After six seasons, the Pittsburgh Steelers continue their offense with Chukwuma Okorafor. On Monday, he was reportedly released along with two others. After being demoted to Broderick Jones in a Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the writing was on the wall for the team’s third-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Coach Mike Tomlin’s interpretation of events differs from that of of Okorafor. 93.7 The Fan’s Joe Starkey explored Okorafor’s tenure in Pittsburgh on his show Tuesday.
He said he mismanaged his career and it was the manager’s idea. “Chucks [Okorafor] filed charges against Tomlin. Here he is on a $29 million contract with over $9 million guaranteed. They paid off Chuk and misidentified him. “He’s a below-average player that doesn’t exist here.”He played sparingly in his first two seasons in Pittsburgh. He made his first career start in Week 12 of 2018, replacing an injured Marcus Gilbert in a loss to the Denver Broncos. He started again until Week 10 of the 2019 season against the Los Angeles Rams. In 2020, Zach Banner won the starting job out of camp, but suffered an injury in the season opener against the New York Giants.
He had to undergo season-ending surgery to repair his knee. Okorafor took over the starting role and was the starting tackle for the rest of the season.The Steelers’ problems with Okorafo began in the 2021 offseason.Starkey argued that the most notable example of how the Steelers have mishandled Okorafor’s tenure in Pittsburgh will come in the 2021 season. In training camp in Pittsburgh, Banner, Okorafor and rookie Dan Moore competed for the starting job after the departure of Alejandro Villanueva Jr. They planned to move Okorafor to left tackle for the first time in his career and start Banner at right tackle .
Even the best laid plans went awry as the Steelers’ hopes for the 2021 season. Banner missed most of camp and is still rehabbing his knee, so the idea of moving Okorafor to the left side was nixed. Let’s dig deeper, Starkey thought. “We have a player who we think is our left tackle. This is our offseason plan. We think Chooks is good enough to move him to left tackle, and with Zach Banner injured, we think the overall plan worked. Do not forget. We will remove the Chuks from their original location, we won’t even move them to OTA, we will reorganize everything. “We couldn’t find someone who would make the right decision to replace the banner.
This is not Dan Moore’s natural position. ”Okorafor started all but one game in 2021 and received an extension that Starkey criticized. The banner was unveiled in March 2022, shortly after Okorafor signed the contract. Pittsburgh went through similar trials and tribulations with Jones during his rookie season. The natural left tackle started just one game, against the Baltimore Ravens, filling in for the injured Moore. The remaining 10 starts came at right tackle after Okorafor was benched. Tomlin did not comment on Jones’ plans for 2023 during his final meeting with the media.
Okorafor will have to find a new home elsewhere for the 2024 season. He turns 27 in March and has 59 caps to his name. A major issue for Pittsburgh has been assessing his value for the 2024 campaign, especially if he is relegated to the bench.Most importantly for the organization, he learned something from the Okorafor experience. The team can demonstrate this by the way they treat Jones.Do you agree with Starkey that Okorafor mismanaged his career in Pittsburgh?
