Steelers Super Bowl champ turned scout raves about Nick Herbig's potential

One of the buzzworthy performances from the Steelers’ Friday night preseason win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was that of outside linebacker Nick Herbig.

The rookie out of Wisconsin had 1.5 sacks and three tackles during the 27-17 victory.

Got him @nickherbig_

: Stream on NFL+ https://t.co/T87FSnfvVk pic.twitter.com/VsotfBUecA

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 12, 2023

Former Steelers cornerback turned team scout Ike Taylor was beaming about Herbig during his most recent “BLEAV in Steelers” podcast with Mark Bergin.

“He brings that energy. He has a first step like no other. He can get around. He can get under. He has good agility,” Taylor said.

Then Taylor drew a basketball analogy.

“He’s a point guard in open court playing against centers. And the centers are the left and right tackles and sometimes tight ends. So just imagine how much of a mismatch he’s gonna be,” Taylor explained.

Taylor admits that size may be a problem at times for Herbig. But he expects, more often than not, that Herbig’s quickness will win out.

“The downfall is that whenever (offensive linemen) get their hands on him, they can just stalemate him. But, on the flip side, the crossovers are going to be good for Herbig coming off of that edge,” Taylor laughed.

Herbig also had another nice stop in the run game Tuesday in practice.

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“I’m just trying to develop every aspect of my game,” Herbig said Tuesday. “I’m trying to focus on my hands, top of the rush, setting the edge—just grow my football IQ.”

For his part, on Sunday, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin tried to keep a lid on the Herbig hype, as well as that for another Wisconsin Badger rookie, Keeanu Benton, who also popped along the defensive line in his first preseason game.

“They weren’t playing against (Tampa’s first team),” Austin to reporters via Steelers.com. “You want to see them against better competition. You want to see them play down after down—playing a number of snaps in a row. Then see how they do.”

But Herbig did supply some splash and at least some hope that, if Watt (or Highsmith) should go out for an extended stretch this year, there may be a player who can fill the void with some spark.

“He’s really elusive,” offensive lineman Broderick Jones said of his fellow rookie. “Two sacks in 13 snaps, you tell me what that looks like.”

He looks like a third-day find in the draft at outside linebacker. Something the Steelers have discovered before in players such as Clark Haggans, or James Harrison who went untirely undrafted. Players who began their careers as backups, then eventually became a starter on a Super Bowl team.

That bar may be fairly high for Herbig to leap at least knowing what we know so far. But if he keeps honing his skills, it’s not entirely out of his range.

LISTEN: Tim Benz, Chris Adamski and Joe Rutter discuss the remaining days of Steelers training camp in advance of Saturday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.