A lot has changed in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ front office and scouting department over the course of the past year and a half or so. One thing that doesn’t appear to have changed, however, is the fundamental starting question in their personnel evaluation: what can this player do well?
When you begin with a starting point of emphasizing what somebody can do rather than focusing on what they can’t, then you can unlock certain talents you might have otherwise overlooked or discarded and find ways to use them. That’s what the Steelers did with Wisconsin edge rusher Nick Herbig, whose college tape is a little more impressive than his frame. But he’s flashing his ability on the field at OTAs.
“The thing that stood out with me about Nick Herbig is his get-off, his motor”, second-year tight end Connor Heyward said last week via the team’s website—another player whose scouting profile emphasized the ‘can dos’. “You can just see him following what T.J. [Watt] does, following what Alex [Highsmith] does. When you do that, it just helps you be that much of a better player”.
Watt and Highsmith are the Steelers’ starting outside linebackers, the position Herbig was ostensibly drafted to play, at least initially. Multiple members of the front office after the fact have acknowledged, even volunteered, his potential position flexibility to move inside, but the sense is that they want to see what he can do outside first.
After all, that’s what he did in college, and he did it well. That is what he put on tape and what got him here in the first place. So he’s not the ideal size. The reality is most players in the NFL are not of ideal size or in some other physical or athletic profile. The perfect prospect doesn’t exist.
And Herbig does have one leg up on most, in fact, something he shares with Heyward. They both come from a football family, and even have an older brother on the Steelers’ current roster, which is certainly convenient. Heyward said that Nick’s brother, Nate, even asked him before the team drafted the younger Herbig what it’s like to play with your brother.
“I just told him, it’s a different side that you’re gonna see, but it’s extremely cool”, he said. “Cam being nine years older than me, I never saw that side of him. Then before a game, he’s somebody completely different, and then after a game we lose, I totally understand why he’s that way, because you pour your heart out into this, and when you don’t get the outcome, it’s devastating”.
We also saw how those intimate connections can serve as a unifying factor. A locker room is supposed to be a proverbial band of brothers, so what easier way to stock the shelves than with actual brothers who have lived that fraternal bond all their lives?
Of course, if the brother can’t hack it or outlasts his utility, he’s not going to stay long. T.J.’s brother, Derek, is gone. Carlos and Khalil Davis are gone. Terrell Edmunds took another offer in free agency after getting likely a lowball deal from Pittsburgh—his eldest brother, Trey, is also gone. We’ll see how long the Herbigs last, both new to the organization this offseason.
