Having connections never hurts when you’re looking for a job with the Pittsburgh Steelers. For 2023 fourth-round pick Nick Herbig, he already had his brother on the roster, and multiple former teammates and alumni from the University of Wisconsin.
That list includes T.J. Watt, a 2016 graduate who was the Steelers’ first-round pick in 2017. Herbig has had the opportunity to communicate with him for the past couple of years already, including a little one-on-one session during the Badgers’ Pro Day in 2022. Now on the same field, it’s at a whole other level.
“Now that I get the chance to pick his brain even more, it’s just unthinkable”, he recently told reporters, via the team’s website. “We were just going over some techniques and stuff, little pointers that he was giving me that helps him when he goes through everything. I was just picking his brain as much as I could, man, it’s really a blessing”.
While Herbig was a highly productive college player, Watt was more of a projection. Not only did he switch positions, going from tight end to the edge on defense, he also missed time due to injury. Yet he still emerged as a productive rookie starter. And now he’s passing along his knowledge to Herbig.
“I think it’s just the type of guy T.J. is”, he said of Watt’s willingness to take time out to coach him up, even while he was still in college. “It especially helps that I’m from Wisconsin, too, play the same position. But T.J., that’s just the type of guy he is. He’s always willing to give back, always willing to help the younger people and give off any information he can”.
The rookie unsurprisingly said that Watt is the player he models his game after, which is probably true of at least half of the 3-4 outside linebackers who have come out of college over the past few years. Not many of them get to take the same practice field, however.
What Herbig does at the NFL level remains to be seen, but there is no immediate pressure on him to perform. Opposite Watt is Alex Highsmith, and the Steelers just added a veteran rotational third edge rusher in Markus Golden.
Of course, Herbig isn’t the first younger edge rusher on the team to benefit from Watt’s wisdom. Highsmith himself learned quite a bit working with and talking with Watt over the past three years about playing the position since the Steelers drafted him in the third round in 2020.
And the perennial Pro Bowler has been a regular presence so far this offseason, even during voluntary OTAs, much to the benefit of the young players in question. One thing we can say for sure is that if Herbig doesn’t make it in the NFL, it won’t be because of a lack of a mentor.
