The Titans have signed edge rusher Lorenzo Carter, per Titans senior writer/editor Jim Wyatt.
Carter is a seven-year veteran with 62 starts, 21.5 sacks, and 35 tackles for loss in his career. He spent the 2024 season with the Falcons, but struggled to produce across his 13 appearances and 409 snaps with zero sacks and two TFLs. The 29-year-old will provide much needed depth on the edge after the Titans parted ways with Harold Landry earlier this month.
Originally a Giants third-round pick in 2018, Carter quickly emerged as an impact defender with 8.5 sacks and 13 TFLs in his first two years. A torn Achilles sidelined him for most of the 2020 season, but he came back strong in 2021 with 5.0 sacks and six TFLs.
That production was only able to earn him a one-year, $3.5MM deal with the Falcons in 2022. He played in all 17 games with a career-high 909 snaps, the fourth-most of any Falcons defender. He re-signed in Atlanta for $9MM over two years, but saw his role and production decrease across 2023 and 2024.
Carter will be looking to rebuild his value in Tennessee as one of their primary edge defenders. The Titans are returning starter Arden Key, but their remaining outside linebackers have little starting experience. They are likely to augment the position through the draft, potentially by using the No. 1 overall pick on Abdul Carter.
“Originally a Giants third-round pick in 2018”
Third round is cursed for the Giants. Carter is (probably by a wide margin) the best Giants third round pick since Mario Manningham in 2008. Ramses Barden, Jayron Hosley, Chad Jones, Owamagbe Odighizuwa, Darian Thompson, Oshane Ximines, Davis Webb, Damontre Moore, etc. Just a cavalcade of misses. I don’t know if other teams have better track records but going like 16 drafts and only getting one even servicable guy out of the third round seems remarkable to me.
Please look up Dru Phillips
Giants don’t win a Championship without Manningham
I remember when Carter was one of the only defensive linemen out of Georgia to get drafted.
Crazy how things have changed, and glad to see he’s carved out a nice role in the NFL even though injuries have affected that somewhat.
As crazy as this sounds, the Patriots have a spotty record with first, second & third round picks. It’s the late rounds where they find gems like Tom Brady,Julian Edelman, & Matthew Slater. I know it sounds funny that I said the first three rounds, but there’s a few particular positions where they’ve developed a track record.
Perhaps it’s because Belichick used to actually go to talk to college head coaches and watched certain college games himself.