51 Has Arrived
by Bo Marchionte
@bomarchionte | College2Pro.com
Published November 20, 2025, 3:32 PM
PITTSBURGH, PA – Nick Herbig is doing everything a budding NFL star is supposed to do wreck games, flip possessions, tilt momentum except he refuses to act like one.
Through nine games, the third year outside linebacker has become one of the most tantalizing early-season sparks in Pittsburgh. His production has surged to a level that almost defies how quietly he carries himself. Herbig already has 6.5 sacks, nearly matching the 8.5 he posted across both his rookie season and last year combined.
He leads the Steelers in sacks, is tied for the team lead in forced fumbles (2), and his interception return 41 yards, the longest and most productive by any Steeler this season shows he’s not just hunting quarterbacks but changing games in space too.
Even more eye-catching: with 23 quarterback pressures, he’s sitting just one behind T.J. Watt and he’s done it in one fewer game.
The numbers say he’s blowing up.
But Herbig wants nothing to do with talking about it.
When asked about becoming one of the Steelers’ early-season playmakers, and his identity when outside the confines of his uniform.
“I don’t look at it like that. I’m just trying to win games, bro. I mean, but just on the outside part of it, yeah.”
That bashfulness is authentic. It’s his default setting. The city is starting to recognize him more, fans stop him when he’s out and about and even that, he takes with an awkward shrug.
“I mean, I guess that’s what comes with it, yeah. I mean, like, and that’s a testament of the fans we have and the people in the city, you know, they love the Steelers, they love us. So, yeah, I guess so, yeah.”
Herbig isn’t interested in celebrity. He’s not chasing visibility. He doesn’t consider the spotlight something he arrived in so much as something that happens to be shining in his general direction.
“But, I mean, like I said, like that, that’s kind of what you sign up for. Like that comes with it kind of just is whatever. I guess so. Yeah, I don’t really do it for that, but yeah, part of it.”
Instead, he keeps circling back to what he calls “the main thing.” Football. Work. Faith. Growth.
He talks about all of it with the tone of a player who is genuinely surprised to anyone who thinks he’s becoming a name and fully intends to keep himself grounded as the attention grows.
“I think just keeping the main thing, the main thing, you know. I’m growing my faith in God every day. I’m trying to stay on that path and be humble and walk with Him, you know, and learning from my vets like T.J. (Watt) and Alex (Highsmith), and seeing how they go about it. And obviously they’ve been in the lights for a minute now. So just seeing how those guys approach it every day I think they’re great examples for me to follow.”
And maybe that’s what makes Herbig’s rise so compelling: he’s delivering the splash plays, the sacks, the takeaways the ones that jolt Acrisure Stadium and shift the pulse of a defense yet he carries the presence of someone who’d rather blend into the locker room wall than be labeled a star.
There’s something magnetic about that combination. Unassuming but charismatic. Quiet but explosive. A humble worker who just so happens to be one of the Steelers’ biggest game-tilting forces right now.
Herbig may not want to talk about it. He may not view himself as anything more than a young linebacker trying to “win games, bro.”
But every week, with every pressure, every sack, every turnover he sparks, the reality grows harder to ignore: The spotlight might not be his choice but he’s giving it every reason to find him.
Steelers have something special in No. 51
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com
