Ever since the Pittsburgh Steelers inked 2023 fourth-round pick Nick Herbig to a four-year, $100 million extension, opinions on the young pass rusher have flooded in by media and fans alike. Most who are not fans of the deal point to his status as the team's third edge rusher, with T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith still on the team. Those who were in favor point to his impressive production despite a lack os snaps over the first three years of his career.
Regardless of where you stand on the decision, Herbig's new deal is certainly one that is hard to find a precedent for. It's rare that a player with just 11 career starts through three seasons gets an extension at all, especially a multi-year one. That extension making them one of the 15 highest-paid players at their position, however? The closest example of that aside from Herbig may be Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis, who enters 2026 as the NFL's 17th-highest-paid QB after just six career starts.
Still, the numbers that define what a great pass rusher is in the modern NFL all paint Herbig in a very flattering light, so much so that his contract could look like a bargain for Pittsburgh sooner rather than later.
Stats show that Nick Herbig has already played at the level needed for the Pittsburgh Steelers to justify his $100 million price tag
Not to immediately antagonize those who may not care for "analytics" or "underlying numbers", but those stats are all great indicators for what a player's down-to-down impact is for their team. For so long, sacks were the only real number that most fans used to determine who was "good" at rushing the passer and who wasn't. Now, there are other numbers that are relevant to evaluating that ability, and Herbig ranks among the best players at his position in many of them.
According to Sports Info Solutions data, the 24-year-old standout is firmly in the top 15 of most pass-rushing metrics among players with at least the 322 rush snaps he played in 2025. Let's start with his sack percentage, a simple number that shows how often a pass rusher ends their rush with a sack. At 2.4%, he finished tied for 13th in the NFL.
How about pressure percentage? No, not "win percentage" that I know plenty of fans aren't a fan of, but how often a player actually applied pressure to the QB. Herbig's mark of 15.6% was once again impressive, landing 14th in the league.
Here are two more that I personally love that SIS tracks: hit and knockdown percentage. Both are self-explanatory, but hit percentage is based on any significant contact with the QB, while knockdown percentage is, well...how often a player knocks the QB to the ground. Herbig finished tied for third in hit percentage at 10.6% and tied for 15th in knockdown percentage at 3.4%.
The Steelers paid Herbig as a top-15 player at his position, and all the metrics say that he is already playing at that level. With a bigger role moving forward and assuming some level of improvement going forward, his big extension might look like an underpay very quickly.
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