Nick Herbig proved last year he was no flash in the pan, but nevertheless, he remains a backup in Pittsburgh. Of course, when you have T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith as your starters, it doesn’t come as a surprise. But sometimes good players have to bide their time until they have an opportunity, which both Herbig and Pittsburgh know.
“He’s the type of guy that’s ready for whatever you get him”, OLB coach Denzel Martin said of Herbig, via the team’s media department. “We obviously want to get him on the field as much as we can. We’ve got two really good guys in front of him, as you guys know. So the more we can get that guy on the field, he’s just a good change-up for when we get out there amongst all the other rushers that we have. So the more we can get him out there, the better”.
A fourth-round pick in 2023, Nick Herbig has been a high-impact player relative to his playing time. Though he saw a healthy increase in snaps last year, that was largely due to Highsmith’s health. When he did play, however, he always seemed a threat to make a splash. He helped ice the game against the Bengals last year with a strip-sack the defense returned for a touchdown.
Of course, one way for the Steelers to get Nick Herbig on the field more is to just—play him more. Even with Watt and Highsmith out there, they can run 3OLB packages. They have done it in the past and may want to do it more. At the heart of that look is exploiting favorable matchups, Martin said.
“We’re always just trying to find the matchups. You can get some of our edge guys on interiors”, he told reporters about potentially using Herbig in such a package. “Just the athleticism for us is gonna be the positive there. We always want to try to attack those, so the more we can get those matchups, we’re gonna do it”.
On 415 defensive snaps in 2024, Herbig recorded five-and-a-half sacks and four forced fumbles. In less than half that playing time as a rookie, he notched three sacks with two forced fumbles. Combined, he has played maybe 60 percent of a full season, translating that to eight and a half sacks and six forced fumbles.
Another issue with getting Herbig on the field more, though, is Jack Sawyer. The Steelers just drafted him in the fourth round and will want to find snaps for him as well. Obviously, they hope that Sawyer proves to be every bit as good as Herbig, if not better. From the team’s perspective, this is a marvelous problem to have, even if everyone wants to play more.
