PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – After the release of Mitch Trubisky became public, the Steelers announced two others on Monday. One a starter who lost his job, another who struggled in three years of starting.
When 2018 third-round pick Chukwuma Okorafor suffered a shoulder injury this past season, it opened the door for first-round pick Broderick Jones to start at tackle. Okorafor knew it as did most everyone around the team, that day meant the end of Chuks with the Steelers. Officially, February 12 is official end date, released at a savings of $8.75 million with a dead cap number of just over $3 million according to ‘overthecap.com’. Okorafor was ranked 55th among NFL tackles according to PFF, which is actually higher than Jones (62nd) or Dan Moore, Junior (63rd).
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While Pressley Harvin III will save the Steelers a million dollars this season with a $20,183 dead cap hit, his release was more about performance. In his third season, Harvin was 34th in punting average (43.8), that was over a yard behind Brad Wing, who punted for the Steelers for a pair of games while Harvin was injured. While touted for his holding ability, Mike Tomlin grew more openly critical of the job of the Steelers 2021 seventh-round pick did in 2023.
"I'll acknowledge that Pressley wasn't consistent enough particularly down the stretch," Tomlin said at his season-ending news conference in January.
Overall the Steelers saved over $12.6 million against the salary cap on Monday, which puts them nearly $3 million over the current compliance number.