Step aside, Antonio Brown. There’s a new gold standard for Day 3 draft picks in Pittsburgh. Nick Herbig’s $100 million extension makes him the highest-paid Day 3 pick (defined: rounds 4 and on) in Steelers franchise history.
Herbig has a long way to go to have the type of career that Brown had, but he already landed a bigger payday.
Brown set the mark in 2017 with a four-year, $68 million deal. That made him the highest-paid wide receiver in league history at the time at $17 million average per year (APY).
Herbig easily tops that with $25 million APY, and without ever starting a full season in the NFL. It’s a stark reminder of just how parabolic the salary cap has increased in recent years.
Here are all of the Steelers’ homegrown Day 3 draft picks who signed lucrative second contracts with the team dating back to 2000. There are other notable late-round picks further back, but the salary figures were much smaller back then.
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It’s also worth noting some others who were drafted by the Steelers, but landed lucrative second extensions elsewhere. Dan Moore Jr. would technically be second on the list, but he signed with the Tennessee Titans. That contract made it possible for the Steelers to select Gennings Dunker at the end of the third round in April.
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While unlikely, it’s not completely impossible for Herbig’s record to be quickly broken in the next few years. Mason McCormick will receive a nice payday next offseason, though nowhere near $25 million APY. The real threats are Jack Sawyer and Will Howard. Both 2025 picks, and both at premium positions with rapidly inflating markets.
Most teams hit on Day 1 and 2 draft picks. The championship teams are able to find impact players in the later rounds on Day 3. In Omar Khan’s first draft in charge of making the picks, he nailed that task by selecting Nick Herbig.
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