Titans GM Ran Carthon explains why Tennessee was extremely secretive during first wave of NFL free agency
The Tennessee Titans made a couple of splash moves during the first wave of NFL free agency that caught some fans by surprise. Tennessee's signings of center Lloyd Cushenberry and wide receiver Calvin Ridley, specifically, felt like they came out of nowhere. According to Titans general manager Ran Carthon, that was by design. Carthon joined […]
The Tennessee Titans made a couple of splash moves during the first wave of NFL free agency that caught some fans by surprise.
Tennessee's signings of center Lloyd Cushenberry and wide receiver Calvin Ridley, specifically, felt like they came out of nowhere.
According to Titans general manager Ran Carthon, that was by design.
Carthon joined 104.5 The Zone's Ramon, Kayla, and Will on Friday and he explained why the Titans were so secretive during the first wave of free agency.
"I don't know who said it best, or first, there's a great poet by the name of Dwayne Carter, or I don't know if it was the other great poet (show host) Will Boling," said Carthon. "But I think they both said 'real G's move in silence like lasagna', so it was just what we jokingly call one of those G14 classified missions."
"It was something that we kept tight in the building," continued Carthon. "We just made a push. And we were able to make it happen."
"In this information age, things happen, everybody has sources. But these are good players that I'm pretty sure their previous teams wanted back. And so if there was any way for those guys (other NFL teams) to be tipped off — especially during the negotiation period. Those guys can have contact, if I'm not mistaken, with their current players. And we can't. So, these guys haven't met us and these guys don't know anything about our program other than the contract that we're offering. It's best for us to kind of stay low key, stay off the grid. And just hopefully have a good product to sell."
Essentially, Carthon didn't want to risk word getting out that the Titans were interested in certain free agents. If the Jacksonville Jaguars, for example, knew that the Titans had significant interest in Ridley, maybe they find a way to keep Tennessee from making the deal happen.
Limiting leaks is always a good thing for an NFL franchise for a myriad of reasons. In this instance, Carthon was successful in preventing any leaks. And as a result, the Titans landed a couple of their top free agent targets.
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