Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Nick Herbig has an opportunity to build off his strong two-sack performance on Sunday. With Alex Highsmith likely to miss at least a game or two, the second-year player should see plenty of snaps. This is his chance to give the Steelers, and the NFL, a glimpse of his potential future as a starter.
Herbig has played 244 defensive snaps to date, on which he has produced five sacks. While his snaps favor a higher percentage of pass-rushing opportunities, his production is still impressive. His five career sacks to show for that workload are credible by any measure. And that isn’t even mentioning his three forced fumbles.
The Steelers clearly view Nick Herbig as a starter-capable player, with only one small problem. They don’t have a starting job open for him because they already have T.J. Watt and Highsmith. But over the next couple weeks, he could present them a glimpse of a future without Highsmith.
Obviously, T.J. Watt isn’t going anywhere, hopefully any time soon, and certainly not before Herbig is due for a new contract, via either extension or free agency. Even though Highsmith’s contract is more recent, the Steelers are more likely to move him at some point.
But there is a long, long way to go to get from Point A to Point B because make no mistake Alex Highsmith is a more than fine player. He and Watt already make up arguably the best pass-rush tandem in the NFL. But what if Watt and Herbig could be even better than that?
“He’s hardworking and humble, and I really think that tees up performance for him”, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said of Herbig on Tuesday, via the team’s website. “But he also has ridiculous belief in self. And that’s attractive to coaches. That’s attractive to older players. He’s not a guy that’s ever scared”.
The Steelers selected Nick Herbig in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft. Even he feared that they might have viewed him as an inside linebacker due to his size, but he has already proven that he has the chops to hang on the edge.
Now with Highsmith potentially missing multiple games, Herbig should easily see 100-plus snaps over this stretch. It is an opportunity both for the team and for him to see what he can do with a true starter’s workload. We know he can come in off the bench like a sparkplug and make something happen. But can he sustain a certain level of play over the course of an entire game—for multiple weeks?
We know that Herbig has the best possible mentors to set him up for success. All of his teammates say he is virtually inseparable from Watt, who is a fanatical worker, more than people realize. If he should try and fail, it won’t be for a lack of effort. But does anybody really expect him not to succeed? Perhaps we’re all getting ahead of ourselves, but watching him play, you just see the impact.
