When you hear the "Tennessee Titans" name nowadays, you don't associate them with many good adjectives. In fact, it ilicits quite the opposite reaction, with terms such as dysfunctional coming to mind.
It is the current and unfortunate reality for Amy Adams Strunk's franchise, one that just clinched the first overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft and fired general manager Ran Carthon. It is the second time in three seasons in which she has fired a GM, and the third in a row in which she has fired either a GM or head coach.
No team in the NFL can build consistency when change is made so frequently, and it is especially difficult when you hire and fire GMs/coaches at different times, failing to align your front office with your coaching staff. It makes matters worse when there's no clear-cut division of power.
When Carthon was hired, former head coach Mike Vrabel was supposed to also have a key role in team building, and Strunk sold everyone with the term "collaboration," which was to represent the way the two would operate. But they obviously did not see eye to eye, so then Strunk moved on from Vrabel and gave Carthon significantly more power, which included hiring current head coach Brian Callahan.
But it seems as if Carthon and Callahan did not work in harmony either, as Carthon is gone and Callahan is being retained for at least another year. Now, President of Football Operations Chad Brinker is leading the search for a new GM, have the final say on all roster moves, and apparently he was the one running the show the whole time when Carthon was GM.
Strunk and the Titans have been all over the place structurally speaking. Scapegoats are paraded annually, instead of realizing her impulsive tendencies are the root of this franchise's disarray.
Further compounding issues for the Titans is that they bottommed out in a year where there is no top-flight quarterback prospect in the upcoming draft. The Titans aren't going to have a straightforward solution to their QB issue this summer, at least not one everyone universally agrees on.
It's currently a grim outlook for the Titans, as they're searching for answers in terms of roster talent and organizational structure. As bad as things are now, it was not that long ago when this team was perennially in the playoff hunt, so the question is where did it all fall apart?
The popular answer to that is the AJ Brown trade, as that was the mistake that had everyone mocking the Titans on a national scale, and things have only gone downhill since that moment. But the true beginning of the end for this team came before anyone realized, and to make sense of everything, you have to go back to the 2020 offseason.
That was a few short months after they made the AFC Championship in Vrabel's second year as head coach, a time when things were looking up for the franchise. Unfortunately, then-GM Jon Robinson failed to build on the success, and his mistakes started the downward spiral that got the Titans to where they are today.
2020 Offseason
The Titans had fun going deep in the playoffs in January of 2020 and while coming up short, they would look at that stretch with pride and fondness. It was a high point for the franchise, but with the success would come some really important decisions, few of which loomed larger than what to do with Ryan Tannehill.
Tannehill was the catalyst for the season turnaround that sent the Titans on the playoff run, but he was set to be a free agent that upcoming March. While he had played well during 2019-20, he was never known as a game changer in his career, and after all, the Miami Dolphins traded him away for a reason. The team had to decide if they thought his performance was a fluke, or if they could bank on him to do as well if not better in the future.
Almost all teams that see any opening of a true contending window decide to go for it, and the Titans were no different in this case. They brought back Tannehill on a four-year contract, and would eventually lock up Derrick Henry to a deal of the same length, securing two of their main offensive guns for the long haul.
While the Henry contract aged just fine, things did not go quite so seamlessly for Tannehill. His overall deal was not horrible, as he did plenty of good things, especially when considering how quarterbacks get paid nowadays.
But Tannehill eventually proved to be good but not good enough to take the Titans to the promised land, and his contract held them back in several ways. The move to re-sign him was ultimately a blemish on Jon Robinson's record, but just that offseason, it would get so much worse.
The Titans went into the offseason with a gaping hole at edge rusher, and addressed it by signing Vic Beasley and Jadeveon Clowney to one-year deals. Both ended up being massive duds, in fact Beasley flamed out so badly that he was released just under halfway through the season.
Robinson also signed cornerback Jonathan Joseph to play a significant role while a quality contributor in Logan Ryan walked out the door. Joseph did so terribly that he too was released just before the midway point of the season.
Ultimately, the Titans' moves on defense, such as the additions they made, as well as losing Ryan and other veterans in Jurrell Casey and Wesley Woodyard, contributed to them having one of the worst defenses in the league. Those were clear personnel issues, which fell squarely on Robinson's shoulders.
But that is not even getting into the draft class, and that is where Robinson and the Titans as a whole truly started to fall apart. On April 23 2020, they made not only one of the worst first round draft picks in their organizations's history, but one that would go down as one of the biggest all-time busts in the NFL.
They drafted tackle Isaiah Wilson, and it is one thing for a guy to fail because he is not good at football, but Wilson failed at even showing up to do his job. He no-showed at literally the beginning of training camp, would either be late, or flat-out miss other practices and meetings, and was so disengaged to the point where he literally played four snaps in his rookie season.
He would be traded for a seventh-round pick swap less than twelve months later, and as bad as he was, the rest of the draft class was not much better. Kristian Fulton turned out to be a modest hit in the second round, but the Titans drafted no other contributors, and selected another bust in running back Darrynton Evans, this time in the third round.
