{"id":337320,"date":"2025-09-03T03:15:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T03:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/337320\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T03:15:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T03:15:21","slug":"key-steelers-defender-questionable-vs-ny-jets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/337320\/","title":{"rendered":"Key Steelers Defender Questionable vs. NY Jets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Steelers will have one big injury question mark leading up to their Week 1 game against the New York Jets, and that is the health of outside linebacker Nick Herbig.<\/p>\n<p>Herbig suffered a hamstring injury in the team\u2019s second preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Aug. 16, and has yet to return to full participation in practice.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>In his Week 1 press conference on Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin listed Herbig as the only player whose status for the opener against the Jets is in doubt. Tomlin ruled out rookie defensive lineman <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/mike-tomlin-rules-derrick-harmon-162622061.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Derrick Harmon;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Derrick Harmon<\/a>, and said the rest of his 53-man roster is healthy and ready to go.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves Herbig, who is the team\u2019s No. 3 edge rushers behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith and a key component of the team\u2019s pass rush plan.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Pittsburgh Steelers OLB Nick Herbig Alex Highsmith Jack Sawyer\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"788\" height=\"503\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/6f6b2d545d9c9ebf57b979553a058aa6.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebackers Nick Herbig, Alex Highsmith and Jack Sawyer at OTAs on June 5, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n<p>In 13 games last season, his second as a pro, Herbig finished with 5.5 sacks and 11 quarterback hits. He made five starts, replacing Highsmith while he dealt with a groin injury.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Highsmith has been dealing with another groin injury this preseason, but Tomlin said he expects him to be good to for Sunday\u2019s opener.<\/p>\n<p>Behind Herbig, the Steelers have just fourth-round rookie Jack Sawyer on their 53-man roster, with DeMarvin Leal eligible to be elevated from the practice squad if the team feels that it needs additional depth. The Steelers almost never go into a game with fewer than four available outside linebackers. Inside linebacker Malik Harrison and defensive tackle Isaiahh Loudermilk have both played on the edge in short stints in the past and could do so in an emergency.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Steelers Now;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Steelers Now<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/steelersnow.com\/key-steelers-defender-questionable-vs-ny-jets\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Key Steelers Defender Questionable vs. NY Jets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Key Steelers Defender Questionable vs. NY Jets<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Related Headlines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Pittsburgh Steelers will have one big injury question mark leading up to their Week 1&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[6310,211,10037,340,9676,7,28458,4109,295,10063,1255,255,6,6313,57,9791,5226,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-337320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-alex-highsmith","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-demarvin-leal","11":"tag-derrick-harmon","12":"tag-ed-thompson","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-groin-injury","15":"tag-isaiahh-loudermilk","16":"tag-jack-sawyer","17":"tag-malik-harrison","18":"tag-mike-tomlin","19":"tag-new-york-jets","20":"tag-nfl","21":"tag-nick-herbig","22":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","23":"tag-preseason-game","24":"tag-t-j-watt","25":"tag-tampa-bay","26":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","27":"tag-tampabay","28":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115138194914802450","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}