Titans Fire GM Ran Carthon And It Won’t Be Long Before Someone Plays Race Card

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The Tennessee Titans announced Tuesday morning they’ve fired general manager Ran Carthon after two seasons, and what comes next is almost predictable.

Yes, there will be a search for a new general manager. (More on that in a minute).

But there may also be backlash. Because Carthon has been in his job only two years. And because he is well-liked and respected around the league. And because he is black.

It says right here there will most probably be someone in the national media who will try to make the point that Carthon was not given enough time to succeed because of his race. It is the playbook we’ve seen countless times. (More on that in 30 seconds).

Titans Were Bad Under Carthon

The team announced the decision to move on from Carthon two days after the team finished the 2024 season with a 3-14 record. Under Carthon the past two seasons, the Titans authored a combined 9-25 record.

Yes, bad.

So bad that Mike Vrabel was fired after the 2023 season. And new coach Brian Callahan this season was under scrutiny before apparently remaining safe.

Titans controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk informed Carthon on Tuesday morning that the team would be making a change.

“I’ve loved the time I’ve spent with Ran,” Strunk said in a statement. “He’s a talented football mind, a great man, and friend to everyone along his path,” Strunk said in the statement. “It’s impossible to ignore that our football team hasn’t improved over the past two years. 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.

“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.”

‘Black Monday’ For A Reason?

That’s a nice message to the fans. But the message that has Nashville up in arms is that the team Carthon put together in 2024 has the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft. And that means the Titans were arguably the worst team in the NFL.

That’s cause for dismissal. But some in the media may not see it that way.

They’ll point to Carthon’s race as playing a part in his dismissal. 

Don’t believe it? It has happened already in this cycle of coach and general manager firings. 

When Jerod Mayo was fired from the New England Patriots on Monday, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said he didn’t agree with the move and made a not so veiled reference to race when he said, “I don’t like this,” Smith said. “They call it Black Monday for a reason. This certainly typifies it. I don’t know why it’s not called White Monday. Doug Pederson got fired from Jacksonville. He deserved that firing. Jerod Mayo clearly was not given a lengthy enough opportunity considering what Bill Belichick left him with from a talent perspective.”

Let’s See What Deion Sanders Says

Others are not quite so subtle.

And there will be stories written about how Deion Sanders, whose son Shedeur is in line to be the No. 1 overall selection, will react to the Titans move.

Sanders initially reacted on X by simply writing: “Wow.”

He added an eyes emoji, but OutKick’s crappy keyboard doesn’t provide the ability to add those to copy.

Seriously though, Carthon was not hired because he’s black. And he was not fired because he’s black. 

He was hired because Strunk believed him to be her best candidate for the job. But after he traded away quarterback Malik Willis, who was Tennessee’s third-round pick in 2022, to Green Bay for a seventh-round pick and selected Will Levis in the second round and signed Mason Rudolph in free agency, the scrutiny began.

Ran Carthon Missed On QBs

Because none of those moves worked out for the Titans. Willis won both his starts in relief for the Packers. And neither Levis nor Rudolph could salvage a team from being second in the NFL with 21 interceptions.

The Titans didn’t just have quarterback issues. Pass protection was poor. And the defense yielded a whopping 460 points, which was third-worst in the NFL.  

“We just haven’t improved this football team for the last couple of years,” club President and CEO Burke Nihill told the team’s website. “We’ve won nine of the 34 games we’ve played over the past two seasons, and as much as the record was concerning to Amy as it was to all of our fans, her assessment was also that we’re not on course to get where we need to go moving forward. As difficult as these decisions are, she believed it was the right one.”

The interesting thing is that Carthon, hired by the team in January of 2023 as the general manager, was promoted to executive vice president and general manager last year, so he had control over the roster and all personnel decisions.

Search To Replace Carthon Begins

He was given an extension to his contract and reportedly has four years remaining on the deal. 

The search for the new GM will be headed by President of Football Operations Chad Brinker. And what’s he going to look for?

“At the end of the day, this person is going to be all ball, all day,” Brinker told TennesseeTitans.com. “They are going to focus on the roster and the coaching staff, and I’ll continue in my role with handling all the other areas that surround the center of our program, scouting and coaches. So, I will support that person. But we are looking for a general manager who wakes up every day and is focused on building the team.”