If football is a relationship business, then the Pittsburgh Steelers are a family business. There is literal truth to that, given that they are on the third generation of the Rooney family as owners, with the next in line already in place.
You will hear head coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan making more references to prior relationships with players and coaches than you will find in just about any other NFL facility. Good or bad, that’s how they operate, and they find value in that familiarity.
It bleeds down into the roster as well. While they don’t go out of their way to pair players from the same alma mater, it sometimes works out that way, and not entirely coincidentally. The Steelers knew quite a bit about OLB Nick Herbig out of Wisconsin from many different angles, for example, before they used a fourth-round pick on him in the 2023 NFL Draft. Including his prior relationship with OLB T.J. Watt.
“None of that’s for clicks”, Watt told Randy Baumann on the WDVE Morning Show recently. “We’ve been talking for literally two years now, been going back and forth…He loves football. He loves watching our stuff because it’s 3-4”.
The Watt and Herbig connection is one that has been talked up a lot, since they both came out of Wisconsin, even several years removed, but he wanted to make it clear that it’s been a genuine and sincere relationship, not just one that makes a good storyline.
Herbig himself told reporters back in May that he had been reaching out to Watt for years prior to the Steelers drafting him and that the All-Pro had been generous with his time. Watt even worked out with him a bit, showing him some moves, while up in Wisconsin to attend the school’s Pro Day in 2022—the year before Herbig came out of school.
And that hasn’t stopped. The rookie is still trying to get Watt to show him everything. “He just wanted to pick up on all my moves and how I thought about them”, the veteran said, which isn’t a problem for him. “I love talking shop. He just absorbs it all and he asks the right questions, and he truly cares. It’s cool to see a guy ask those questions and apply them”.
The important thing is that it’s translating—not seamlessly, granted, but I’m sure it’s been fun for Watt to watch Herbig try something out that he showed the rookie and watch him work on it into a success, even if it doesn’t come right away.
Though he hasn’t gotten inside a stadium yet—he will tomorrow—the fourth-round pick has flashed a good deal during training camp. He is on his way to being a meaningful contributor this year in a pass-rush rotation behind Watt and Alex Highsmith, alongside veteran Markus Golden, part of the team’s plan to better insulate themselves against an injury like last year’s to Watt.
