LT Options

[HaroldSeattle]

Tough question. From what I understand about Pete, he values younger players because they are more reliable/healthy than guys that have been banged around for years.
If I had to choose, Graham is a top 3? TE. Okung I would guess as about average when considering missed games and penalties. It is easier to replace a TE, but finding top tier talent is the hard part. If both can play in game 1 of next year, I go for the top tier talent (TE) and hope to coach up a youngster at LT.
Now, if our QB was either Manning, or Brady as examples, I might take the LT because they have no mobility nor escape ability.

As far as age goes Graham is older, as for injuries Graham has had some pretty major ones. Read this article about Graham as a saint.

Jimmy Graham's shoulder injury hurting Saints' O

Jimmy Graham is coming off one of the worst performances of his career, dropping a career-high three passes and failing to reel in two more that were broken up as they hit his hands last week.

Although Graham hasn't been the same since his early October right shoulder sprain, coach Sean Payton is not allowing any excuses on the heels of the New Orleans Saints' embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers.

The Saints have been tight-lipped about the particulars of Graham's injury, but there are signs that it is more serious than originally reported.

The All-Pro tight end is no stranger to lingering injuries. His consistency has taken a severe blow due to a 2012 season-long wrist injury, a 2013 torn plantar fascia and the current shoulder sprain



Now he has a torn patellar tendon, an injury that athletes have had a tough time coming back from. You sure Graham would be your choice over Okung?

 

[Uhsplit]

Not sure about Sweezy myself, don't think he's worth $5 million. Not a pass blocker, but pretty good run blocker. Then theirs the flags, take a look at this.

View attachment 85101


Mmmm too hard to read. Here's the link Seattle Seahawks - 2015 Penalties - View by Player - NFL Penalty Stats Tracker - List/Statistics/Data of NFL Penalties - 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

I think you are pretty much spot on regarding Sweezy. Sweezy lead the OL in unnecessary roughness penalties. Those can be good or bad.
Again, Okung leads the team in false starts. You would expect a rookie who played tackle every game to have lead the team in that catagory. I'm not busting RO's ballz. I know I am vocal that he is not worth what he is producing year in and out.

 

[Uhsplit]

As far as age goes Graham is older, as for injuries Graham has had some pretty major ones. Read this article about Graham as a saint.

Jimmy Graham's shoulder injury hurting Saints' O

Jimmy Graham is coming off one of the worst performances of his career, dropping a career-high three passes and failing to reel in two more that were broken up as they hit his hands last week.

Although Graham hasn't been the same since his early October right shoulder sprain, coach Sean Payton is not allowing any excuses on the heels of the New Orleans Saints' embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers.

The Saints have been tight-lipped about the particulars of Graham's injury, but there are signs that it is more serious than originally reported.

The All-Pro tight end is no stranger to lingering injuries. His consistency has taken a severe blow due to a 2012 season-long wrist injury, a 2013 torn plantar fascia and the current shoulder sprain



Now he has a torn patellar tendon, an injury that athletes have had a tough time coming back from. You sure Graham would be your choice over Okung?

I knew Jimmy had some health issues. I had believed RO had missed many more games than JG.

 

[blstoker]

per Sheil Kapadia

On Thursday night, Seattle Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung launched his GREATER foundation, which aims to connect underserved students to the technology community.

A month from now, he could be on a team in another city.

It's been a busy offseason for Okung. He had surgery after sustaining a shoulder injury in the team's divisional round playoff game against the Carolina Panthers. He's developed a program to help youth in the community he's called home for the last six years. And in a few weeks, he will hear pitches from teams as he represents himself without an agent in free agency.

Before Okung's launch party officially got started, he took some time to talk about everything that's going on, including the possibility of re-signing with the Seahawks.

Q: Given your uncertain future in Seattle, what happens with the foundation if you sign elsewhere?

