Ran Carthon has been tabbed as the man to lead a Tennessee Titans turnaround.
The Titans have finalized the hire of Carthon as their new general manager, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported Tuesday. Carthon previously held the role of San Francisco 49ers director of player personnel.
Tennessee confirmed the move on Wednesday morning.
“We are excited to add Ran to our organization as our new general manager,” Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk said in a statement. “He brings a variety of valuable experiences to our team -- as a former player and a successful personnel executive for multiple teams. I was impressed with his natural leadership qualities and his ability to connect with people. With talent evaluation being critical to this role, the roster they have built in San Francisco stands out. He played an important role there constructing one of our league’s best teams.”
Carthon will succeed Jon Robinson, who was fired during a 2022 season that saw Tennessee finish with its first losing record since 2015.
Clearly, the Titans liked what they saw in Carthon, a former NFL player who's just 41 years old and has worked his way up from being a pro scout for the Atlanta Falcons to helming the Titans. Carthon had his second interview with the organization on Tuesday, Garafolo reported, and was finalizing his deal by day's end.
Tennessee hired Carthon from a pool of candidates that included its former director of player personnel Monti Ossenfort, who was hired this week as the Arizona Cardinals GM, Titans vice president of player of personnel Ryan Cowden and Bills senior director of pro personnel Malik Boyd, among others.
In Tennessee, Carthon will find a franchise in flux as he'll join head coach Mike Vrabel, who's six years Carthon's senior and headed for his sixth season as head coach, in looking to lead a Titans rebound from a 7-10 campaign. Among the most immediate tasks for Carthon and Co. is deciding what to do with the quarterback position as Ryan Tannehill is coming off an injury-hampered season and entering the final year of his current deal; hiring a new offensive coordinator following the firing of Todd Downing; and planning for the upcoming draft in which the club picks 11th overall and no doubt aims to find a player who can make an immediate impact after missing badly a few times during Robinson's tenure.
Carthon's father, Maurice, had a lengthy NFL career, most notably with the New York Giants, with whom he won two Super Bowls. Ran followed with a three-year NFL run, initially signing with the Indianapolis Colts as an undrafted free agent. He moved swiftly to another career in the game when he joined the Falcons as a pro scout from 2008-2011. From there, Carthon, who in 2013 and 2018 was selected to participate in the NFL Career Development Symposium at the Wharton School of Business, became the director of pro personnel with the Rams from 2012-2016 ahead of joining the Niners.
As the Niners are poised for a Divisional Round matchup with the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, they'll be losing Carthon after seven seasons with the organization -- the last two in his role as director of player personnel.
An eventful offseason awaits for the Titans, but they checked off one monumental box Tuesday with the hiring of Carthon as their new GM.