Coming off a monster third NFL season, one that saw him finish with 7.5 sacks and 48 pressures in a rotational role, outside linebacker Nick Herbig is poised for a big fourth season with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Yet despite the high expectations and the opportunity to land a life-changing contract extension this offseason from the franchise, Herbig remains vastly underrated.
At least, that’s how NFL Daily’s Gregg Rosenthal sees things.
Hosting the latest episode of the podcast, Rosenthal highlighted Herbig as the Steelers’ most underrated player entering the 2026 season. That belief is centered on Herbig’s outstanding pass-rush win rate, coupled with the fact that he continues to find himself behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.
“I don’t know how flawed that stat is if it’s pumping out those players as the best pass rushers in the league. And yet I still think that makes him a little underrated to be able to do that back-to-back season,” Rosenthal said of Herbig, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “Now, he didn’t win it by nine percentage points last season. What they [Steelers] did was up his usage mostly ’cause of injury early in the season and then they put him back on the bench at the end of the season. He only had one game in the last, I believe, seven or eight games with over 30 snaps.
“So he’s not underrated by Joe Fan. He is underrated by the Steelers and that’s why he deserves to still be on that list where like Highsmith and T.J. Watt are just getting so many more snaps down the stretch than Nick Herbig.”
Herbig played 636 snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus, up from the 433 he played in 2024. That season, Herbig had 27 pressures, but had a 34% pass-rush win rate, according to ESPN, which was tops in the league.
Last season, with an increase in snaps, Herbig still led the league in pass-rush win rate, this time with a 25% mark. Despite that, Herbig still found himself in a reserve role late in the year.
In the playoff loss to the Houston Texans, Herbig played just 26 snaps. That was after playing just 13 snaps in the Week 18 finale against the Baltimore Ravens with the AFC North title on the line.
The Steelers really struggled to get all three OLBs on the field together last season. But with Patrick Graham in the fold now, there should be more creativity on the defensive side of the football to get Herbig on the field even more, leading to additional production.
For now, he remains underrated, at least in Rosenthal’s eyes, even if he’s a guy everybody knows and respects as a talented, game-wrecking pass rusher.