At the quarter mark of the regular season, the Steelers, with their 14 sacks, trail the NFL's league leader by one, and in fact are on an early pace to set a team record for sacks in a season.
It probably helps that the Steelers have three big-time edge-rushers in a two-edge world.
"With the production we get out of those three guys," said OLBs coach Denzel Martin, "yeah, that's three starters."
Nick Herbig has for two seasons been a super-sub behind T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Herbig had 3 sacks as a rookie and then 5.5 sacks last season. But in only two-plus games in relief of the injured Highsmith, Herbig has stepped in like Lou Gehrig and been a force.
To wit:
T.J. Watt, in 238 snaps, has 3 sacks. 5 tackles-for-loss, 6 QB hits, an interception, forced fumble, and fumble recovery.
Classic All-Pro stuff from T.J.
Herbig, in 178 snaps, has 2.5 sacks, 4 tackles-for-loss, 8 QB hits, an interception and forced fumble.
Classic Steelers dual-edge numbers.
And the return of Highsmith will make it a three-edge world.
"Very, very excited," Martin said. "Just want to get all those dudes together. That's why we got them all, so we can have all four together. It's gonna be good stuff for us."
Oh, and rookie Jack Sawyer makes a fourth viable edge-rusher. In 14 snaps, Sawyer has a sack, 2 tackles-for-loss, and ranks second among the team's edge-rushers with 14 tackles, only 5 behind Watt in 223 fewer snaps.
It's almost as if Sawyer's soaking up the atmosphere around here.
"We enjoy having the four, the Full Metal Jacket," Martin said. "Getting them all going will be nice, for real."
Herbig missed the opener, but in the 10 snaps that Martin had his "Full Metal Jacket" available, he used the "three starters" on the field altogether on third-down passing situations. Nothing landed, but the blueprint was drawn.
But then Highsmith went down in the second quarter of Week Two with an ankle injury. In stepped Herbig, who intercepted a fourth-and-1 pass (off a Cam Heyward deflection) that game. The next week, during a 14-14 tie game at New England, Herbig's fourth-quarter strip-sack, on a Patriots first-down play at the Pittsburgh 33, was recovered by Watt to set the Steelers up for their game-winning drive. Against the Vikings in Dublin, Herbig's third-and-12 sack in the second quarter set up Aaron Rodgers' 80-yard TD pass to DK Metcalf that sent the Steelers off and running. To seal the win, Herbig pressured QB Carson Wentz into an intentional grounding penalty that lost 16 yards (and 10 seconds). The Vikings couldn't recover from second-and-26 and the Steelers improved to 3-1.
"Nick's a good football player. That's just what he is. He can do everything," Martin said. "People like to think he's just a pass guy, but if you watch the tape from this past week, he was (defending) run, pass, anything we needed him to be – special teams, you know what I mean? He just does it all. He's just gonna continue to get better every week."
At 240 pounds, Herbig's game is based more off quickness than size. But according to Martin – who took over the OLB coaching position the same year Herbig was drafted – Herbig's run defense has improved significantly. Martin was asked how that development occurred.
"Just the constant stuff we do in individual every day," Martin said. "We're on the sleds, putting our hands on people, using our hands, releasing off people, and making plays. I just think he continually does that each week and he puts it on tape."
Watt and Herbig, both from the University of Wisconsin, have 5.5 of the Steelers' 14 sacks. Extrapolated out over 17 games, those 14 sacks would become 59.5, enough to break the team record of 56 set in both the 2017 and 2020 seasons that were 16 games in length.
The "Blitzburgh" defense of 1994 had 55 sacks.
"We just like to get after the passer," Martin said. "Blitzes sometimes get us our one-on-ones and the things that we want and help us get to the passer easier.
"It's all exciting. That's Blitzburgh. That's what I've known since I've been here. And we just want to keep going."
