Watching Nick Herbig, it’s hard not to get excited about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ future at outside linebacker—but is he already making Alex Highsmith the past? For months now, people have floated Highsmith’s name as a potential trade candidate—for Brandon Aiyuk, for example. While that isn’t necessarily around the corner, Gerry Dulac sees it as a future possibility.
“I think they need to find a way to get [Nick Herbig] on the field even more”, Dulac wrote in a recent chat session via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I think eventually he forces Alex Highsmith out”.
The word “eventually” seems to be holding a lot of weight in this conversation, for practical reasons and otherwise. Let’s start with the obvious, which is money, because Alex Highsmith isn’t cheap, even if Nick Herbig is.
The Steelers signed Highsmith to a four-year, $68 million extension last year, and he is under contract through 2027. They restructured his contract before the draft to create cap space, so a trade now isn’t even a tenable option. But it’s not pragmatically inconceivable to move him next year if Herbig looks like he needs to start.
The problem for Highsmith is he has to play with T.J. Watt, arguably the best defender in football. He is always going to be second on the Steelers as long as Watt is healthy, though, of course, Herbig would have the same issue. But the point is, if they need to open a spot for someone, it’s going to be Highsmith’s, not Watt’s.
A fourth-round pick in 2023, Nick Herbig flashed as a rookie with three sacks and two forced fumbles in under 200 defensive snaps. He also contributed a helping of tackles for loss and logged over 300 snaps on special teams. This year, the Steelers only kept him behind Watt and Highsmith, and they know he needs more playing time. He racked up another three-and-a-half sacks this past preseason, looking ready to make an impact.
That’s fine now, but if he keeps ascending, the Steelers will need to pay him, and they can’t pay three outside linebackers. So eventually, perhaps in 2025, perhaps 2026, perhaps 2027, it’s plausible that they could move on from Highsmith to allow Herbig the role and salary he merits. And that’s an assumption about him being as good as he looks with full-starter reps in the regular season.
Dulac later fielded a question directly about this topic of trading Alex Highsmith because of Nick Herbig. The reader framed it as an “odd thought” of his. “Not that odd a thought, but don’t think it’s anything on the immediate horizon”, Dulac wrote.
The Steelers rarely pay two players at the same position on long-term deals. The last time they did it at outside linebacker was for James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley rather a while back. Of course, they’ve done it now for Watt and Highsmith, and they’re pleased with the results. But what if Nick Herbig is legitimately better than Highsmith by the end of the 2024 season?
Highsmith will earn $13 million in base salary in 2025, $14.5 million in 2026, and $15.5 million in 2027. He has prorated signing bonus charges of $5,602,000 million in each of those years. He doesn’t have any guaranteed money remaining, however.
Despite his high salary, trading him pre-June in 2025 would only create $1,796,000 in cap space due to his prorated bonuses from future years accelerating. If the Steelers were to trade Highsmith, it would be about Herbig and getting something strong in return. It definitely wouldn’t be about creating immediate cap space.
