The Pittsburgh Steelers may have lost to the Cleveland Browns in Week 12, but that didn’t stop second-year OLB Nick Herbig from once again flashing his immense potential. He had the lone sack of the day against Jameis Winston, which came along with a big forced fumble at a critical time in the game.
Pro Football Focus gave him very high marks in the loss well as its Defensive Player of the Week honor on Tuesday.
“Herbig was outstanding in the Steelers’ loss to the Browns on [Thursday] Night Football, earning an elite 94.6 PFF pass-rush grade,” Gordon McGuinness wrote for PFF. “He registered four total pressures, forced a fumble and recorded four tackles that resulted in defensive stops.”
Below is the strip-sack. It’s already the fifth forced fumble of his career and his third of the season. He easily beat OT Germain Ifedi off the line in the snow and closed in on Winston to knock the ball loose.
Herbig likely would have had another sack on Winston’s fourth-down touchdown run late in the game, but he was blatantly held. It was unfortunately overlooked by the referees.
Anything above a 90.0 grade in PFF is labeled elite, and Herbig’s performance fell into that category last Thursday night. Surprisingly that isn’t the highest grade of his career, or even of this season. It is pretty amazing to write that about a second-year player who is typically a backup when T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are healthy, but Herbig has registered several elite performances already.
He has three elite grades this season, including a 95.5 against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 3. He had two more elite grades in his rookie season, including a ridiculous 99.0 against the Seattle Seahawks.
The Browns game was just Herbig’s seventh of the season due to his hamstring injury that held him out for a month, but he is just a half-point shy of having an elite grade overall for the 2024 season. PFF has him at No. 6 for all edge defenders in overall grade and third for all edge rushers in pass-rushing grade.
He was extremely efficient off the bench in 2023 as a rookie, and that has translated to 2024 both off the bench and as a starter while Alex Highsmith has dealt with groin and ankle injuries.
