Motherly tip to Titans GM: ‘Better not trade Derrick’

Motherly tip to Titans GM: ‘Better not trade Derrick’

As he prepares for his first NFL Draft as the Tennessee Titans’ general manager this week, Ran Carthon said he had received plenty of free advice about how to help a team than ended the 2022 campaign with seven consecutive losses.

“I get everything from who to pick, who to trade back to, who to trade, who not to trade,” Carthon said during a Monday press conference.

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And Carthon said the Titans community is really concerned about the team’s plans for running back Derrick Henry.

“I was at an event and I was taking a picture,” Carthon said, “and I had my arm around a lady and take a picture, and she leans in: ‘You better not trade Derrick.’ And she scared the hell out of me because it came from like a motherly, authoritative place, and I was just like, ‘Yes, ma’am.’”

But the Titans are trading Henry – at least according to Twitter this week. One tweet that said the former Alabama All-American “is headed to the Eagles” had Henry’s name trending into Monday on the social-media app.

On Monday, Carthon said the Titans hadn’t received any calls inquiring about Henry’s availability in a trade.

“There’s things I want to say, but I won’t because I got Robbie standing to my left,” Carthon said. “It is what it is. It’s a part of the job. I know people have their job to do, to speculate and put things out and hope that it sticks and hope that they’re right. I’ll just lean on it this way because I’ve said it before: We won’t do business in public. We haven’t.

“We were trying to trade (defensive tackle) Jeffrey Simmons. We were doing all these things, and the entire time of us trading Jeffrey Simmons, we were working on a deal. And then we got the deal done, and all of that talk went away.”

RELATED: WOULD THE TENNESSEE TITANS TRADE DERRICK HENRY?

Henry joined Tennessee as a second-round selection in the 2016 NFL Draft. He led the NFL in rushing in 2019 and 2020. A foot injury that caused him to miss nine games probably cost him the rushing title in 2021, and he came back to finish as the runner-up to Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs, another former Crimson Tide standout, for the 2022 NFL rushing title.

The Titans opened their offseason program last week, and as is usually the case, Henry is not attending. The workouts are voluntary.

“Derrick not being here, I don’t think it bothers anybody,” Carthon said. “You see the way that guy looks. You know he puts in the work, and he’s going to take care of his body and be ready to go, so have no reservations about him being here.”

The Titans hold the 11th pick in the 88th NFL Draft’s first round, which is set for Thusday night in Kansas City, Missouri.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.