Titans Exec Chad Brinker To Run Search For GM, Have Final Authority On Football Decisions

The Titans announced that president of football operations Chad Brinker will run the search for a new general manager to replace former GM Ran Carthon, but that Brinker would be the one with final decision-making authority for the whole football operation. 

It’s a notable shift and quick rise for Brinker, who joined the Titans as an assistant GM for Carthon two years ago, then was promoted last year to his current role alongside Carthon after the team hired HC Brian Callahan. 

That role was envisioned as collaborative at the time by owner Amy Adams Strunk, with Carthon overseeing the draft, free agency and the coaching staff and Brinker running the salary cap, analytics and team operations. However, Carthon had the final say. Now that responsibility will transfer to Brinker. 

“It is important to Amy to have absolute clarity in the football organization.” Titans president Burke Nihill said. “And so, while the general manager position will have a primary responsibility on all these things Chad is describing in terms of the day-to-day of overseeing the roster and the coaching staff, Chad is the leader of the football program, so Chad will be the final authority on all football matters, including the roster.”

Strunk and Nihil both released statements citing the team’s 9-25 record over the past two seasons as a major factor in why Strunk soured on Carthon so quickly.

Paul Kuharsky added some color, reporting there were some critiques of Carthon’s work ethic, such as leaving QB Will Levis‘ pro day early or napping on team flights home from road games instead of getting an early jump on the film. But Kuharsky says the bottom line was Carthon missed on too many player evaluations and his emphasis on relationship building didn’t fill in the gaps. 

Nihil added a statement that Carthon was hired for a different job than the one he ended up getting, and went on to specify what the Titans are looking for in their next GM (it sounds eerily like what Strunk said about Carthon around this time last year). 

“Speaking of a change of the general manager specifically, Ran was hired into a very different job description than the one that exists today. Ran was hired for a general manager position that was very specific to the circumstances at the time, and the forecasting was the general manager would be able to partner very closely with the head coach, the existing head coach, and as the circumstances exists today, the general manager position is different,” Nihil said. “And so, what Chad, who is leading the search, will be looking for is a very different skill set for a very different job description.

“This particular job, what we’ll be looking for is someone who has spent their career as a scout, is a top-flight, top-level evaluator who has spent the majority of their career projecting college players to the National Football League, they’ve had a major hand in setting the draft board in preferably a consistent, winning organization, and you can see their fingerprints all over the roster.”

Brinker also gave some insight into the qualities he’s prioritizing as he makes this hire. 

“It is someone who wakes up every single day and the only thing they think about is building a roster, evaluating players, watching tape, working with the coaching staff,” he said. “And, not just someone who knows how to collect talent, but someone who really understands how to build a team and how all the pieces fit together that I can work with not only in the short term, winning today, but building for the future, the long term, and understanding how all those pieces fit together. If you make a decision here, how it impacts a decision down the road, and really understand the full puzzle.

“At the end of the day, this person is going to be all ball, all day. They are going to focus on the roster and the coaching staff, and I’ll continue in my role with handling all the other areas that surround the center of our program, scouting and coaches.”

Brinker, 44, played at Ohio University, had a short stint in the NFL with the Jets in 2003 and 2004, then entered the business world for a few years before returning to the NFL as a scout with the Packers in 2010. 

He worked 13 years with the Packers before joining the Titans as assistant GM in 2023, earning a promotion to president of football operations after just a year. 

We’ll have more on the Titans’ GM search as the news is available.