It’s been a busy few days in the world of the NFL.

On Monday, Pittsburgh’s divisional rivals over in Cleveland made the biggest deal of the offseason, trading the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Myles Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams for outside linebacker Jared Verse (a first-round selection back in 2024), a first-round pick in 2027, a second-round pick in 2028, and a third rounder in 2029.

Garrett now goes to a Los Angeles team that is once again pushing most, if not all of their chips in for winning another ring.

Then yesterday, news broke in Pittsburgh of a four-year extension for edge rusher Nick Herbig. The Steelers gave Herbig, one of their best late-round picks in recent memory, a stunning $100 million deal which includes $42 million guaranteed.

Herbig is coming off a career-high 7.5 sacks in a 2025 season that also included three forced fumbles, three passes defended, an interception, a fumble recovery, and 30 combined tackles. Through little fault of his own, Herbig only has 11 starts in his 45-game career. But that kind of money for a player who has never started more than six games in a season did turn a lot of heads.

Both of these moves, one by a rival and one by the hometown team, beg the question as to what the Steelers planning on doing with the remainder of their edge group, which remains headlined by TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith.

Watt, the team’s first round pick in 2017 and still the last first rounder by the Steelers to earn a contract extension, will turn 32 next season. He’s coming off a down year that saw him record only seven sacks, three forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries.

To his credit, though, he did pick up a pair of interceptions, and had his regular season not been cut short due to that dry needling scare, his numbers would have looked a little bit better.

Highsmith, meanwhile, is coming off a 9.5-sack season, the second-highest figure of his career, in 13 games. Highsmith, a third-round pick back in 2020, is entering the third year of a four-year extension he signed back in 2023.

Though Highsmith has dealt with some injuries over the last two seasons, he has found a way to form one of the NFL’s best pash rushes alongside Watt, while also rotating with the rising star in Herbig and last year’s rookie addition in Jack Sawyer.

Last year, Watt and Highsmith were still the established, old guard at the position. Herbig, who was still on his rookie deal, was

Contrary to what some might think, the Herbig extension doesn’t require an immediate move for the Steelers. They could very well keep all three of Watt, Highsmith, and Herbig, giving new defensive coordinator Patrick Graham plenty of weapons to deploy against opposing quarterbacks.

But in the longer term, eventually the dam will break. Herbig, assuming he stays on this current career trajectory, will simply be too good to keep as a rotational piece. Sawyer could end up with that reputation one day as well.

And so, as Herbig inks that mega deal, the questions start to flow about what the Steelers will eventually do, even if there’s no immediacy needed.

Trading Watt is more of the philsophical decision. For all his glory, accolades, and success in a Steelers uniform, sometimes you have to make those tough decisions. That’s what Cleveland opted to do with Garrett, and for as often as those two have been compared to one another over the years, following that thought process that the Browns were forced to reckon with would be an oddly poetic ending to that chapter of the Steelers-Browns rivalry.

Watt, however, would not deliver the type of return that Cleveland acquired for Garrett. For one, the recency bias trends heavily in favor of Garrett, who is coming off breaking the NFL’s sack record of 23, more than tripling Watt’s in the process. In addition to that, the Browns re-working his contract helped pave the way for the Rams to swing the deal.

With Watt’s record-breaking extension kicking in this year, worth $123 million ($108 million guaranteed) just entering the first of three years, the Steelers would also have to contend with his massive contract weighing on the acquiring team.

Even if they banked on shaving the first year off and Watt bouncing back, the return for a guy who the front office has made keeping a “one helmet” player a priority would almost assuredly disappoint. That’s just how much Watt has meant to this organization.

Trading Highsmith feels like the option the Steelers would be more likely to pursue, if any.

That is no disrespect towards Highsmith, who has carved out quite a career so far in the NFL with less opportunity and has played under the shadow of Watt for quite some time now. But he hasn’t quite been one of the faces of this Steelers defense for years, hasn’t won a Defensive Player of the Year in Pittsburgh, and hasn’t been talked about in the same way that Watt has.

And when it’s all said and done, the return they could land for the 28-year-old Highsmith might rival what they could get for Watt. If they dealt Highsmith and kept Watt, the Steelers could have the longtime Steeler continue to serve as the veteran presence and mentor to the younger generation, like Herbig, who takes on an ever-growing role.

Waiting a year, to move either player, might also give the Steelers the chip they need to move up in 2027 and select a high-ranked quarterback in the draft.

Make no mistake, Herbig deserves the extension. It is a hefty price, but the more you watch him play, the more you believe one day he’ll make that look like a steal for the Steelers.

But even if the Steelers wait to make their move, Herbig’s new contract is a reminder that eventually, something will change in the edge rush department.