It was an absolutely dreadful offseason for Robinson, and he really needed to do well since the Titans were looking to build a Super Bowl contender. Even then, it was by far his worst offseason up to this point, and even the greatest of GM's go through rough spells.
He could have easily withstood the disastrous results of these moves if he just did not repeat them moving forward, at least to the same degree. As we would see, however, Robinson would struggle mightily to get out of the funk he found himself in.
2021 Offseason
The 2020 Titans offseason was terrible, but once it actually came to playing football, they picked up right where they left off in January. They enjoyed getting their way to an 11-5 record and AFC South title on the back of Derrick Henry's 2000 yard season, and overall arguably the best offense they have ever had.
They had far from a perfect roster, and it showed when they fell to the Baltimore Ravens at home in the wildcard round by a 20-13 score. It was disappointing, but they were still in the middle of their open window, so it was time for Robinson and company to get back to work.
The Titans lost three important pass catchers, as Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith hit free agency, and Adam Humphries was cut as a cap casualty. Both starting cornerbacks in Malcolm Butler and Adoree Jackson were also cut to save money, and right tackle Dennis Kelly suffered the same fate.
That is not to mention that the Titans were still lacking big time at edge rusher after the previous offseason's moves failed. Robinson had to make many moves and many good moves at that, and not all of them were equally bad, but as in 2020, most of his decisions this time around were duds.
The only truly good move that was made was signing Denico Autry, which actually turned out to be a massive boost for the pass rush. The Titans also signed veteran cornerback Janoris "Jackrabbit" Jenkins, which turned out to be a simply serviceable move, but after that, it was pretty rough.
Their biggest free agency move was signing Bud Dupree to a major deal, and he had his good moments, but did not live up to the price he signed for. He ended up getting released in the 2023 offseason, just two years later.
Robinson failed to adequately replace key losses at wide receiver, cornerback, and tackle for much of the 2021 offseason, as the most that had been done until June was signing Josh Reynolds. His stint in Tennessee went so poorly that he requested and was granted a release in the middle of November.
But in early June, Robinson would make one of the more notable moves in Titans history, one that would be greatly celebrated by the fan base, and even some outside of it. He traded for future Hall of Fame receiver Julio Jones, a decision that should have not only answered the team's questions at receiver, but taken them to the next level with such a great talent added to the offense.
It did quite the opposite, as Jones was often injured and ineffective, registering only one touchdown and under 500 receiving yards in the regular season. For as cool as it was at the time, the trade really hurt the Titans, as Jones hardly contributed, and it cost them a second round pick. It was especially brutal since Robinson knew about Jones' recent injury issues, took the risk, and got burned.
What was maybe even more disappointing was the draft class during this offseason, which was yet another disaster. The first round pick, cornerback Caleb Farley, was a bust, but certainly for not the same reasons as Isaiah Wilson.
Farley was as dedicated as anyone could be, but injuries derailed any chance he had to make an impact at the NFL level. You could not help but feel for him, but it was no reason for the Titans to feel any better, and as with Jones, Robinson knew the injury risk with Farley, rolled with it, and it blew up in his face.
The rest of the picks were average at best, as the only one who is on the team today is second rounder Dillon Radunz, who managed to find a role as the starting right guard. Even then, the start to his career was less than promising, as he had bust status labeled all over him until late last year.
The only other notable headline from that draft was that Robinson traded up for wide receiver Dez Fitzpatrick with Amon-Ra St. Brown still on the board at the time. The less said about that, the better.
This marked two horrible offseasons in a row for the Titans, but the team was still good overall, and they made the AFC Divisional round during the ensuing season. Robinson still avoided catching a ton of heat up to this point, but that would completely change the next time around.
2022 Offseason
There is hardly any need to preface what happened here, everyone knows the only move that mattered from this offseason, and that was trading AJ Brown. Parting with arguably the best wide receiver in franchise history was highly questionable at the time, and it aged to be one of the worst moves any team has made in recent NFL history.
What is crazy is there were some decisions in 2022 that, if nothing else, looked good at the time. The Titans re-signed key pass rusher Harold Landry and center Ben Jones, while also signing Austin Hooper to a one-year deal and giving up virtually nothing to trade for veteran receiver Robert Woods. They also brought in veteran defensive lineman DeMarcus Walker, which turned out to be a quality, buy-low move.
But even before a snap was played, nobody cared about those moves, because the call to trade Brown held so much more weight than any other that could have been made. The only way anyone could have felt any better about it was if the draft class panned out, and yet again, Robinson did absolutely terrible.
For starters, the guy who essentially replaced Brown, Treylon Burks, has been an outright bust, suffering injury after injury and only having one touchdown in his career so far. This was also the draft where they took Malik Willis, which could have been serious value late in the third round, but there was always a reason why a quarterback of his talent fell that far, and it showed.
