Chukwuma Okorafor wasn’t drafted in 2018 to be thrown into the fire. The Pittsburgh Steelers had Alejandro Villanueva on the left side and Marcus Gilbert on the right. He would, at best, be the swing tackle. And he served as the swing tackle, or more accurately, the tackle-eligible tight end, on game days.
But when Gilbert went down, the coaches turned to Matt Feiler to start. Until Feiler was nursing an injury ahead of a game on the road against the Denver Broncos. Feiler dressed for the game as an emergency option, but Okorafor had to make his first career start lining up against All-Pro Von Miller.