The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their first preseason game of 2023 on Friday night, and during that contest it will be interesting to see the players who get time at the center position. One of those could be new offensive lineman Nate Herbig, who was signed to a two-year, $8 million contract back in March.
So far during training camp, Herbig has received some practice snaps at center, in addition to both guard spots. Because of that, it’s a good bet as to why head coach Mike Tomlin was asked on Sunday to comment on what he’s seen out of Herbig at center during training camp.
“You know, I don’t know that I have any significant impressions thus far,” Tomlin said, according to video on steelers.com. “I appreciate his versatility; I appreciate his experience. That’s why he’s here.”
While Herbig apparently didn’t play any snaps at center in college at Stanford, he has logged some minimal playing time over the ball since entering the NFL: 49 snaps in total, according to Pro Football Focus, with 47 of those coming in 2021 as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. Last year during the preseason, Herbig did log 16 snaps at center as a member of the New York Jets. All 16, however, came in the team’s preseason opener. He didn’t play any center in the regular season last year.
Back to the Steelers’ preseason opener on Friday night in Tampa. If Mason Cole starts at center, it isn’t likely that he’ll be in the game long. Whoever follows Cole will be interesting to see as Kendrick Green and Ryan McCollum also are options to play center in that contest in addition to Herbig. That said, if the Steelers are serious about Herbig possibly being the team’s backup to Cole in 2023, one would think he would get some playing time at that position in each of the team’s three preseason games. We’ll see.
Herbig has a lot of versatility, so we know we’ll see him play guard Friday night, possibly even on both sides of the center. At worst, he’s on pace to be the team’s top swing guard come Week One.
To close out this post on Herbig, I wanted to point out the fact that while it doesn’t appear as though he played center in college at Stanford, he did play some right tackle for his alma mater. In fact, according to Pro Football Focus, Herbig played 32 total snaps at right tackle in his three years at Stanford. Twenty-eight of those snaps came in Stanford’s 2018 game against Oregon. I have included that 2018 game in this post at the bottom.
Now, I’m not suggesting that the Steelers use Herbig at right tackle at any point, but at least he has some college playing experience at the position should an emergency situation call for it. In the meantime, I look forward to watching Herbig against the Buccaneers. I especially look forward to seeing how much, if any, he plays at center in that preseason contest.