There were two modest hits in Roger McCreary and Chig Okonkwo, but obviously, those alone were never going to make the draft class a success. Add in other bad decisions that Robinson made that offseason, particularly on the offensive line, and this was really the point where everything was catching up to him.
Two days after the Titans got destroyed by the Philadelphia Eagles, and AJ Brown himself, owner Amy Adams Strunk fired Robinson, and few could blame her after his mistakes sunk the team. The search for a new GM felt like a good fresh start for the organization, and it was not going to be easy, but with the right guy at the helm, they could right the ship.
2023 Offseason
The Titans began the offseason with their most important move, finding a new GM, and it would be Ran Carthon from the San Francisco 49ers. Carthon, while not boasting tremendous experience, excelled when it came to building relationships, and showed promise when it came to making analytically-based decisions, something that was a complaint about Robinson.
The move was generally well received by those in NFL circles, and it was going to be exciting to see his vision for this Titans roster. Unfortunately for him, there was not much he was going to be able to do in his first offseason.
The Titans were in a bad spot salary cap wise due to the bad contracts and restructures made under Robinson, and they had to cut guys in order to even get cap space. It was also going to be wise to move on from some veterans since the current window was shutting, and that is exactly what Carthon did.
He cut longtime stalwarts Taylor Lewan and Ben Jones, and also got rid of guys such as Zach Cunningham, Robert Woods, Bud Dupree, and Randy Bullock. Even the heart and soul of the team, Kevin Byard, ended up at a crossroads with the team after he initially refused to take a paycut, and he was eventually traded during the season.
In free agency, it was nothing too fancy, but mainly low risk, under the radar moves such as Azeez Al-Shaair, Andre Dillard, Daniel Brunskill, Arden Key, and Sean Murphy-Bunting. He even re-signed Aaron Brewer to be the team's starting center, and while he had shown some upside, this and the other signings were reflective of how little Carthon had to work with in free agency this offseason.
His first ever draft pick was guard Peter Skoronski from Northwestern, and some were disappointed about taking a guard 11th overall, but it has turned out to be a solid pick. Overall, Carthon's first draft class has been not great, but not awful, and the only pick that truly does not look good is Will Levis in the second round.
Now there were some exciting moves for the Titans, most importantly, not repeating the same mistake with AJ Brown and re-signing Jeffery Simmons to a big contract. He also brought in DeAndre Hopkins on a cheap deal in July, which worked out really well.
But once again, this offseason was never going to mean much for Carthon, as it was his first one and he had severely limited resources to work with. We had to wait until the next year to truly find out more about him, and once he could actually splurge, that is exactly what happened.
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.
2025 offseason - present day
Here the Titans are again, having just fired Carthon and gotten back into the GM search, and it just feels like the same story anymore. It seems as if Strunk has not learned from her mistakes, and her two biggest faults are that she is way too reactionary at all times, and that she does not ever have a GM and head coach hired at the same time and truly in lockstep.
The last time the Titans had the same GM and head coach from the previous season was in 2022, and now the earliest that will happen again is 2026. But with how things are trending for Brian Callahan, it is very likely that he is fired at the end of the 2025 season or before, so it may not be until 2026 that the Titans have continuity at head coach and GM.
Ultimately, Stunk's problems just build upon themselves, and most noticeably, you can never truly build anything if you are always making changes at head coach and GM. And when you continually fire one guy and not the other, you contribute to a culture of finger pointing and playing the blame game, which is always toxic.
But honestly, until Strunk can figure out the importance of having both the GM and head coach hired and fired at the same time, this may continue to happen. When you bring in one, whether that be a head coach or GM, you generally want to give him at least two years, even for Strunk's standards of impatience.
But when you do that, there is a good chance that the person you most recently brought in will not like the other person who was previously in place. So then you have to effectively pick one or the other, and then it is likely that the same process plays out the next year, and never ends unless you get lucky and make two extremely competent hires who work well together.
Now, there were some reports that Carthon had some lazy tendencies and would even sleep on plane rides back home from away games while other executives were watching film. If those reports are true, then maybe Strunk did make the right decision to fire him, but in that case, should she not have had a better judge of character when she hired him?
When it comes to evaluating how competent NFL franchises are, they are always judged most heavily by four individuals - the owner, GM, head coach, and quarterback.
For the Titans, Adams Strunk has been extremely impulsive and inconsistent in terms of decision making, the GM was just fired again, the head coach is already in trouble after year one, and who knows what happens at quarterback in 2025. This franchise is a hot mess across the board.
Yes, there are some exciting finalists for the Titans' GM job. Who knows how much power they will actually have with Brinker supposedly being in charge, and who knows if Adams Strunk will possess enough patience to see it through.
Right now, there's no reason to have any real optimism, and as much as it hurts to say, the Titans have entered clown-show territory. Hopefully Strunk strikes gold and hires the right GM, while also being right about giving Callahan another chance.
Their current direction isn't comforting.