Nick Herbig is just one of several players from the Steelers’ draft class of 2023 now eligible for an extension. But does he want one? That’s a fair question to ask, Ray Fittipaldo believes, and perhaps he’s right. After all, even the coaches speak of him as starter-capable, yet there is no starting job available for him.
A fourth-round selection in the 2023 NFL Draft, Nick Herbig has been an effective edge defender in somewhat limited playing time. Particularly effective as a pass rusher, he has 16 career sacks in rotational work, with 11 starts. His playing time has ticked upward, but there remain T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. So where is the upward mobility for him?
“That’s the unknown question: are all those guys back?”, Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan about the Steelers’ draft class of 2023. “Nick [Herbig]’s good enough to start somewhere, probably just not here. If they can get it done, yeah, but I think he’s a guy who’s probably gonna want to test free agency. He might be the one to tell them, ‘Hey, I’m gonna play this out and I might want to test the free agent waters a year from now’”.
Herbig was the fifth player selected by the Steelers that year out of seven. All remain with the team, the majority of them in starting roles. First-round T Broderick Jones’ starting spot is in peril, however. But Joey Porter Jr. will almost assuredly sign an extension this offseason, as well as DL Keeanu Benton. They’ll likely want to extend TE Darnell Washington as well, if they can agree on a number.
But to what figure do you sign a player like Nick Herbig, whom you believe has starter talent without a starting opportunity? Unless the Steelers intend to move one of T.J. Watt or Alex Highsmith, it puts Herbig in a tough spot. He could accept a short-term extension of, say, two years as a sort of compromise. Still 27 years old, he would be too old to cash in a few years from now. Indeed, he could be in the prime of his career by then. And Watt could retire in the interim—any number of things might transpire.
It’s fair to conjecture that the Steelers would jump, nay, leap at the opportunity to sign Nick Herbig to a contract extension this offseason. With 16 sacks, 32 hits, 23 tackles for loss, 9 forced fumbles, and an interception, he is a playmaker. Well, almost always. How many rotational players have three straight seasons with multiple forced fumbles? Not many, I would wager.
But what is Herbig’s incentive to lock himself in now? Obviously, there is the risk of injury, but how much would the Steelers even offer in injury guarantees? It would probably have to be quite substantial to make it appealing. Otherwise, it’s a matter of betting on himself, and biding his time for a chance at the open market. The franchise tag would be prohibitively expensive unless they plan to make him a starter, so he would have a clear path to free agency.
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