The Titans today announced they have promoted general manager Mike Reinfeldt to senior executive vice president and chief operating officer and moved Ruston Webster to general manager.

Reinfeldt had been general manager the past five seasons. Webster had been vice president of player personnel the past two seasons after being hired away from Seattle. The Titans also have promoted Lake Dawson to vice president of player personnel. Both Webster and Dawson had been mentioned as possible general manager candidates around the NFL over the past two weeks. Dawson interviewed last week with the Rams about their vacancy.

Owner Bud Adams made it clear he wanted one person reporting directly to him. That had been senior executive vice president Steve Underwood, but he retired last August.

“Mike has done a nice job for us as our general manager, but I believe we need someone in place who oversees the entire franchise there in Nashville,” Adams said. “Mike is uniquely qualified for that position with his previous experience. Our VPs have done an outstanding job over the past couple of years managing their departments, but this will streamline things to have someone on site to direct the entire organization and who will execute things the way I want them done.”

Adams also noted that Webster was a finalist for the general manager job given to Reinfeldt in 2007.

The Titans scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon.

Reinfeldt, who played for Adams with the then-Houston Oilers between 1976 and 1983, was chief financial officer of the then-Los Angeles Raiders between 1985 and 1987. He also was an associate athletic director at the University of Southern California before returning to the NFL with Green Bay between 1991 and 1998. He was in Seattle as a senior vice president, then vice president of football operations. He thanked Adams for the promotion.

“I look forward to further integrating all of our departments and believe a lot of good will stem from this move,” Reinfeldt said. “I am really happy for Ruston, because he is ready to be a general manager and I expect he will excel in that role.”

Webster served as interim general manager with the Seattle Seahawks at the end of the 2009 season. He started in college coaching before joining Tampa Bay as a regional scout, then became director of college scouting for Tampa Bay between 2001 and 2004 and director of player personnel in 2005. He left for Seattle in 2006 as vice president of player personnel, a job he held through 2009 before being hired for the same job by Tennessee in 2010.

Dawson also followed Reinfeldt from Seattle, joining the Titans in 2007 as director of pro scouting. He became vice president of football operations last season.

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