Upon the Tennessee Titans hiring general manager Ran Carthon, one of the best stories out there about him showed that the 41-year-old that was pretty much born to do this.
It was revealed that Carthon was doing mock drafts from an early age, with his first being around middle school, something he spoke about with Jim Wyatt of Titans Online while down at the Senior Bowl.
“I didn’t know what I was doing at the time. I didn’t realize there was a career based on this when I was doing it. Back then, it was just something I liked doing,” he said. “I think I recorded every draft from ’95 or ’96 up until the year I came out in ’04.”
Now, Carthon will have an opportunity to be the head of a real NFL draft, but the process of evaluating prospects has several steps, the first of which comes at this year’s Senior Bowl, which will take place on Saturday, Feb. 4, following a week of practices that Carthon is attending.
Carthon mentioned his desire to bring in players who are tough and physical, but their love of football is also very important, something we saw with 2020 first-round pick, Isaiah Wilson.
“From a physical attributes standpoint, you want guys that are tough and physical,” Carthon said. “But more than anything you want guys that love football. You want guys who are passionate about it, that football is life, and that is what they live for — they live to play this game.
“I’ll give you an example: Fred Warner, who is one of the elite players in our league, he is never not in the building. And even after he got paid, he is never not in the building. We have guys like that who are currently on our team. We just want to add more guys like that.”
Since taking over, Carthon has stressed the need for collaboration between himself, head coach Mike Vrabel, and the entire organization. He has not moved off that point of emphasis.
“One of the young guys in the office said to me: I’m excited to work for you,” he said. “And I stopped him and said, ‘No, work with.’ We are in this together. I am in this position, yes, and I embrace it. But this is a collective thing. I don’t have all the answers and I am not going to always be right just because of the title I have. It is going to be collaborative — I want to hear what the scouts have to say. They have the most exposure to [the players], so I want these guys to feel very much a part of it. We’re going to be a partnership.”
“It has been a good team here, a competitive team, a winning team,” he added. “I have been brought in to help elevate that and bring another component to it. So, I am here to partner with Mike and partner with Ms. Amy and work with these scouts and do our part in taking the Tennessee Titans to the next step.”
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