately need.
Coming over from San Francisco, Carthon can lead the Titans down one of two paths that ultimately make sense for the Titans, but also may end up being necessary.
They can go down the re-tool path. Carthon was involved in veteran trades for players like Trent Williams and Cristian McCaffery, so he potentially has a knack for grabbing key vets.
On the flip side, he has experience with trading up for a young quarterback or nailing early picks in the draft on guys like Nick Bosa. Either way, he not only knows how to do it, but has done it enough to learn from it.
Carthon has also seen the “head coach hired first” model work brilliantly in San Fran, and that’s the model the Titans are using now. The Titans want to be like the 49ers when they grow up and Carthon may be the perfect guy to lead them there.
Shaun Calderon
The Titans finally did what was best for the franchise and went out of their safe zone to find the best man for their general manager job.
Ran Carthon was one of my main preferences from the start due to his extensive and impressive resume at such a young age. As the director of player personnel with the 49ers, he undoubtedly played an integral role in building what they’ve become over the last few years.
This is an exciting move for a Titans fan base that’s now filled with some much-needed optimism after a demoralizing 2022 season. I can’t wait to see what direction Carthon takes the Titans over the coming months and years.
Mike Moraitis
What is there not to like about this move?
Carthon is a true football guy (he was doing mock drafts as early as 10 years old), born in a football family. He’s the son of a former player and coach, so he understands several different aspects of a team.
Well-respected around the NFL, Carthon brings a wealth of experience. On top of his playing days, Carthon has been scouting talent in the NFL for 15 years, and he has had success in that area with the San Francisco 49ers.
Perhaps my favorite thing about this hire is it comes from outside the team. The Titans desperately needed a fresh voice, and Carthon should give it to them, along with a more modern approach to finding players.
And, by all accounts, Carthon is the collaborator Amy Adams Strunk was looking for, but he’ll also challenge head coach Mike Vrabel, who shares a similar philosophy to Carthon’s.
All in all, this was a home run hire.
3 things on new Titans GM Ran Carthon …
1) Grew up in Parcells football family, which Mike Vrabel, Bill Belichick’s old edge rusher, is adjacent to.
2) Prioritizes toughness in players. Titans’ identity won’t change.
3) Will challenge Vrabel, like Vrabel does others.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 18, 2023
