Tennessee Titans will learn a lot about Ran Carthon this offseason

The legal tampering period for NFL Free Agency begins on Monday, and the Tennessee Titans are one of the teams to watch closely. They have the third most cap space in the league with just under $75.5M according to Over the Cap, and will have more if they make some roster cuts or contract restructures.

The Titans are rightfully expected to be one of the heaviest spenders in free agency, but there is no blueprint to go off of as to how they will handle this situation. This is only Ran Carthon's second offseason as the team's general manager, and last offseason he had much less cap space at his disposal.

Nearly all of the Titans' signings last offseason were cheap and under the radar, but it is unclear as to whether or not that was fully philosophical or due to salary cap limitations. This time around, however, we will get an answer as to how Carthon wants to operate when there are no restrictions.

This offseason will set the tone for Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon

Let's get one thing clear before going any further here - Carthon is not in a deciding season as Titans' GM, and thinking about his job security this early in his tenure is crazy. But with him having a full year of experience under his belt and now more resources to use, his work this offseason will define what he is about.

The Titans held a press conference at the NFL Scouting Combine, and Carthon gave us an idea as to how he will approach free agency. The message that he put out here was that while he will be active, he will be smart, and he added that he will not just spend all of the team's cap space right away.

Another key thing he mentioned was that you cannot rush to make signings at the beginning because certain players will be available later in the offseason, and he used DeAndre Hopkins as a perfect example.

From Carthon's words and actions so far, he seems to have a good understanding of how to make smart and efficient decisions in free agency. Specifically, he understands that there is a reason why most players hit free agency, and that rarely can you find your true superstars that way.

But at the same time, every player's situation is different and just because someone hits the open market does not just mean you can write him off for that. And with how barren the Titans roster is coming into the offseason, Carthon is not going to make it better by playing it safe, so he will have to take some big swings in the next few days.

Hopefully, he chooses an approach that is a reasonable middle ground between being overly guarded and simply reckless. With the state of the Titans personnel and the amount of quality free agents available, if they do not come away with at least one of those guys, then this free agency cycle will be a failure.

At the same time, if Carthon throws all caution into the wind and spends his money similarly to how the Jacksonville Jaguars did in 2022, that is a bad sign. Besides that going that route would involve significant overpays of players, the Titans cannot expect to just fix their roster overnight, so a certain amount of patience will be required despite the resources available.

Even though it will take more than this offseason to get the true verdict on Carthon's work, what he does over the next few days and on will let us know if he has the right ideas when it comes to building a team. Get ready Titans fans, the team has not had this much capital to utilize in a long time, and we are about to find out just how bold this front office is.