Six days before they named Ryan Poles general manager, the Chicago Bears interviewed Ran Carthon for the same role. Then, 364 days later, the Titans put Carthon in charge of their football operation in Tennessee. On Sunday, Poles and Carthon will kick off the season in separate suites at Soldier Field (1 p.m. ET, FOX).
They’re two stars in the NFL’s up-and-coming generation of general managers but they don’t share a lot in common. They do, however, share a common goal: Constant improvement.
“It’s always going to be to win championships, to win the division, win Super Bowls,” Poles said Wednesday. “That’s always the goal. Obviously, getting into the playoffs and winning playoff games would be outstanding. But I think the biggest thing is, can we take that big jump from where we were last year to this year? And I think we’re capable of doing that.”
Poles and the Bears made that big jump last season, going 7-10 after a 3-14 mark in his first year, and they did it with fascinating back-to-back drafts.
Carthon, whose team was 6-11 in his first season, is hoping for a similar trajectory. To get there, he beefed up his offensive line to better protect second-year quarterback Will Levis. He also added wide receivers Calvin Ridley and Tyler Boyd, and signed free agent running back Tony Pollard.
Himself a former NFL running back, Carthon traded for Super Bowl cornerback L’Jarius Sneed and drafted defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat, who’s already entrenched as the starter. Then, last week, he added another Super Bowl-winning player, inside linebacker Ernest Jones.
It’s a stiff challenge for Bears rookie Caleb Williams and Rome Odunze in their first NFL starts.
Carthon returns to Soldier Field, where his father Maurice saw his rookie season end with a divisional playoff loss to the 1985 Bears. A running back for Bill Parcells, Carthon and the Giants wound up winning two Super Bowls, including 1990, when Carthon ran for a touchdown in New York’s 31-3 playoff win over Chicago.