This draft is big for Carthon — and critical for Titans
Amid all that has worsened with the Tennessee Titans in the past 18 months, we haven’t talked much about one aspect that did improve.
They drafted better in 2023.
Not that the bar was especially high for new general manager Ran Carthon. But hey, first-round guard Peter Skoronski, while not a world-beater as a rookie, actually was able to play and make a consistent impact.
Progress!
Then the Titans got their (potential) franchise quarterback in the second round (Will Levis) and a running back (Tyjae Spears) in the third round who was (potentially) good enough for them to let Derrick Henry walk in free agency. Overall, the six Titans draft picks ended up playing at least a little bit in the fall. Might not constitute a victory elsewhere, but it did here.
Draft nights have been rough here. The Titans, in two short years, went from the AFC’S No. 1 seed in 2021 (with the NFL’S coach of the year in Mike Vrabel) to the weakened, overmatched team that was lucky to win six games last season before Vrabel got fired.
The No. 1 reason for the collapse? Poor NFL drafts full of wasted picks, unwise gambles and regrettable choices.
In 2020 and 2021, the Titans drafted 14 players, and none looks like a surefire starter in 2024. All but a handful aren’t even on the team anymore. And then, infamously, they followed with the draft night trade of A.J. Brown in 2022.
The Titans unwittingly became an example of what happens when a good NFL team gets real bad at drafting. None of that was Carthon’s fault. But it is his problem to solve.
The Titans, still reeling, do not have the luxury of whiffing on this week’s 2024 NFL Draft and being able to seriously contend this year — or probably next year, either. They need to start stacking solid draft classes. That’s what elite teams do.
“We’re trying to get our systems in place,” Carthon said, “and we’ll eventually get to the point where we’re drafting a year ahead of a need and we’re not in spots where you just have to take a position of need every single year.”
As Carthon is about to go on the clock, I’m feeling a twinge I’ve not felt in some time about this team at this time.
Is that . . . why, yes . . . I think it’s optimism.
Carthon’s first try at this wasn’t bad, and his second likely will be even better alongside new coach Brian Callahan. Plus, it’s difficult to mess up a No. 7 overall pick. No matter who the Titans select, it’s sure to be a highly coveted player they need.
Free agency passed similarly, offering necessary — albeit predictable — momentum. If an NFL team has oodles of money and cap space, it’s going to spend its way back toward relevancy and get fans enthused. You can’t really mess that up, and the Titans didn’t. They got better at several places where they badly needed to get better: Cornerback, wide receiver, offensive line.
I’d expect more of the same in this draft.
Or rather, I have no reason (yet) to expect otherwise.
Much as I’ve had no reason (yet) to not applaud Carthon for how the Titans drafted in 2023, other than the fact he doesn’t want credit for it. The GM isn’t even claiming that draft.
On Tuesday, Carthon recounted a conversation earlier in the day with Titans staffer Tom Jones: “I was telling him, ‘This is my first draft,’ because this is a new way of doing things and how we’re going to do it.”
A curious comment, because — obviously — this isn’t Carthon’s first draft.
Maybe a veiled reference to Vrabel having all the power back then? Maybe Vrabel and his large shadow blocked out the sun at Saint Thomas Sports Park until the townsfolk grabbed torches and pitchforks and severance and drove him away to Cleveland?
I’m exaggerating, of course, but not as much as you might think. The general vibe I’ve detected in Titansland these past few months has been of a nation freed of authoritarian rule, mixed with a desire to disown and forget all it entailed. Truth is, we never knew who was running things in 2023 for the Titans, and frankly, I no longer care. I’ve long since been sick of the soap opera. I’m over any desire to keep taking a microscope to every little comment to try and decode what it really means.
That’s the hassle we’ve been freed of with the Titans.
We know who’s in charge now, at least. And that, for once, makes the next part refreshingly simple.
Eye on the ball.
Go draft some good players, Ran. You don’t have enough.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @Gentry_estes. Click here and bookmark to follow all of his work.