AFC South 2023 GM Power Rankings: Where do Jacksonville Jaguars and Trent Baalke land?

David Caldwell did a poor job of consistently restocking the Jacksonville Jaguars roster and made several questionable personnel decisions during his tenure as a general manager. This is why nobody batted an eye when the Jags kick him to the curve in 2020 and later hired Trent Baalke to take his place.

Baalke has spent the last two years adding talent to the Jaguars’ roster and played a huge role in their turnaround last offseason. But how does he stack up against other general managers in the AFC South? Here’s a power ranking of the division ahead of free agency.

No. 4 AFC South 2023 GM Power Ranking: Ran Carthon, Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans didn’t think general manager Jon Robinson wasn’t getting nearly as many playmakers as he could to win football games now and didn’t agree with his vision of building the roster for the future. Thus, they parted ways with him at the midpoint of the 2022 season and hired Ran Carthon earlier this year.

A former NFL player, Carthon joined the Atlanta Falcons as a scout in 2013 and worked his way up the scouting rankings over the next few years, spending time with the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49ers before getting the Titans’ general manager job.

Even though Carthon just took over the job, he’s got his work cut out. He needs to find a long-term answer at quarterback, re-sign defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons and add enough talent to the Tennesse roster to give them a shot to bounce back in 2023.

Carthon has been endorsed by several former players but he’s an unknown commodity ahead of free agency. For that reason, he takes the No. 4 spot in this ranking. On the bright side, there’s nowhere to go but up for him and the Titans.