A month away from NFL free agency, Chukwuma Okorafor will be getting a head start.
The New England Patriots released the veteran offensive tackle on Monday, as reported by ESPN’s Field Yates and later processed on the transaction wire.
Okorafor, 27, had arrived in Foxborough last March on a one-year contract carrying a base value of $4 million. But his football future was put on hold after the season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals. He played 12 offensive snaps as the team’s starting left tackle before being replaced by Vederian Lowe.
The following weekend, Okorafor was moved to the left squad list. And as New England’s window for a roster exemption closed, he reverted to the reserves for the remainder of what became a 4-13 campaign.
“Chuks left the building,” former head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters last September. “He’s not with the team. He’s doing some thinking, but at this point in time, he’s not with the team, so I don’t want to get into that. I told you guys I did give him a call. We had a good call. It had nothing to do with football or a roster spot. It had everything to do with just making sure that he was okay.”
The Pittsburgh Steelers selected Okorafor in the third round of the 2018 NFL draft at No. 92 overall.
The 6-foot-6, 320-pound Western Michigan product would appear in 77 games for the organization that filled out his card, starting 59 and staying in for 3,938 offensive snaps. A career right tackle, he signed a three-year, $29.25 million contract extension in 2022 before being released last February.
