Since 2017, the Pittsburgh Steelers have drafted half a dozen or so players with meaningful NFL bloodlines, either with siblings or fathers or uncles with a resume or a pedigree preceding it. It’s worked out better in some cases more than others, as with T.J. Watt.
The latest case is Nick Herbig. Like Watt, Herbig is an outside linebacker out of Wisconsin who is the younger brother of NFL talent. Both have or had at least one sibling on the roster with them while in Pittsburgh. Both younger brothers proved to be more than worthy of their family name.
“He’s a football lover. He’s everybody’s favorite little brother”, head coach Mike Tomlin joked to Bob Pompeani on the latest episode of the Mike Tomlin Show, via the team’s YouTube channel, discussing the rookie fourth-round edge rusher.
“He’s got some rush skills. He’s got a desire to get better. He works hard every day”, he continued. “I think what you’re seeing is just the fruit of that labor, not only in terms of it producing opportunity, but [him] doing something with those opportunities, and it’s reasonable to expect that to continue. It’s about the growth and maturation of young players and the development of them over the course of this journey”.
On just 178 defensive snaps on the season, Herbig has 27 tackles, including five for loss, with three sacks, three hits, two forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. He played just two snaps in the Steelers’ last game, but he recorded a strip sack on one of them and recovered the fumble himself.
It should be noted that some of those tackles came on the 329 special teams snaps that he has also played this season, but there’s no denying the quality of his contributions when given the opportunity to see the field on defense.
Alex Kozora looked at the numbers earlier this week, showing that his per-snap production is even better than Watt’s. Watt is a favorite to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award for the second time in his career.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Herbig would outproduce Watt if given the same workload. It’s easier to make a more compact splash in limited work since your per-snap energy and effort will be higher as compared to playing 50-plus snaps per game.
More to the point, it’s fair to say that he has silenced all of those—including Steelers Depot—who questioned if he had the size to make it on the edge at the NFL level. While he’s not a full-time starter, and perhaps that might not be the ideal role for him, he has already proven that he is an NFL-level talent at outside linebacker.
He really is the little brother who follows his older sibling to the basketball court with his friends and starts balling out, to everybody’s surprise. All you can say is, “That kid can play”. And boy has he, when given the opportunity. He will be an exciting player to watch as he develops, particularly as they try to find ways to get him on the field in 2024.
