(Photo of Chuk's Okorafor's cleats from Carlee Annabella's Instagram)
The Steelers are going through a changing of the guard on the offensive line, as staples like Ramon Foster, Maurkice Pouncey, Alejandro Villanueva and David DeCastro are no longer on the team.
The offensive line will have four new starters upfront in 2021, and Chuks Okorafor is technically the only starter returning, as Zach Banner only played one game last year at right tackle before suffering a season-ending ACL tear.
Okorafor will be moving to the left side in 2021 and will be protecting Ben Roethlisberger's blind side, a new role that many are skeptical about being that Okorafor didn't grade out well at right tackle last season. According to Pro Football Focus, of the 79 tackles that they graded last year, Okorafor ranked 70th.
Okorafor is heading into a contract year, so he'll need to prove to the Steelers that he can be the answer long-term at left tackle. And he'll do so with remembering two of his mentors.
Pittsburgh artist Carlee Annabella posted on Instagram yesterday that she painted cleats for Okorafor that have Pouncey and Foster on them.
Pouncey and Foster are painted on one of the cleats and their names appear on the back along with their jersey number. "Legends Live Forever" is written on both of the cleats, and then "The Standard is the Standard" is written on the Pouncey cleat and "Greatness" is written on the Foster cleat.
Okorafor posted a picture of his cleats on his Instagram Story and wrote, "New Era but blueprint been set ...." Okorafor also included two goat emojis and tagged Pouncey and Foster in the post.
Pouncey responded back by saying that it's Okorafor's "time now" and that he knows he's going to "ball out."