2024 Offseason
The 2024 offseason began with yet another major organizational shakeup, and that was firing head coach Mike Vrabel. It seemed crazy to many, considering how well he had done with the team overall, and the 6-11 record the year prior seemed much more indicative of the lack of talent on the roster, not coaching.
It turned out there was a serious rift going on behind closed doors between Vrabel and Amy Adams Strunk, and Carthon was involved in it to a certain degree as well. Ultimately, lots of factors, such as the team trending in the wrong direction, as well as Vrabel's reluctance to shift to more of a modern style of coaching, contributed to Strunk's decision, and the Titans were in the market for a new head coach.
Carthon was believed to be the main guy in charge of the coaching search, and less than two weeks later, Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan was hired. It seemed like a good hire, as Callahan was argaubly the top offensive-minded head coach on the market, and that was the direction Strunk and Carthon wanted to go in.
Carthon and Callahan would get to work, and with $90M+ of cap space, the goal was to put a roster together that would let them reach their goal for the 2024 season: finding out if Will Levis was truly the answer. Of course, we know now that Levis is not going to be that guy for the Titans, and the moves that were made outside of him did not help the way they had hoped.
They made two big moves to revamp their cornerback room, acquiring L'Jarius Sneed and Chidobe Awuzie, and both hardly contributed in 2024 due to injuries. They also signed linebacker Kenneth Murray, a decision that looked questionable at the time, and proved to not be a good decision.
Their moves on offense were also far from great, as center Lloyd Cushenberry tore his achilles in November, and Calvin Ridley was up and down throughout the year. The only free agency move that really panned out was signing Tony Pollard, and most did not even think he would have as big of a role as he did on the team.
Carthon's draft actually went quite well, as his first and second rounders respectively, JC Latham and T'Vondre Sweat, both look really good. He also took cornerback Jarvis Brownlee in the fifth round, who looks like he might be a real steal, but there was not much to speak of outside of those three.
Overall, Carthon had not done an awful job up to this point, but between drafting a quarterback who did poorly, and making some big money moves that did not work out, you can see why the Titans were as bad as they were in 2024. There's also the fact that the Callahan hire has not worked out well, who was apparently Carthon's choice.
It was still going to be understandable to, if not preferred by many that Carthon and Callahan both got another year, as the two were in the beginning stages together, and the Titans have really lacked continuity lately. But as we have seen, Strunk is quick to act when things go wrong, and that is exactly what happened.