Tennessee Titans hire former Bills, 49ers scout as Director of Scouting

The Tennessee Titans have hired A.J. Highsmith to be the team's new Director of Scouting.

According to Neil Stratton (who is the Adam Schefter of front office news), Highsmith had interviews with several teams this offseason, but he chose to join the Titans.

While Highsmith has been with the Buffalo Bills since 2019, he was with the San Francisco 49ers for five years before that. By all accounts, Ran Carthon has a knack for making friends wherever he goes, so his relationship with Highsmith likely played a part in getting him to Tennessee.

After keeping nearly all of Jon Robinson's scouts in place for two drafts, the Titans are slowly making changes to the front office, and now the hierarchy is becoming a little bit clearer.

Based on everything that we have seen and heard this year (post Mike Vrabel firing) it sounds like this is what everyone's job is and what that job title means from a practical standpoint.

Ran Carthon is the GM and has the final say and he seems to have the final say, and he is the #1 in the building. Chad Brinker was named President of Football Operations and it seems like he is 1B considering that he also has a lot of input in the roster in every phase.

The next rung on the ladder is Anthony Robinson who has the title of Assistant GM, but he is heavily involved and focused on the draft process.

Given the title, it seems like Highsmith is underneath them as the Director of Scouting and then the front office branches off into Pro Scouting (headed by Brian Gardner) and College Scouting (headed by Jon Salge).

It is impossible to know whether this is a good hire right now because, at this time last year, it seemed like hiring Anthony Robinson would set the Titans up for a good draft in 2024, but the jury is still out on that class (at best).

Ran Carthon has done an excellent job on the pro side of things this year and hopefully, this is a move to ensure that those moves continue to stay strong heading into next season.