New Tennessee Titans coach is a finalist for a lifetime achievement award

The offseason is when every fan base gets to hope and dream that this year might be their year, but it has been a long time since the Tennessee Titans have had an offseason like this.

You could argue that this is shaping up to be the best free agent class in Tennessee Titans history with the additions of Calvin Ridley, Lloyd Cushenberry, L'Jarius Sneed (a trade, but I still count it), Chidobe Awuzie, Tyler Boyd, and Tony Pollard.

Those guys are all hand-picked by new head coach Brian Callahan and newly empowered GM Ran Carthon, which makes it even more exciting because fans are allowed to hope that this brain trust will have a better track record in free agency than what went down under Mike Vrabel and Jon Robinson.

Even though all of that is very exciting, the most exciting thing for Titans fans, and the thing that gives everyone hope that things can be different this year, is the addition of offensive line coach Bill Callahan.

It isn't hyperbolic to say that he is the best offensive line coach in the NFL, but it is easy to dismiss just how good he is because fans have been burned so many times before by offensive line coaches not named Mike Munchak.

But, if you are one of the fans who hasn't bought into Bill Callahan's impact yet (or if you are someone else who doesn't want it to work out), now is a great time to tell you that Callahan is one of five finalists for the Paul Zimmerman Award.

Just reading the bullet points of why he is nominated makes your jaw drop.

In 22 years of coaching offensive linemen in the NFL, he has sent 14 offensive linemen to 35 Pro Bowls. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that means that if Callahan is coaching your offensive line then you can expect 1.5 Pro Bowl appearances each year.

Let that sink in for a second...in an average season, he is getting multiple Pro Bowl performances out of your offensive line.

The Tennessee Titans haven't had multiple offensive linemen go to the Pro Bowl in 15 years (since 2008). Again, Bill Callahan is pulling off something every season that the Tennessee Titans haven't been able to do in 15 years, that is astounding.

Will Callahan be able to do that in year one with Tennessee? It is hard to say. second-year guard Peter Skoronski and rookie left tackle J.C. Latham have the first-round pedigree while Lloyd Cushenberry is going to get a lot of attention after getting a big contract. It is possible that two of those three could make it this year.

Instead of putting the cart before the horse here, let's just set the bar low and hope for slightly above-average offensive line play this season. That would be a massive step forward and then we can really start to set some lofty expectations.