Okung: I'm a fixture here in Seattle. It's a place I live. I have a house out here. This is where I want to be for the rest of my life. So regardless of whatever happens in football, this is where I'm going to be. I'm committed to Seattle, and so far it's been very committed to me. There's a lot of great work I get to do out here, and I see it as a privilege to be here.

Q: Have you had any formal conversations with the Seahawks since the season ended about re-signing?

Okung: Yeah, we've had some conversations. We've been going back and forth. It's going to come down to when free agency starts. So we may figure something out, we may not. It's up in the air for now for us to come to terms.

It's very possible that I could stay here. But I know my value, and I'm not going to settle for anything less than that. If it works out, great. And if it doesn't, that's great as well.

Q: It recently was reported that you have retained former agent and Washington Redskins executive J.I. Halsell to counsel you. What was the reasoning behind bringing him on board?

Okung: He's more of a consultant. He adds an analytical as well as a support value. So that's his realm. But I'll handle all negotiations, direct negotiations, at the table myself.

Q: Was having him as a consultant always part of the plan?

Okung: It was always in my plans. I think the common assumption is I don't have correct counsel, and I do. Some people are just starting to understand that.

Q: What inspired you to build your Greater Foundation around this specific cause?

Okung: Honestly, I've been saying that I think Seattle is one of the best places in the world. I think there's just a huge space for innovation as well as technology. But what I didn't like as I was going to the south end and to the central district is these kids had no exposure, no access to the technology. They couldn't partake in that dream. So I wanted to be able to share that with them. It's been a great gift to me from some really great entrepreneurs and great venture capitalists out here. I wanted to share that as well too. That's how Greater was formed in a sense up here in Seattle. ... I think minorities, blacks, Latinos, women deserve to be a part of this, regardless of your socioeconomic status. You deserve to understand everything that the technology sector has to offer.

Q: What's the practical way of getting kids to interact and learn from these leaders in technology?

Okung: It starts with people who believe in the vision, who believe in the dream. We talk about servitude all the time. That's our mantra as a foundation. So what we do is in partnering with these local organizations ... we're at Seattle Urban Academy. We're bringing leadership and coding workshops there too. We're at Urban Impact, City Year, and we're also collaborating with TAF to work with them in terms of entrepreneurship and building programming around that. We're very grass-roots oriented. We're down with the people, and we're down with getting our hands dirty. We work with individuals who don't mind that. If we can be the medium for that, I think a lot of companies now, there's a race to understand diversity and inclusion. So if we can be the medium for that and buffer that, we'll do really well.

Q: What are you hoping some of the tech leaders take away from this?

Okung: I've always thought the technology sector could look more like America. America is very diverse. There's different people from all sorts of backgrounds, all sorts of dreams and aspirations. I think the technology sector has kind of missed on that. But there are some great people out here in Seattle who believe it can be better. So as I've been creating those relationships, I found out there's a lot of people who believe in the same things. I'm a huge advocate of STEM. I'm a huge advocate of kids getting the best resources they can possibly get. Just working with everybody now to make it happen.

 

[MKHawk]

The "public" interest in A&M's tackle during the combine seems like an attempt to rein Okung's demands back in a bit.

 

[MrS]

Clayton is still holding to his belief that okung is worth a 1 year $4m deal.

 

[blstoker]

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that the Seahawks have expressed interest in re-signing LT Russell Okung to a new contract.

However, Rapoport adds that Okung is intent on hitting the free agent market in the coming days.

Okung mentioned a few weeks ago that he was in talks with the Seahawks about a return, but it was “up in the air” at that point in time.

“Yeah, we’ve had some conversations,” Okung said, via Sheil Kapadia of ESPN. “We’ve been going back and forth. It’s going to come down to when free agency starts. So we may figure something out, we may not. It’s up in the air for now for us to come to terms.

“It’s very possible that I could stay here. But I know my value, and I’m not going to settle for anything less than that. If it works out, great. And if it doesn’t, that’s great as well.”

