UPDATE, 9:03 a.m. Friday: According to ESPN’s Field Yates, Okorafor’s contract with the Patriots is a one-year deal with a base value of $4 million. Okorafor can earn up to $8.25 million in the deal, likely based on incentives. The $8.25 million is just below the $8.75 million that Okorafor was set to make in Pittsburgh for the 2024 season before being released in early February.
The New England Patriots are signing OT Chukwuma Okorafor, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
No terms of the contract have officially been reported or announced but we’ll update this post when they are. According to one Pats’ salary cap analyst, the Okorafor deal didn’t appear on Thursday’s transaction list and might not be made official until next week.
Okorafor, the Steelers’ third-round pick in 2018, started 59 games for Pittsburgh from 2018 through 2023. He signed a three-year extension in March 2022 and became a fixture as the team’s starting right tackle, replacing an injured Zach Banner early in the 2020 season.
But Okorafor was sent to the bench midway through 2023 after reportedly making a disparaging remark about the Steelers’ offense during their Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. He did not start and hardly played the remainder of the season, giving up his spot to rookie Broderick Jones and only logging a handful of snaps as a sixth offensive lineman.
In our annual sack breakdown, we charged Chukwuma Okorafor with 1.5 sacks across his seven starts. Though not a liability in any one area, he was a below-average run blocker and average pass protector whose calling card was durability and overall health. He rarely missed time due to injury.
Along with QB Mitch Trubisky and P Pressley Harvin III, Pittsburgh announced Okafor’s release the day after the Super Bowl though Okorafor’s release didn’t become official until a week later. GM Omar Khan said the moves were made to give those players the chance to sign elsewhere ahead of free agency. To date, two of the three have with Trubisky returning to the Buffalo Bills while Okorafor goes to the Patriots. It’s the first signing of the post-Bill Belichick era with Jerod Mayo taking over as the team’s new head coach.
Chukwuma Okorafor, still just 26, has appeared in 77 NFL games.
The Steelers head into free agency with two starting tackles in Dan Moore Jr. and Broderick Jones. The team has expressed a desire to move Jones over to left tackle, though it’s unclear if that will happen this offseason. This year’s draft class is exceptionally strong at offensive tackle and offers several right tackle options in Alabama’s JC Latham and Georgia’s Amarius Mims.
