When the Pittsburgh Steelers signed veteran OLB Markus Golden, he was viewed by many, including our Josh Carney, as the perfect mentor for rookie OLB Nick Herbig. During a media session before Pittsburgh’s practice today, Herbig talked about his close relationship with Golden.
“Markus is my dawg, man,” Herbig said via Steelers.com. “From Day One, me and him have kind of connected, always saw eye-to-eye from Day One. We relate to a lot of things together, we’re both undersized pass rushers as you would say, but he just tells me every day to keep going and keep working hard. He’s like a big brother to me.”
Obviously, Herbig has a biological big brother on the team in OL Nate Herbig, but Golden can offer more insight as to what it takes to being an edge rusher in the NFL. Both Golden and Herbig have arms just over 30 inches long, which is small for the position, but Golden has had a lot of success at the NFL despite not having ideal size.
That can certainly play into the advice he’s giving Herbig, who has an endless motor and has impressed with the energy he’s brought to camp, particularly in backs on ‘backers. He’s a guy who’s going to make an impact on clear passing downs and also on special teams, as his relentlessness is going to allow him to make plays.
Herbig could end up being Pittsburgh’s best value pick of the draft. It was a fantastic move to bring in Golden as a veteran pass rusher to improve Pittsburgh’s depth, but his role as a mentor to Herbig shouldn’t be understated. It was a really nice fit between player and team, and Golden is someone who can help spell Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt while providing wisdom as a veteran defender to Herbig and other younger members of Pittsburgh’s defense.
The Steelers are in a much better spot at the outside linebacker position than they were last year. They’re going to be a worse team if Watt or Highsmith are forced to miss time, but Golden has proven he can be a really solid contributor at the NFL level, while Herbig has solid potential as a pass rusher.
Outside linebacker is now one of the Steelers’ strongest position groups after being really weak behind Watt and Highsmith last year, and it’s another area where Omar Khan’s influence on the roster is clearly felt. It’s a group that should be a lot of fun to watch.
