Nick Herbig 2023 NFL Draft profile: Scout report for the Wisconsin EDGE
Nick Herbig, a top 150 recruit in 2020, immediately showed off his talents as a rotational player for the Wisconsin Badgers and was a key cog for that unit these past two years. Over the course of those 24 games, he combined for 108 tackles, 30 of those for loss, 20 sacks, four passes defensed and four forced fumbles, earning first-team All-Big Ten accolades as a sophomore.
Nick Herbig, Wisconsin
6-foot-2, 235 pounds; Junior
Positives
+ Works hard to disengage from blocks with super-active hands
+ Quickly recognizes when tight ends lunge into him, and he can pull them forward to free himself from those blocks
+ This guy is not somebody who you can leave unblocked on the backside of run plays, and it may vary with assignments tasked, but having a fly sweep fake try to bind him typically led to TFLs
+ Rapidly crashes through the inside shoulder of blockers trying to seal him on the backside of zone run scheme or rips through the reach of blockers and creates an angle towards the ball for himself
+ There are multiple instances on his tape where he rides somebody along and caves in one side on run concepts
+ Takes his contain responsibilities seriously, shuffling inside to minimize the lane when initially unoccupied with square shoulders, if he needs to redirect for QB pulls or misdirection plays
+ Can cover some pretty good ground and seems light on his feet floating out to the flats or bail out to take away a quick slant
+ In particular, his backpedal looks more well-trained than most guys primarily playing on the edge, while you also see the ability to drop and change directions with relative ease
+ For an undersized edge player, he showed a natural feel for setting up offensive linemen and getting to opposing quarterbacks
+ Does well to anticipate/react to when tackles lean into him working around the arc
+ Has some shake to him to work tackles who tend to stop their feet as they see him hesitate and flashes a fluid spin move
+ Last season, I thought he was able to stab at the inside pec of tackles and open up that direct lane to the QB in passing situations more regularly
+ You see Herbig incorporate some fake stabs and show the hands to force tackles to load up their punch, and then he's able to time up his ensuing swipes
+ You see strong ankles and flexibility in the lower half to circle back around after slightly overrunning the arc towards the quarterback and is still able to get home
+ Showcases the explosiveness to kill guards not sliding over with him as he shoots inside on TE twists off planting with that first outside step
+ Provides tremendous effort as a pass rusher, and you see him chase quarterbacks across the field
+ Earned a 92.4 grade by PFF in true pass-rush situations and had a 23.9% win rate
Negatives
– Will face the same type of concerns as some prior Wisconsin EDGE/LB hybrids, with subpar length at only 31¼-inch arms
– Lacks the shock in his hands to consistently stop the momentum of tackles drive-blocking on him at the point of attack
– Doesn’t bring much of a power element as a pass rusher, and you see when guys are able to cut off his angle, he has kind of a tough time to finding a different path to affect the passer, while lacking the length to keep his frame clean
– For teams projecting him as a primary off-ball player, his 46 career snaps in man coverage (according to PFF) lead to a lack of clarity about what he can do in that area
– Misses too many tackles, where he ends up clutching air, because his eyes are looking down at the turf and he dives forward
Overview
This is another one of those Wisconsin edge defenders in the undersized, hybrid mold. Nick Herbig dropped into coverage nearly as much as he rushed the passer in 2021 despite earning a 91.4 pass-rushing grade from PFF before the Badgers coaching staff realized they needed to take advantage of the pressure he can provide more regularly this past season.
He’s hyper-active with his hands and pursues the ball with great effort, while showing great understanding of how to set up and the skills to defeat tackles with different rush maneuvers.
With the lack of length and power to his rushes, I worry about teams wanting to convert to an off-ball role on early downs and him taking a similar path to Zack Baun (New Orleans Saints) a few years ago. However, I think he can be a effective player on the edge – and he won’t even be 22 years old when Week 1 kicks off.
Grade: Early third round
Feel free to head over to halilsrealfootballtalk.com for all my draft breakdowns and check out my YouTube channel for even more NFL content!