If Mike Tomlin ever wants to give up his gig as an NFL head coach, prophet might be his next job.
Watching the first edition of HBO's "Hard Knocks," which features the teams from the AFC North, this past week should show that.
Throughout the course of last week, Tomlin spoke multiple times about how Nick Herbig was going to win his matchup with Cincinnati offensive tackle Orlando "Zeus" Brown and how that was going to be the key to a Steelers' victory.
In fact, he did it every time he saw Herbig last week.
"It was literally every day," Herbig said. "He literally told me that every time he saw me."
That included, as Hard Knocks showed, calling out that matchup during a team meeting. And that was very meaningful for the second-year player subbing for an injured Alex Highsmith.
"For sure, especially when Coach Tomlin is saying that to you. No disrespect to the other coaches, but it's Coach Tomlin saying that," Herbig said. "Him pointing that out to you in front of the team is like, 'Oh, we're going to find out. I'm putting you on this pedestal and we're going to see if you're about that action.'"
Lo and behold, early in the fourth quarter of the Steelers' 44-38 win, Herbig beat Brown off the snap, hit Joe Burrow from behind and forced a fumble that was scooped up by linebacker Payton Wilson and returned for a touchdown.
It was Tomlin speaking it into existence through Herbig.
Tomlin is a master at pushing the right buttons.
"He definitely does. He knows how to push our buttons," Herbig said.
The other players take notice of such things.
"His anticipation of moments is remarkable, I think," said quarterback Russell Wilson. "You guys watched "Hard Knocks," him talking about Herbig and how he's going to make a game-changing play. There's just different moments like that. Now, me and him have definitely shared a lot of those together so far this season."
The question now, is how do the Steelers continue to utilize the talents of all four of their talented edge rushers moving forward now that Highsmith is set to return? Obviously, T.J. Watt is going to be on the field as much as he wants. And the Steelers are 6-0 when Highsmith plays this season and 3-3 when he doesn't.
But Herbig, who has 4.5 sacks and 4 forced fumbles, tied for second in the league behind Watt, and Preston Smith, acquired at the trade deadline, also have proven to have great value.
Tomlin's eyes lit up when he was asked at his weekly press conference about the possibility of having a full complement of edge rushers moving forward.
"It's pretty exciting, isn't it? Let's see where the roads lead," Tomlin said. "We've got a week of prep. You can't run out of rushmen. I'm so excited about the potential of getting Alex Highsmith back, and the development of Herbig, the acclimation of Preston. You can't run out of rushmen, particularly in December. And so it's exciting. Make no mistake, there's enough work for all parties involved, and we're excited about sorting that out as we prepare."
• Three of Herbig's sacks this season have been strip-sacks, which is tied with Watt and Cleveland's Myles Garrett for the most in the NFL.
Herbig also has forced a fumble in three-straight games, and the Steelers have recovered all four of his forced fumbles this season.
Herbig credits outside linebackers coach Denzel Martin and defensive line coach Karl Dunbar for improving his ball-hunting skills – as well as watching Watt work.
Watt has forced 32 fumbles since entering the NFL in 2017, the most of any player over that span.
Herbig forced four fumbles in his college career – two in each of his final two seasons – but has taken it to another level.
"I just think that's the culture here," Herbig said. "My coaches emphasize that and I have a great position coach in Denzel and Dunbar. They coach me well. They're hard on me. That is what is expected here in Pittsburgh."
He's right. Watt is obviously the best in the business at forcing fumbles, but Highsmith has forced eight in his career, as well, including a league-high five in 2022. Herbig already has six forced fumbles in his young career.
That kind of stuff doesn't happen by accident.
• After the Browns beat the Steelers, 24-19, a couple of weeks ago, Garrett said, "I have a lot of respect for (Watt), but I'm No. 1. That's from Edge No. 1 to Defensive Player of the Year. I'm the guy. That runs through me."
No offense to Garrett, who had three sacks in that game against the Steelers, but there's more to the game than just sacks, which Garrett currently leads Watt, 10 to 9.5. And spare me the talk of pass rush win rates.
