4 Steelers who robbed the team blind in 2023

2. OT Chukwuma Okorafor

I've got to be honest, I hated the Chukwuma Okorafor extension at the time. I thought that Chuks was a bottom-tier starting right tackle, and I never understood why the Steelers would lock themselves into Okorafor long term. Against my better judgment, the team gift-wrapped him a 3-year, $29.25 million contract during the 2022 offseason.

After lowering the base salary on the first year of his deal, the Steelers took a lofty $13.08 million cap hit with Okorafor's contract in 2023. This is a heck of a lot of money to pay an underwhelming tackle who was benched halfway through the season. Since then, Pittsburgh has been forking up disgustingly large game checks to a player who literally is doing nothing to help the team.

If you look at Chuks for what he is -- a former third-round pick -- I didn't have an issue with him being a stop-gap starter. However, when you are in Year 6 and the performance has made minimal improvement, we know that he has no business being in the starting lineup.

My assessment of both Okorafor and Dan Moore Jr. has always been that these two players are NFL swing tackles. Neither is or has been good enough to be what a team settles for in their starting lineup. It just sucks that the Okorafor robbed the team blind and they got nothing to show for it. Pittsburgh can save nearly $9 million by cutting him during the 2024 offseason, and I would be shocked if they didn't.