Mike Tomlin watches closely as rookie roommate Broderick Jones and Nick Herbig square off
Published August 13th, 6:15 EDT
by Bo Marchionte
Latrobe, PA – After practice rookie Nick Herbig was doing some extra individual work with his teammates. His number No. 51 jersey has been collected by the equipment crew and he is carrying his helmet and pads to await a golf cart to take him back to the showers after a long hot practice at St. Vincent College. A small cluster of fans begin to emerge around Herbig and even my request for a quick word is detoured as he begins signing footballs and Terrible Towels.
“That’s T.J. Watt right there,” says one fan on how Herbig has flashed glimpses of the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. ‘No, he is the next Nick Herbig,” replies another fan as if to say he’ll become his own identity in the National Football League. “He is going to be a beast.’
After the last football Herbig signs I ask him – When did you start practicing your autograph?
“When I saw my brother practicing,” Herbig laughs. “He used to practice every night. We had bunk beds and he would write it on the bottom of the bunk bed.”
Adolescent siblings practicing their signatures and now Nick and his brother Nate are both playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The reason for grabbing Herbig afterward practice was to capture a more detailed story about watching Nick and fellow rookie and roommate Broderick Jones go at it in individual blocking drills.
The idea of iron sharpening iron was in full effect at St. Vincent College as the seven-on-seven drills commenced the offensive lineman and pass rushers took to individual drills. While I cannot identify which coach requested 51 and 77 to go head-to-head, but a request was made for these two rookies to get after it.
“Yeah, I love that,” Herbig said of being called out in individual battles. “Broderick (Jones) is a great competitor. Me and him are roommates, so we are pretty tight. We are pretty close. We talk about our practices and our reps every day.
“I know he is getting me better and I know I’m getting him better. At the end of the day, I want to see him win but when we are going against each other I hate him (laughing). For sure we are going to be talking trash.”
Observing from the sidelines this looked like a day where Broderick got the best of Nick and it appeared Herbig agreed saying, “I’d say he won the majority of the reps, but I’ve won my fair share in there too.”
In Herbig’s first preseason game he collected 1.5 sacks on Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Kyle Trask. It’s a good habit he’s made throughout rookie camp to preseason action that has led to a lot of optimism on his potential moving forward.
His first sack came against 2022 second-round pick Luke Goedeke. Herbig blew past him as teammate DeMarvin Leal was closing in to help sandwich Trask. Herbig’s second sack of the night he used a bull rush on Goedeke putting him on his back foot and slipping off his body to quickly recoiled to hit Trask.
“It was great to get there and play with your teammates,” Herbig said. “Overall man I’m just blessed. Just thankful God has put me in this position. I was able to go through and perform with my teammates. Playing the game, I love.”
If this momentum continues, he’ll have a lot more practice signing his name.
