Titans choosing Ran Carthon over Mike Vrabel backfired in such a catastrophic fashion

Once again, I am going to remind you that Tennessee Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk is her late father's daughter. Bud Adams notoriously destroyed the Houston Oilers out of extreme hubris, pettiness and cheapness in the mid-1990s. While they had some success since relocating to Nashville, then why have his daughter's team devolved into little more than a clown show of late?

I do not know what is sadder. The fact the Titans where Houston Oilers throwbacks every time they face the division rival Houston Texans, or that they went 3-14 this past season. Arthur Smith leaving for Atlanta was the beginning of the end. Firing Jon Robinson was stupid. Moving on from Mike Vrabel was beyond moronic. So was letting Derrick Henry walk. And do not get me started on Ran Carthon.

While I understood Smith getting and earning an NFL head-coaching opportunity in 2021, as well as being in on the Brian Callahan hire last offseason, Carthon did exactly what he needed to do to have someone else picking the first player in the 2025 NFL Draft. After two years on the job, Carthon is out in Tennessee. Figuring out who wants to work with Callahan will be Strunk's next big challenge for her.

Under her watch, the Titans have gone from highly competitive to a largely bland and horrible watch.

Tennessee Titans own up to huge mistake by firing Ran Carthon already

This never had to be this hard. While I cannot understand all the complexities of owning a professional sports franchise, we have seen a blueprint time and time again of what to do, and most importantly, what not to do. The one thing detached owners love to do is not hire and fire head coaches and general managers in tandem. If one goes, the other has to. It is all about accountability.

The only way an NFL franchise sustains excellence in a league that is driven by parity is to have alignment at the four most important positions: Ownership on down to general manager, then head coach, the quarterback. You do not have to have all four be A-pluses to field a continually great product, but a few B-minuses, or anything worse than that will leave you in dire straits competitively.

The Robinson termination from yesteryear had everything to do with poor wide receiver talent evaluation. Vrabel never got over the A.J. Brown trade with the Philadelphia Eagles. Frankly, I would not have either. Admittedly, I still like Callahan's upside as an NFL head coach, given his pedigree and coaching background. However, the Titans have continually proven themselves to be so poorly run.

Admittedly, there is no panacea to fix this thing. I think firing Callahan after one year makes this job so beyond toxic. Then again, it would create the necessary pathway towards accountability and future alignment. Since I am opposed to firing Callahan, I would get someone from the Cincinnati Bengals organization or another team who has demonstrated excellence more recently than Tennessee has.

Carthon was totally over his skis, but I am truly stunned that it collapsed on top of him this quickly.