Steelers Insider Believes Team Was Lying About Alex Highsmith's "Sick Day"

Pittsburgh Steelers edge rusher Alex Highsmith is currently on a relatively team-friendly deal. On Tuesday, he watched the guy behind him on the depth chart, 24-year-old edge rusher Nick Herbig, come in and get paid a four-year extension worth $100 million. Highsmith is the epitome of a good football businessman. He doesn’t do anything wrong, and the only knock on him is that he sometimes battles injury issues on a regular basis. When healthy, Highsmith and the Steelers’ star TJ Watt make one of the best duos in the league.

When Highsmith has gotten hurt, it has allowed Herbig the chance to show the entire football world just how lethal he himself can be. At first, it was a relatively small sample size, but every time No. 51 found himself on that field in the Steelers' defense, he was making splash play after splash play. Now it will be expected from him since he is carrying a hefty price tag, but the greater issue is that Steelers insider Ray Fittipaldo believes Highsmith is not happy at all. He has been far from quiet about it also.

Fittipaldo was banging this drum as soon as the deal was announced, but Highsmith quickly took to his own social media to reshare the extension details and put "#Earned," showing his support for his teammate. In a strange coincidence, Highsmith wasn’t at the following practice on Wednesday due to being sick. Fittipaldo joined 93.7 The Fan on Thursday where he dropped a bombshell accusing Pittsburgh of lying about his illness and hinting that more may be going on.

"I don’t understand how that works just from a financial perspective and a locker room perspective," Fittipaldo said while speaking on Herbig’s extension and how it impacts Highsmith. "How does Alex go to work every day knowing that, especially with two years left on the deal? You know, Alex wasn’t at practice yesterday, but the unfortunate thing for Steelers fans is we are not going to get a chance to talk to Alex again until training camp. So unless he goes on a podcast or chooses to talk about it before then, we are going to be wondering about exactly how he feels about this until late July."

When Fittipaldo made these remarks, the hosts of the show were going crazy. 

Fittipaldo attempted to dance around them and claimed he can’t say too much about it, but the hosts wouldn’t let his sentiment regarding Highsmith die down.

"Hey, listen, I will leave open the possibility that he actually was sick, but it would be highly coincidental, and I have some other information that tells me that probably is not the case," Fittipaldo said. "It’s nothing I can discuss, though… I would be speculating that that is how he feels, but just put yourself in his shoes. He’s been a starter since his rookie season in 2020. Good soldier, good community guy, produces on the field, led the team in sacks last season. How do you deal with that mentally if Nick Herbig comes in and takes that $100 million deal? Anyone in that circumstance would be a little bit upset."

Steelers Hopeful To Keep Big 3 Of Edge Rushers In Tact For 2026

No one knows past 2026, as NFL insider Ian Rapoport put it, and anything can happen after the 2026 season. 

However, the intention of the Steelers moving Highsmith or Watt now that they have signed Herbig does not seem to be in their cards, unless of course Fittipaldo is right and Highsmith is upset.

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