Player: OLB Nick Herbig
Stock Value: Up
Reasoning: Second-year Steelers OLB Nick Herbig may have been the best player on the field yesterday. He capped his performance with two sacks, one of which he shared with Keeanu Benton. Though stuck behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith, the Steelers hope to find more snaps for him this season.
I think a lot of teams are going to wonder after this season how they let Nick Herbig slip out of the third round. The Steelers landed him 132nd overall, near the end of the fourth round. While he won’t be a starter, he looks like he is going to have an impact on the 2024 season.
If you listen to the Steelers’ defensive coaches talk, they say things like they have three of the best rushers. It’s not just T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith—they are starting to include Nick Herbig in the conversation. After all, he spent his rookie season forcing his way into things. In under 200 defensive snaps, he managed three sacks and produced two forced fumbles with five tackles for loss.
Herbig will still be on the sidelines to begin games, but one senses the Steelers will rotate him in more. Right now, I don’t even know that they will carry more than three outside linebackers, though they have some options. Their best option, Markus Golden, returned and then promptly retired.
But Nick Herbig is showing that they don’t need that kind of depth as long as they have health. And he can help keep the group healthy by taking some of the snaps off the shoulders of Watt and Highsmith. The Steelers have also experimented with some three-rusher looks to get them all onto the field.
Last night’s preseason game only provided another reminder of the young rusher’s potential. He finished with one with a sack and a half, which landed him on the post-game podium. On top of that, he even got the “Mr. Herbig” from Mike Tomlin, which he called a top five moment. Based on the direction he’s heading, he’ll have to make room for more memorable moments.
As the season progresses, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
