Entering the week in the top three in terms of cap space, the Patriots will add a tackle before the free agent market opens. They are bringing in recently released Steeler Chukwuma Okorafor, per NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport.
The Steelers cut Okorafor, 26, earlier this offseason, doing so after benching the veteran right tackle during the season. While the Patriots should be expected to do more at tackle in free agency, Okorafor provides an early option for a team that struggled to keep its tackles healthy in 2023.
It will, however, be interesting to see how this agreement impacts Mike Onwenu‘s free agency.
Okorafor signed a three-year, $29.25MM deal with the Steelers in 2022, staying on as the team’s right tackle. Two years into the deal, the Steelers demoted the veteran starter for first-round pick Broderick Jones.
Okorafor started only seven games, being pulled after unspecified comments he made during the end of the team’s loss to the Jaguars. The Steelers benched him for their Week 8 game, going with Jones, and never turned back to the six-year veteran against last year.
A former third-round Steelers draftee, Okorafor made 59 starts from 2018-23. He served as the team’s primary starter at right tackle from 2020 until the mid-2023 benching.
A Week 1 injury to Zach Banner moved Okorafor into the Steelers’ 2020 lineup, and he started the final 15 games for the AFC North champions that year. The Western Michigan alum did well to collect a midlevel RT contract two years ago, and the Patriots are giving him a bounce-back opportunity.
Last year, the Patriots tried to patch up their right tackle spot by giving aging blocker Riley Reiff a lower-end pact and adding ex-Broncos swingman Calvin Anderson. Neither option worked, and Reiff lasted just one game during a season featuring two IR placements.
The Pats then moved Onwenu from guard back to right tackle, where he played as a rookie. That move may well help Onwenu’s free agent status, with the tackle market not especially deep. The Pats are believed to still want to bring back Onwenu, though this Okorafor pact could conceivably affect those plans.
New England has needs at both tackle spots, with LT Trent Brown due for free agency and likely to depart, and may need a guard as well. It is possible the Patriots could view Onwenu as a guard and attempt to re-sign him as such, but the former sixth-round find is expected to at least test the market.
Okorafor could become a likely cost-effective stopgap, though if that is the case, the Pats will be expected to devote more resources to their left tackle and guard posts.
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