Russell Okung To Visit Steelers; Several Teams Still In Mix

5:57pm: Okung’s visit to Pittsburgh will take place Sunday, tweets Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com.

SATURDAY, 1:57pm: Okung will visit the Steelers, according to NFL.com’s Michael Silver (on Twitter). The seventh-year tackle remains high on the Lions, with the Giants, 49ers and Seahawks still in the mix, per Silver. The Steelers aren’t generally big on pursuing high-priced free agents but do have Kelvin Beachum unsigned as a UFA.

FRIDAY, 5:44pm: Finished with his Giants meeting, Okung will make the trip to Detroit and meet with the Lions’ contingent like he originally planned, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Okung’s Lions summit will take place Saturday. The Giants remain interested in signing the left tackle, per ESPN.com’s Josina Anderson (on Twitter).

8:15pm: The 49ers have also reached out to Okung, according to Tom Pelissero of USA Today (Twitter link). With the veteran tackle set to visit the Giants and Lions on Friday, it doesn’t appear anything has been set up yet with San Francisco.

7:44pm: An executive from a team that spoke with the agent-less Okung said the former first-round pick was very well-prepared and professional, but his shoulder injury that forced him out of the Seahawks’ divisional-round loss to the Panthers could prevent him from securing a big payday, per Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports (Twitter link). Okung had surgery to repair a dislocated shoulder and already sent an email out to the 32 NFL teams pronouncing he’d be fully recovered by summer.

THURSDAY, 7:37pm: Russell Okung had to wait six years to become a free agent, and his initial foray onto the market was delayed by an NFL memo preventing self-represented players from participating in the legal tampering period.

But the seventh-year left tackle’s market is beginning to take shape. Okung will visit the Giants on Friday and the Lions potentially after that, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. Rapoport adds (Twitter link) that since the Giants summit is first on the 28-year-old Okung’s itinterary, they have a chance to keep him from trekking to Detroit.

After cutting Will Beatty and Geoff Schwartz, the Giants have a need at tackle. Despite spending on mega-deals for Olivier Vernon and Janoris Jenkins, and hefty accords in terms of AAV for Damon Harrison and Jason Pierre-Paul, Big Blue still has $20.8MM in cap space, per OverTheCap.

The Giants have Ereck Flowers, who could be shuttled back to right tackle in the event an Okung accord occurs Friday.

Lions left tackle Riley Reiff will enter his fifth-year option season, but new GM Bob Quinn said recently he’d like to upgrade the position for the future.

As the No. 11 player on PFR’s list of 2016’s top 50 free agents, Okung is the top UFA remaining.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images

View Comments (0)