He’s gotten lost in the shuffle at this point with the swell at his position, but Pittsburgh Steelers fans should not sleep on safety Nat Berhe. Not because he is going to be starting at safety (though it’s not entirely impossible), but because he’s an easy guy to like. Ask him to share a Primanti sandwich and he’ll probably ask you what time you’re available.
The fifth-year safety came over in free agency after spending his first four seasons with the New York Giants. While he spent most of his time on special teams, he did get the opportunity to make a couple of starts, and also occasionally had a role in sub-packages.
Berhe was the second safety the Steelers signed this year in free agency, the first being former Green Bay Packers safety Morgan Burnett, whom most expect is going to start opposite Sean Davis this year in the wake of the releases of Mike Mitchell and Robert Golden prior to that. J.J. Wilcox was also subsequently released, making Davis the only remaining safety from last year’s roster.
Following the drafting of Terrell Edmunds and Marcus Allen, though, the group has been restocked, and Berhe has been put on the back burner behind the more exciting toys—the young returning starter, the higher-priced free agent starter, and a pair of shiny new rookies.
That doesn’t necessarily bother the other guy in the room. Berhe held a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last month during which he talked about his willingness to do anything to help the team win and how he has wanted to play for the Steelers and Head Coach Mike Tomlin since he met with the team at the Combine the year he was drafted.
A frequent Reddit user himself, he certainly didn’t seem to have much trouble ingratiating himself to those participating in the session, regularly giving love back to those who expressed it, working to arrange meetups with fans, and looking to start gaming sessions. He might be second to JuJu Smith-Schuster on the social media front.
But he also talked about how the Steelers were a target because they fit his hard-hitting playing style, calling them ‘Hittsburgh’; he talked about wanting to play in the divisional rivalries Pittsburgh has, even though he’s new to the team. He talked about being able to play anywhere in the back end—and even as a dime linebacker.
Berhe’s focus in coming to Pittsburgh is simple: “win games, win games, win games”, he said. The Steelers won 13 last year. The Giants have only won twice that number over the course of his four-year tenure there.
No matter what his role is going to be—and that is still yet to be determined on the practice field and in preseason games—I think Steelers fans are going to like him.
