Regrading the Seattle Seahawks 2010 NFL draft class
By Lee Vowell
Round 1 Pick 6: Russell Okung: B-
Though the Seahawks have mostly done very good things with their draft classes since 2012, one area they have struggled with is choices along the offensive line. Russell Okung was the beginning of this trend. But offensive tackle Okung wasn’t a bad player. The most frustrating thing about his career is he actually got better after he stopped playing for Seattle.
It’s almost easy to forget that Okung, though, did make a Pro Bowl during his time in Seattle and that was in 2012. The next season Okung got hurt and played in only 8 games. One of the things that hindered Okung while in Seattle was he would get injured. He never played a full season with the Seahawks.
In the three years after Okung stopped playing home games at CenturyLink (2016 to 2018), though, Okung missed just two games total and made another Pro Bowl in 2017.
Okung would also have fared better with better coaching early in his career. Tom Cable was Seattle’s offensive line coach and he was not a good one. Cable’s ran a lot of run schemes with lots of moving parts and this did not suit Okung’s skill-set. And Cable did not seem to be a good enough coach to get Okung to fit Cable’s idea better.
Russell Okung wasn’t a great first pick in the Carroll and Schneider era, but he wasn’t a bad one either.