Tennessee Titans free agency: How far is the offensive line from dominance?

The Tennessee Titans are set to be big players in the NFL offseason. While all eyes are on the Titans sitting atop the 2016 NFL Draft, it is free agency that fans should be most interested in. While other teams have more caps, several teams are committed to not being big spenders (for what ever reason).

On the other hand, it is make or break time for the Tennessee Titans head coach, but the new GM is in a position of power. That bodes for a really interesting mix of desperation (from Mike Mularkey) and refusal to overpay someone in free agency just to say you are making moves.

What I think that means is that the Titans are poised to be in the mix for some of the best players in free agency, but they won't shoot themselves in the foot to get those guys.

This staff has preached "dominance" all through this process so, let's look at how far they are from this "dominance" position by position.

Offensive line

How many players do they need?

I think this one is pretty clear, you need a new left guard, center and right tackle and not necessarily in that order. They are actually pretty solid on depth with Jeremiah Poutasi and Brian Schwenke if they can get those other positions filled with starter quality players. You could even make the case that with the right coaching, Poutasi could be a very good left guard, but that is a topic for another time.

What do they have?

They have a very good left tackle in Taylor Lewan. For those that forget, sack totals are product of the offensive line as a whole and when 60% of it need to be replaced, there is only so much a good left tackle can do. That being said, I don't see any reason why he wouldn't be a very good right tackle in the league too and he fits the athletic model that the NFL will be shifting too at right tackle.

Chance Warmack gets a passing grade to be because I think the play calls have always had him doing things he isn't comfortable with. He pulls too much and isn't allowed to go one-on-one in run situations as often as he should. If he is put in a more aggressive run blocking scheme I think he will be a good starter.

Top free agent targets

Blue Chips:

-Evan Mathis, G

-Mitchell Schwartz, RT

-Kelechi Osemele OT/G

-Alex Mack, C

Other targets:

-Manny Ramirez, C/G

-Jeff Allen, G

-Geoff Schwartz, G

-Joe Barksdale, RT

-Jahri Evans

So as you can see there are definitely some veteran guys in this free agency class that can come in and help immediately. If the Tennessee Titans are willing to spend money (like $30+ million per year on these three OL) it could look like this:

LT: Taylor Lewan

LG: Kelechi Osemele

C: Alex Mack

RG: Chance Warmack

RT: Mitchell Schwartz

Now that is a line that you can have a 1,500 yard rusher behind.