Okung has elected to represent himself in free agency, but has also hired an agency to help consult during the process.

Okung, 27, played out his six-year, $48.5 million contract that included $30 million guaranteed. He made a base salary of $4.8 million for the 2015 season and is in line to test the open market in the coming months.

In 2015, Okung appeared in 13 games for the Seahawks and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 26 offensive tackle of 76 qualifying players.

We have Okung featured in our Top 100 – 2016 Free Agents list.

 

[SonnyCID]

Clayton is still holding to his belief that okung is worth a 1 year $4m deal.

Clayton is usually pretty sharp, but that is a rediculously stupid valuation. That would make him the 23rd highest paid LT as of now in terms ir average. And on a one year deal? Hes smoking crack.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Clayton is usually pretty sharp, but that is a rediculously stupid valuation. That would make him the 23rd highest paid LT as of now in terms ir average. And on a one year deal? Hes smoking crack.

Maybe Clayton is going on the fact that Okung is injury prone and misses chunks of games.

 

[SonnyCID]

Maybe Clayton is going on the fact that Okung is injury prone and misses chunks of games.

Even considering those issues, hes worth more than being the 23rd highest paid LT on a one year deal. That just seems crazy to me. Okung is worth more than a punter.

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Clayton is usually pretty sharp, but that is a rediculously stupid valuation. That would make him the 23rd highest paid LT as of now in terms ir average. And on a one year deal? Hes smoking crack.

Totally agree with you. Okung going get either a nice multi year deal, if not someone will offer him a big short term deal. Most likely something in between. It's supply and demand. Supply is low, demand is high.
I think Clayton got carried away when reports came out that Okung was getting surgery, but Okung says he'll be ready by June, so not really a problem for teams. I'm sure they'll want to see his medical records, but unless there is some thing bad in them, teams will make him offers.

 

[jerseyhawksfan79]

Even considering those issues, hes worth more than being the 23rd highest paid LT on a one year deal. That just seems crazy to me. Okung is worth more than a punter.

True, it'll be interesting to see what he gets on the market.

 

[MrS]

Even considering those issues, hes worth more than being the 23rd highest paid LT on a one year deal. That just seems crazy to me. Okung is worth more than a punter.

That is basically his logic, okung is injury prone and just had surgery. I don't think its ridiculous with his history to have teams uneasy about a big multi year deal for him.

according to PFF he is the 26th ranked tackle? 23rd ranked money doesnt sound so unreasonable. I am not saying that is what will happen, but its possible.

I would take a one year deal and draft a LT in the first round and see how it all shakes out. best case okung plays well and we are able to sign him to a multi year deal and the draftee slides to RT. worst case he stinks and he is out of our hair and the draft pick is our new starting LT two years from now.

 

[blstoker]

 

[boogiewithstu2007]

Man we almost have to resign Okung injury prone or not... I can't imagine going into the season without a good LT and a bunch of young guy's on the line... We've gotten away with some shaky O-line play because of Russ's athleticism... If we had a Peyton Manning type pocket passer we would a been in BIG trouble last year.... We can't just ignore our O-line though, we need to protect Russ and let him do his thing and not run around for his life next year.... Way too much of that going on early in the year last year and it got us in a hole... O-line definitely improved as the season rolled on, but let's not take a giant step back....

 

[blstoker]

 

[blstoker]

Donald Penn

 

[blstoker]

 

[dude82]

Alvin Bailey has signed with the Browns, so if the Hawks lose Okung and are looking for a plan B on the roster, it won't be Bailey.

Seahawks' free-agent lineman Alvin Bailey signs with Cleveland Browns

 

[HaroldSeattle]

Alvin Bailey has signed with the Browns, so if the Hawks lose Okung and are looking for a plan B on the roster, it won't be Bailey.

Seahawks' free-agent lineman Alvin Bailey signs with Cleveland Browns

He was never a option as starter.