Pittsburgh Steelers rookie OLB Nick Herbig was one of the standouts of the team’s first training camp practice on Thursday, Alex Kozora crediting him with multiple pressures. Most of Herbig’s work came against OT Le’Raven Clark, and Mark Kaboly of The Athletic reported that Clark stayed after practice to work with OL Coach Pat Meyer.
“Another surprise was the way Nick Herbig owned Le’Raven Clark for two sacks. His rip move was impossible to stop, and that must have gotten to Clark, who worked after practice with Pat Meyer on his sets,” Kaboly wrote.
Clark is competing for Pittsburgh’s swing tackle job, and getting beat multiple times by a rookie on the first day of camp surely isn’t going to help him win the job. Clark’s someone who’s been in the league a long time but hasn’t had much recent success. Pittsburgh could be his last chance at sticking in the NFL.
So it makes sense he’d look to get extra work in. Herbig isn’t your traditional 3-4 outside linebacker, and Clark likely wasn’t used to his speed and craftiness off the edge. But with how the league is trending toward those sorts of positionless athletes, he’s going to have to get used to it to stick in the modern NFL.
As for Herbig, a good first day of camp is a nice way to get his NFL career going. There were questions — and still are — about whether keeping him at outside linebacker instead of moving him off-ball was the right move. If he can show that he can consistently win with the pass rush, Pittsburgh’s decision will look like a very good one.
With Clark and Herbig likely working second team for the majority camp, expect a lot of battles between these two throughout the summer. Herbig wants to prove he can consistently win and win with a variety of moves, while Clark needs to show that he can effectively counter and not let Herbig get the better of him.
Clark’s roster spot likely depends on it. He might be out of luck anyway if Broderick Jones wins the left tackle job and Dan Moore Jr. moves to swing tackle, but he has to give himself at least a fighting chance to stick on the 53. Hence, the work with Meyer after practice to show he’s working hard and also trying to learn what he can do to counter Herbig better.
Clark vs. Herbig is a matchup I’m very interested to read about in Alex’s camp diary after practice ends today.