Watt leads the NFL with five forced fumbles. Garrett has three. Watt has 43 tackles. Garrett has 32. Watt has three pass defenses. Garrett has none. Watt leads the NFL with 16 tackles for a loss. Garrett has 14. Watt has 23 quarterback hits. Garrett has 19.
Oh, and perhaps most importantly, the Steelers are 9-3, while the Browns are 3-9.
One of the reasons Garrett won Defensive Player of the Year last season was because he was considered the best player on one of the top defenses in the NFL. The Browns aren't anywhere close to that this season.
The Steelers also have one of the league's best defenses. The Browns do not.
To the winner goes the spoils. So, Garrett can talk as much as he wants after a game about being the best and all of that. But Watt will be playing multiple games in January. Garrett will be sunning himself somewhere, wondering where Cleveland's season went wrong.
Garrett is a great player. But if he is so insecure that he has to tell the world how great he is or that he's No. 1, perhaps that's not the case.
It's not this season. And Watt has been and is the most consistent defensive star in the league.
• If the Steelers win on Sunday, Tomlin would have his 11th season with 10 or more wins.
That would tie Kansas City's Andy Reid for the second-most in the NFL since 2007. Only Bill Belichick with 14 such seasons would have more.
Obviously, Belichick isn't going to add to that total this season, which makes his total very impressive. It's one of the many reasons he's the gold standard when it comes to NFL coaches.
But with Belichick not coaching this season, Tomlin and Reid are currently the gold standard.
And both have shown no signs of going anywhere anytime soon.
Tomlin was asked this week how, after 18 seasons with the same team, he keeps his message from getting stale and avoids burnout.
"I love what I do. It's my job and my hobby, so burnout is not a component of the equation for me," Tomlin said. "I'm excited each and every week about the challenges that this role provides me and us. In regards to the messaging getting stale, I work with extreme urgency because I realize the careers of these players are short. And so my audience is forever changing.
"I'm less concerned about getting stale, and I'm more concerned about matching the urgency that is the short careers of most of these players. There are outliers, like Cam (Heyward) that's been in there for 25 years listening to me, but I care less about how he receives the message, and more about developing guys like (Keeanu) Benton, who's a year and a half into receiving these messages.
"And I just want to continue to hammer home values and cultural values and how to play and so forth, and so experience has taught me that the stale component is probably overblown, because the audience is forever changing."
• Dale Lolley is co-host of "SNR Drive" on Steelers Nation Radio. Subscribe to the podcast here: Apple Podcast | iHeart Podcast Pittonline@iheartmedia.com
• In his first six games, Wilson is averaging 271 yards passing per game and has 1,626 passing yards in six games.
He also has 10 touchdown passes and three interceptions.
Extrapolating that over 17 games, Wilson would throw for 4,607 yards with 28 touchdown passes and nine interceptions.
That yardage total would be the third-most in Steelers history behind Ben Roethlisberger's 5,129 yards in 2018 and his 4,952 in 2014.
Interestingly enough, Roethlisberger's 5,129-yard season came in his age 36 season. Technically, this is Wilson's age 35 season, since he just turned 36 a week ago today.
At his current pace, Wilson would finish this season with 2,981 passing yards.
That's significant because Wilson has thrown for at least 3,000 yards in each of his previous 12 NFL seasons.
Wilson's 414-yard, 3-touchdown day last week against the Bengals also moved him up on the all-time lists in both categories.
Wilson moved into 17th place on the all-time yardage list, passing Joe Flacco, and now has 45,279 yards in his career. He now needs less than 1,000 yards over the final five games of this season to pass both Vinny Testaverde and Carson Palmer to move into 15th place.
He also now has 344 career touchdown passes, which moved him past Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton into 12th place on the all-time list. Next up is Eli Manning at 366.
Wilson doesn't talk about that kind of stuff. He's all about winning. He's also climbing that list, as well. The win over the Bengals last week was the 120th of his career, moving him past Craig Morton into 15th place on the all-time list.
