Chicago Bears: 5 free agent tackles to replace Charles Leno
By Ryan Heckman
Chicago Bears’ potential replacements for Charles Leno: Russell Okung
After being drafted as the sixth overall pick in 2010, former Oklahoma tackle Russell Okung spent his first six seasons with the Seattle Seahawks. For a decade now, Okung has been an above average tackle in the league and, for the most part, has always been pretty reliable. Okung has played in eight games or less just three times in 11 seasons.
The problem is, two of those three seasons happened to come in the past two years alone. Last year with his only season in Carolina, Okung played in just seven games. Prior to being traded to the Panthers, Okung was with the Los Angeles Chargers for three seasons. In 2019, Okung played in just six games for the Chargers.
Before the last two seasons, Okung had a nice stretch of five seasons in which he played 13 games or more. The interesting thing, here, is that Okung has only played a full season once in his career. Typically, he’s missed one or two games due to injury but it wasn’t usually anything serious. Again, aside from those three seasons, Okung has played double-digit games.
The biggest downside to Okung in Chicago would be the fact that he’d likely still cost a decent chunk of change. The Bears cleared roughly $9 million in releasing Leno, but some of that could be used to re-sign Allen Robinson as well. The Bears have to be careful when looking at signing another tackle.