Titans fire GM after two seasons

General manager Ran Carthon paid the price for the Tennessee Titans going 9-25 in his two seasons.

The Titans introduced Carthon as the franchise’s first Black general manager in January 2023, and he helped the franchise hire a new coach in Brian Callahan a year later. A year after that, Carthon was fired.

Tennessee controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk, who fired general manager Jon Robinson in December 2022, will have yet another new GM to help the franchise decide what to do with its fourth overall No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, which it secured after going 3-14 in 2024. Strunk said Chad Brinker, president of football operations, will lead the search for a new GM. Brinker also will have full roster control.

Strunk said in a statement Tuesday that it was impossible to ignore that the Titans didn’t improve over the last two years. She said Callahan would continue as head coach even as the Titans lost their final six games and eight of nine. The 14 losses matched the 2014 season for the most losses since the team relocated from Texas to Tennessee in 1997. It has had the No. 1 overall pick once since then, and Robinson traded it for a haul of selections for his first NFL draft in 2016.

“I am deeply disappointed in our poor win-loss record during this period, of course, but my decision also speaks to my concern about our long-term future should we stay the course,” Strunk said in her statement. “I love this team more than you can imagine. To our fans: we know this level of performance isn’t acceptable. We’re humbled by your support as we continue to work towards building the team you expect and deserve.”

She hired Carthon to work with then-coach Mike Vrabel, who was fired two days after the 2023 season ended. He helped with the search that landed on Callahan.

Carthon made Tennessee among the NFL’s biggest spenders last offseason, signing players like cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, center Lloyd Cushenberry, wide receiver Calvin Ridley and running back Tony Pollard. Ridley finished with 1,017 yards, and Pollard led the team with 1,079 yards and five touchdown runs.

The Titans also traded a pick to Kansas City for cornerback L’Jarius Sneed, who played only five games this season before becoming one of 12 players on injured reserve. He sustained a quad injury that he told reporters last week required bone marrow injections.

Cushenberry also started just eight games. Awuzie was on injured reserve for nine and benched for one game, starting just seven.