Seahawks sign draft pick Okung
RENTON, Wash. — The Seahawks’ new $58 million left tackle is a second teamer.
Relax, Seattle fans. It’s just the team’s plan for Russell Okung to play catch-up.
Okung, the replacement for retired All-Pro Walter Jones, signed a six-year contract on Friday with Seattle that guarantees him more than $29 million. Then he went right onto the field in full pads for his first practice since he was preparing for Oklahoma State’s Cotton Bowl appearance seven months ago.
The No. 6 overall pick in the NFL draft joined his teammates about 15 minutes into the afternoon practice and was working with the second unit. The thousand or so fans in attendance didn’t even notice the 6-foot-5, 310-pound prize slip onto the field late.
They might not notice him in the starting offense for a week or so.
“He’s not going to be with the first group until he catches up, until he knows what’s going on,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said of the man he named the starter the day the Seahawks drafted him in April.
“Russell is well behind now and he’ll be in a really scramble mode for some time ... But, he’ll get a bunch of reps here once he’s ready to handle that.”
Veteran backup Ray Willis was the first-string right tackle again on Friday.
Carroll estimates that Okung will be back on the first team within 10 days, “and no longer than that.” The coach expects Seattle’s second cornerstone left tackle since 1997 will be ready to play in the preseason opener against Tennessee on Aug. 14.
A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press earlier Friday that Okung’s deal has a potential maximum value of $58 million. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the team isn’t releasing contract details on the last first-round pick to sign.
“It feels great. I would say this is the best job in the world,” said the 22-year-old Okung.
He missed the first six days of Seattle’s training camp. It was reminiscent of the contract holdouts Jones used to conduct during Seahawks’ camps run by Mike Holmgren.
Carroll didn’t hide his belief that Okung was getting bad advice while staying away. The coach said he thinks the deal finally got done because of pressure Okung and his camp felt being the last unsigned first-round pick, after Buffalo got its deal with No. 9 choice C.J. Spiller early Friday.
“They took a stance that it was more important to fight for a contract that they thought (was fair), at the expense of him being out of his football. That’s the way it goes,” Carroll said. “It puts Russell behind. It puts us behind, because they took that stance. It’s unfortunate for a kid dying to get into camp and extremely important that he gets here in a critical position, that he gets help.”
The rookie says he’s not thinking about being the next Jones, only that “I’m going to be the best Russell Okung I can be.”
Asked what took so long, Okung said, “That’s just the business side of it. But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about the season, the future, and all that’s behind me. I’m out here now, that’s all that matters.”
Carroll praised Seahawks first-time general manager John Schneider and team money man executive John Idzik for not increasing Seattle’s offer.
“This was a challenge to John Idzik and John Schneider and myself, how firm are we going to stand,” Carroll said. “We stood very strong.”
Okung signed for a guarantee that is almost exactly the midpoint between the guaranteed $34 million No. 5 overall pick Eric Berry got from Kansas City and the $26 million in guarantees seventh pick Joe Haden received from Cleveland.
That’s why Carroll was asking, what took so long?
“This could have happened sooner, unfortunately,” Carroll said. “It was killing him to not be here. ... It’s unfortunate for the kid.”
“We’re going to make good decisions,” Carroll said of his new regime, in which he holds executive personnel powers. “And we’re going to stand strong on the things that we need to stand on. And that’s why this happened as it did.”