Carthon joined the Titans after a six-year tenure with the 49ers, the place he was the director of participant personnel (2021-22) and the director of professional personnel (2017-20).
“He performed an essential position there establishing one in all our league’s greatest groups,” proprietor Amy Adams Strunk mentioned at the time of his hiring on Jan. 18, 2023.
The Titans (3-14) completed the 12 months tied with the Browns and Giants for the league’s worst file, incomes the No. 1 total decide of the 2025 NFL Draft. Firing Carthon may sign what route the group plans to go along with the upcoming draft’s high decide.
Carthon was one of many extra aggressive common managers final offseason, signing operating again Tony Pollard (three-year, $24 million) and vast receiver Calvin Ridley (four-year, $92 million) in free company. He additionally acquired cornerback L’Jarius Sneed from the Chiefs for a 2025 third-round decide and a 2024 seventh-round decide swap, then signed him to a four-year, $76.4 million extension.
These win-now strikes failed, however the group’s shortcomings are extra associated to Carthon’s choice of Levis within the second spherical of the 2023 NFL Draft.
In two seasons, Levis had as many head-scratching performs as constructive ones. In 12 video games this season, he was 190-of-301 (63.1 %) for two,091 yards (6.9 yards per try), 13 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. His 27.6 QBR, which measures total quarterback efficiency, “together with how he impacts the sport on passes, rushes, turnovers and penalties” (h/t ESPN) on a scale of 0-100, ranked thirty seventh out of 38 qualifying quarterbacks, forward of solely Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson (23.1).
With Carthon’s aggressive push in free company final offseason and the Titans having an estimated $61.3 million in 2025 cap space, Tennessee may need been a participant for somebody like Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold or Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Saints quarterback Derek Carr if both turns into out there.
However his firing suggests a conflict between how Carthon and Titans possession needs to construct the group going ahead. The front-office transfer can be a daring vote of confidence in head coach Brian Callahan, who deserves his share of the blame for Tennessee’s dismal season.
Whereas the Panthers noticed monumental development in second-year quarterback Bryce Younger in head coach Dave Canales’ first season in Carolina, Levis confirmed no such development beneath Callahan.
It wasn’t as if Carthon set Callahan and Levis as much as fail, both. Carthon invested closely within the offensive line, spending two first-round picks (2023, 2024) on left guard Peter Skoronski and left deal with JC Latham, and enhancing the general expertise round Levis final offseason.
Arguably, no coach did much less with greater than Callahan, however he evaded the chopping block.
It is onerous to see Carthon’s firing as something however an indictment of the Levis decide and possession’s unwillingness to make the identical mistake twice. Nonetheless, conserving Callahan might be worse.
