After a dominant preseason that had him looking like the next impressive pass rusher for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it’s been a quiet 2023 season so far for rookie outside linebacker Nick Herbig.
That’s no longer the case thanks to his first career sack. Herbig recorded it in the second quarter Sunday on the road at SoFi Stadium, racing off left tackle to take down Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford.
Herbig beat Los Angeles left tackle Alaric Jackson with speed off the edge on first down at midfield, easily bending the edge around the third-year offensive tackle, racing home to get Stafford on the ground for a loss of six yards.
Herbig was in the game to with third-year outside linebacker Alex Highsmith taking a breather. Throughout the early portion of the game, Highsmith was beating Jackson with speed consistently as a pass rusher. Herbig seemingly saw that and exploded off the ball for the big sack, getting Stafford on the ground.
Coming into the matchup with the Rams, Herbig had played just 55 defensive snaps in five games and had yet to generate a pressure off the edge, grading out at a 52.2 overall from Pro Football Focus. In the preseason, Herbig was a wrecking ball, generating six pressure and four sacks on just 63 pass rush reps, recording a grade of 92.5 defensively from PFF.
We’ll see if the takedown of Stafford kick-starts a strong second half of these season from the Wisconsin product who was selected in the fourth round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
