The new Tennessee Titans GM is the SF 49ers director of player personnel Ran Carthon. Earlier in the day, the Tennessee Titans narrowed their General Manager search to three. Then, surprisingly, owner Amy Adams- Strunk made the hire without a second round of interviews.
Sources: The #Titans have finalized the hire of #49ers executive Ran Carthon as their new GM.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 17, 2023
New Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon
Ran Carthon has been in the SF 49ers front office for close to a decade, serving the last 2 years as director of player personnel. Carthon has been second in decision-making only to SF General Manager John Lynch. The 49ers have made the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years, and have been praised for the depth of their roster.
Another good factor is that Ran Carthon is a “legacy”, as they say. His father was an NFL player, and coach as well, Maurice Carthon. Previously, Ran Carthon interviewed in 2022 for the vacant Pittsburgh Steelers GM position. He was mentioned by multiple sources as an up-and-coming talent for a future GM position at some team.
Why He’s a Good Fit
Ran Carthon became the director of player personnel only in the past 2 years. He’s been involved with roster construction in SF for a decade, but how much input is always difficult to gauge. In round one, the 49ers have drafted Todd Gurley, RB, Aaron Donald, DL, but they’ve drafted Jared Goff, and also Trey Lance.’
In my mind, that’s superior to the Titans’ draft record (A.J. Brown and Derrick Henry, but many many misses as well) during the same time frame. Obviously, the hiring office and owner Amy Adams-Strunk felt that the fit was excellent as she closed down a second round of interviews and Ran Carthon is the hire (announcement pending). Also, Carthon will be given latitude to keep staff, or disassemble and bring a new one from scratch. Many new hires will do a mixture of both, and we’ll see soon whether he brings his own team or hand-picks some from the existing Titans’ front office.
Reasons for Caution
First, the timing of the hire seemed a bit rushed. After the AZ Cardinals hired Monti Ossenfort (the Titans interim GM) as their new GM, the hire was made almost immediately. This was despite the fact that the TN Titans GM position was the only open GM position. Thus they could have taken as much time as they had wished. It’s almost as if once one finalist was poached from them, the Titans decided they couldn’t go through a second round of interviews.
Second, it was reported by multiple media outlets that head coach Mike Vrabel would be involved in a second round of interviews for the GM position. With the hiring made from the first round of interviews, does that mean head coach Vrabel was not involved? Or does it mean that the ownership and hiring group reached out behind the scenes to get Vrabel’s OK?
Lastly; or (and let the ominous music kick in) does it mean that the owners really didn’t give a rip about what Vrabel thought and that the GM would have total carte blanche in all decisions going forward? With the long-term relationship (longest of any front office or coaching of the Titans) being with Vrabel, that really seems unlikely.
Third, the Titans will give up some compensatory draft picks due to hiring a presently employed executive. They have already paid a high price by walking away from the contract of Jon Robinson, who will be paid for the last 4 years of his contract. (They had already considered letting him go mid-season when he had a DUI incident, but Robinson retained his job until very recently.)
49ers get two more third-round compensatory picks after Titans hire Ran Carthon. https://t.co/BV2MFkutAh
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) January 18, 2023
Follow me on Twitter @ajayxemem for other breaking Titans news.
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