Former Steelers OT Quits Patriots after Getting Benched
The New England Patriots placed former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive tackle Chukwuma Okorafor on the exempt/left squad list, the team announced on Saturday. The exempt/left squad list opens a roster spot for a team without releasing the player. Okorafor signed a one-year, $4 million deal with New England this past offseason.
Okorfor got benched after 12 snaps at left tackle in last Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. It appears that Okorafor was not happy with the team over the benching and left.
According to Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald, Okorafor informed the Patriots he was leaving. This situation was not like last year when Patriots quarterback Matt Corral left without notice.
Karen Guregian of MassLive Sports reports that Okorafor was placed on the exempt/left squad list because he’s reconsidering if he still wants to play football. The team has been in touch with his representatives.
Okorafor, 26, was a third-round pick by the Steelers in the 2018 NFL Draft out of Western Michigan. He was released by Pittsburgh on Feb. 24, saving the team $8.75 million in 2024 salary cap space while incurring a $3.08 million dead cap hit.
A native of Ibadan, Nigeria, Okorafor became a starter for the Steelers in the 2020 season, when he replaced an injured Zach Banner at right tackle in the season opener against the New York Giants.
Okorafor started every game that season, and then when Banner was unable to return from his injury in 2021, moved back from left tackle to right tackle to allow rookie Dan Moore Jr. to play his more natural position.
Okorafor and Moore remained the Steelers’ starting tackles until midway through the 2023 season, when Okorafor was benched in favor of first-round draft pick Broderick Jones.
Okorafor said he was benched for a comment about not wanting to continue to run plays as the team was hopelessly behind the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 8. That ended up being his last action at tackle for the Steelers, outside of a handful of plays as a sixth offensive lineman down the stretch run of the season.
During locker clean-out day after the Steelers’ playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills on Jan. 15, Okorafor seemed resigned to his fate with the team.
“If I had known that was going to be the case, I probably wouldn’t have chose to come back here,” he said. “But at that point, there wasn’t anything I could do about it.”
Okorafor said he still believes that he’s a starting-caliber NFL tackle.
“That’s the plan,” he said. “I think I’m young. I feel like I’ve got a lot of ball left in me.”
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