Jeff Legwold, ESPN Senior Writer 7y

OK, Russell Okung is officially out, now what at left tackle?

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- The Denver Broncos made it official Thursday -- they’re in the market for a new left tackle.

The team went through the formality of telling Russell Okung the Broncos will not pay him a $1 million option bonus that would have engaged the final four years of his contract and included $21 million in guaranteed money, so Okung will be an unrestricted free agent. Since season’s end most everyone in the organization, perhaps Okung as well, never really believed the Broncos were going to pick up the option.

Okung is set to enter his eighth NFL season and, somewhat ironically, is coming off the first year of his career when he played in all 16 games. But, that said, he had shoulder surgery just before the Broncos signed him last year and his season was a struggle at times as he finished tied for the team lead in penalties.

He also had bet on himself in a contract he largely negotiated on his own. It was essentially a one-year deal with a four-year option.

If he played well and the Broncos kicked in the option, he would really get paid -- base salaries of at least $8.5 million in each of the last three years of the deal. And if the Broncos weren’t all that fired up about how things went, they could be done with the deal after a year.

And they are decidedly done with the deal after a year, opting to use their safety net. But they are also now looking -- again -- for someone to fill one of the toughest positions to fill on the depth chart.

Left tackle isn’t quite the same job description as it once was, with the pass rushers moving all over the formation these days and not so locked in to that right defensive end spot like they used to be. But most talent evaluators in the league would still consider left tackle a foundation position on the depth chart, coming in just below quarterback and on par with edge rusher or top-flight cornerback.

This also happens to be what is considered a thin year at tackle in the draft, especially for potential walk-in rookie starters. Which means if the Broncos are intent on snagging a starter with one of their expected 10 draft picks, they might just have to use the first one to do it.

At No. 20 they would almost certainly have a shot at one of the top three tackles on the board – Alabama’s Cam Robinson, Wisconsin’s Ryan Ramczyk or Utah’s Garett Bolles. If the Broncos tried to wait until the second round and beyond, their chances of getting a player who comes in with the ability to start at left tackle as a rookie diminishes greatly unless they uncover the player who surprises and plays well above his draft grade.

Possible, yes, and would certainly be an indication the work was done the right way before the draft, but not always a good way to plan. And this is also a team that hasn’t used a first-round pick on an offensive lineman since Ryan Clady in 2008 -- or five head coaches ago, in Mike Shanahan’s last season.

Free agency, too, brings its own set of issues. Firstly, the list of left tackles who would be the kind of upgrade the Broncos are looking for at the price they will likely have to pay, is a short one. And, at least with two weeks until free agency opens, many of the available players bring age or injury questions.

Because teams aren’t in the habit of letting their left tackles hit the open market unless they feel like they have a good reason.

Cincinnati’s Andrew Whitworth, for example, is proven, but he’s also 35. Minnesota’s Matt Kalil is only 27 and headed into his second contract -- always the most-favored free-agency profile in John Elway’s tenure as the Broncos’ chief football decision-maker -- but he had hip surgery this past season.

Jacksonville’s Kelvin Beachum is also only 27, but he tore his ACL in 2015 and dealt with swelling and soreness in the knee for much of the 2016 season even as he started 15 games (he missed one with a concussion). Jacksonville’s Luke Joeckel is also a free agent, but the Jaguars had moved him from left tackle to left guard.

Detroit’s Riley Reiff is 28 and a former first-round pick set for the open market as well.

But tackles get paid in free agency so the Broncos’ level of confidence in the draft class will be shown by how high they go in the bidding for any tackle in free agency. And if the Broncos decide to part ways with right tackle Donald Stephenson as well -- Stephenson’s base salary of $4 million is guaranteed on March 13 -- the Broncos will be on the hunt for two starting tackles, a rare thing for a potential playoff team.

The bottom line is this is the third consecutive season the Broncos are working through some kind of makeover in the offensive line and for a team that has done so much right over the last six years, it’s time they add that position to the list or this year's playoff miss won't be a one-time thing.

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