When you are roommates with someone, you find out a lot about the other person’s tendencies, personality, cleanliness, amongst other things.
For Pittsburgh Steelers OT Broderick Jones and OLB Nick Herbig, you find out how to try and beat each other the next day at practice.
While the two rookies where at training camp together at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Jones and Herbig were roommates along with Nick’s big brother Nate Herbig and LG Isaac Seumalo. While it was a feel-good story for the Herbig brothers to room together after both joining the team this offseason, Nick Herbig as well as Jones used the opportunity of rooming together to continue to hone their craft away from the practice field and meetings, going over the tape to see how each guy could improve against the other.
“I love going against Nick because he’s my roommate (at camp),” Jones said according to Jeff Hathhorn of 93.7 The Fan. “We sit down at the end of the night and watch our little clips if we go against each other. We always talk smack to each other. It’s a good rivalry. I love him to death. I love the way he plays. He plays with passion, every time I go up against him it’s a good battle.”
That’s high praise and admiration from Jones to Herbig who had a fantastic preseason. Perhaps rooming with all the offensive linemen did Herbig a service as he got extra exposure to tape with them, talking through how he could improve on specific reps and what he could do different after a loss to have a better chance of winning that same situation the next time.
Jones lauded Herbig after his preseason debut against the Buccaneers when he got in on two sacks in only 13 defensive snaps played. He has flashed as a pass rusher, getting 3.5 sacks in three preseason games, winning a multitude of ways on his path to the quarterback. Not bad for a fourth-round pick who is slated to be a rotational player this season for Pittsburgh behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
Herbig may not crack the starting lineup anytime soon, but he will be contributing often as a rotational edge rusher for the Steelers as a rookie. Those battles between Herbig and Jones should continue to help both guys improve, having an iron-sharpening-iron principle as both rookies continue to grow and develop in their first seasons in the league.
