PITTSBURGH -- The exorbitant contracts for left tackles in this free-agency cycle accentuate what coaches and personnel evaluators have been saying privately for quite some time:
There's a scarcity of elite offensive tackle talent coming out of recent drafts.
The result is a foursome of Russell Okung, Andrew Whitworth, Riley Reiff and Matt Kalil earning contracts averaging a combined $47.25 million in per-year payouts. All four players now rank in the NFL's top 11 in this category. Whitworth has made a stellar late-career push, but some of the others on this list aren't outdistancing the Browns' Joe Thomas on the Hall of Fame trail.