TJ Watt is one of those great veteran defensive menaces that most of the Pittsburgh Steelers' young guns can learn from. While everyone on Mike Tomlin's squad can easily learn a thing or two about putting down a weapon through him, Nick Herbig sought the help of another legend. Who might that be, you ask? Well, it is none other than James Harrison and the young player looks ready to ravage offensive lines because of it.
There are very few Steelers who were historically talented on the defensive squad like TJ Watt and James Harrison. Learning from both of them is truly such an insane privilege that only Nick Herbig gets to have. The four-time Defensive Player of the Year finalist even outlined how much improvement he has seen in the young gun throughout their time under Mike Tomlin's Steelers training camp, via Chris Ward of Steelers Now.
“Honestly, he’s a great asset for any of us. He has a move that’s very difficult to learn. But he’s been able to get so many sacks off of that one move. He has a couple of counters as well. For a young guy to be able to learn from James Harrison, a guy who’s a Hall of Famer, why wouldn’t you try to soak up as much information as possible from him? It’s so cool he is willing to spend the time teaching,” TJ Watt declared.
Herbig is coming off his first year with the Steelers after he got drafted in the fourth round of the NFL Draft out of the Wisconsin football program. He plans to make a bigger impact on Tomlin's defense. This eagerness to learn from guys like Harrison is just proof of that idea slowly coming to fruition. Even the Steelers head honcho saw his grit in improving.
“Herbig is an example of our expectations for year two guys. He showed some flashes a year ago… we’re just getting him to develop all components of his game and being varsity in all areas. He’s definitely capable of that and focused on that,” Mike Tomlin declared.
Lofty expectations for Nick Herbig in the Steelers system
His rookie campaign with the Steelers was quite phenomenal. Herbig managed to notch 27 tackles with 19 of them being solo takedowns. Not to mention, his eyes also flare up at the sight of a signal caller just like Watt. With this, he got three quarterback hits and three sacks. His ability to put weapons on the ground also yielded five tackles for loss for the Steelers.
Even Teryl Austin is excited about the bigger numbers that Herbig is about to put up on the stat sheet.
“He can understand and he has a good feel for the game. I’m excited about Nick. I think, you know, when you look at what he did last year, and the limited amount of reps he played, his impact was pretty good. If he’s playing more this year, it wouldn’t surprise me. I wouldn’t be like, oh, we got to get the other guys back in. I would be trustful of what he’s going to do in the game,” the Steelers defensive coordinator proclaimed.
Will all of this effort on the field and gathering advice from James Harrison net him a Pro Bowl nod?
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