While Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Nick Herbig is preparing to potentially play in his first-ever NFL game in Pittsburgh’s preseason opener tonight, his brother Nate, an offensive lineman for the Steelers, has been doing it for years. The veteran lineman, who’s entering his NFL fifth season, told his brother there’s nothing that special about it.
“He said, ‘It’s just football, bro’. Like, ‘You played this game your whole life, it’s not gonna be any different,'” Herbig said via Steelers.com.
Nick has been impressive thus far in training camp, showing good burst off the edge as he works as an outside linebacker. He’s been a little bit limited in recent days in camp, including on Wednesday, with a hip injury. Mike Tomlin said that all healthy players would play, but it’s unknown if that includes guys like Herbig who haven’t been full practice participants.
But if Herbig does play, he’ll be someone to watch closely on Friday night. The Steelers worked to improve their outside linebacker depth with the additions of Nick Herbig and Markus Golden, and the team also has Quincy Roche and David Perales, who will see some playing time. But Herbig, who was viewed as potentially an off-ball linebacker coming out of the draft, has exclusively worked on the outside up to this point.
He’s had some reps against Darnell Washington that have brought energy, and outside of his play at outside linebacker, I’m really eager to see how he looks on special teams. With Herbig’s motor and athleticism, I think he can excel on special teams for the Steelers, and that may be where he gets the bulk of his work during the regular season.
The key for all rookies is not thinking too much. Like Nate told Nick, it’s just football. While the stakes are higher and everyone is bigger and stronger, at its core it’s the same game as the first time you strap your pads on in youth ball. If you’re good enough to get to the NFL, there’s a reason, and guys need to work to show that reason and why they should stick in the league.
Nick Herbig is at no risk of not making the roster, but a good performance if he plays will be nice to see and something that can earn him a few extra reps during the season if he continues his string of good play.
