Seahawks: Free Agent offensive tackle market getting deeper

The Seattle Seahawks need a veteran offensive tackle, and five more have recently been added to the free-agent market.

Even if they don’t want to admit it publicly, the Seattle Seahawks desperately need a veteran offensive tackle. Unfortunately, the free agent market was almost entirely bare this offseason.

The free agent market was so bad initially that the NFL1000 crew at Bleacher Report called Seattle’s Bradley Sowell as the 5th-best LT option on the market. That same exact article called Sowell an “abject disaster,” which should give you an idea of just how poor the free agent market looked.

That has changed over the last few days. A wave of cuts has added at least 5 new offensive tackles to the market that are all significantly better than Sowell.

The lone prize on that list is Kelvin Beechum. His release was more for salary reasons than performance. Plus, Jacksonville was able to replace him with Branden Albert almost immediately. He’s young, talented and experienced; a nice combination to turn into a big payday.

The rest of that list comes with some baggage. For Okung there the combination of his injury history and his strained relationship with Seattle. The rest of the list has an even more extensive injury problems, which is why each of them is now available.

Yet these are the types of players the Seahawks are likely looking for. They want their youngsters to continue to grow. Getting a steady veteran on the cheap helps. If they happen to miss a few games, it just lets guys like George Fant develop more.

Next: Draft pundits predicting Seattle will take a guard at 26

While finding a Joe Thomas-esque franchise LT would be ideal, it doesn’t appear that the Seahawks are interested in paying for that type of player. Instead, finding a cheap veteran and developing your youngsters is what they are looking for. That path became significantly easier with the new names that are now on the market.