Steelers' Expensive Nick Herbig And Keeanu Benton Bets Draw Harsh Scrutiny

The Pittsburgh Steelers have spent too much money on defense for an opposing quarterback to enjoy a Thursday night like a backyard seven-on-seven session. Cleveland entered with an offensive line Pittsburgh had reason to stress while its secondary was already dealing with injuries and a last-minute personnel shake-up. That should have made pressure the great equalizer. For long stretches, it became the missing ingredient.

Ray Fittipaldo believes Nick Herbig and Keeanu Benton deserve a harder look after Pittsburgh's 27-24 loss to the Cleveland Browns. His issue is that Deshaun Watson repeatedly had enough time to let routes develop while an undermanned Steelers secondary was being asked to survive behind them.

Watson finished 24-of-33 for 268 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Pittsburgh sacked him only twice. That is a startling departure from a matchup where Watson had been sacked at least five times in each of his first three career games against Pittsburgh. The front was supposed to make life easier on a depleted secondary. Too often, it did the opposite.

During a recent discussion, Fittipaldo tied the lack of pressure directly to Pittsburgh's investments in two of its younger defenders.

“They’re paying him a lot of money," Fittipaldo said. "They’re paying Keeanu Benton a lot of money. And I thought Deshaun Watson for the first three quarters just had way too much time to sit back there and to try to pick apart that undermanned Steeler secondary… There were other times, man, where he just sat back there for three, four, sometimes even five seconds making plays back there."

The money makes that criticism impossible to wave away. Pittsburgh signed Herbig to a four-year extension worth $103.67 million with $42 million guaranteed in June, then gave Benton a four-year, $72 million extension in August. Together, those extensions carry more than $175 million in total stated value. Four games into those new commitments, both players are still looking for their first sack of 2026.

Herbig's zero is particularly jarring because disruption has always been his sales pitch. He produced 16 sacks over his first three seasons despite spending much of that time in a rotation behind TJ Watt and other established rushers. Pittsburgh paid him like a cornerstone because limited snaps kept producing outsized results.

Benton's case carries a different job description but the same pressure. His 5.5 sacks and 12 quarterback hits in 2025 helped convince Pittsburgh to make him the highest-paid interior defensive lineman in franchise history at $18 million per year. The appeal was interior disruption, especially on passing downs. Through four games, he has nine tackles and no sacks.

Sack totals tell only part of the pass-rush story. A defender can wreck a snap by collapsing the pocket, forcing an early throw or moving a quarterback off his platform without receiving a statistic for it. Watson also deserves credit for extending plays, so the sack column alone would be lazy analysis.

Watching Watson stand comfortably for three, four and occasionally five seconds is different. At that point, finishing the rush becomes secondary to whether the rush altered the play at all. NFL defensive backs can cover for only so long. Asking a shuffled secondary to plaster receivers while a quarterback reaches the second and third chapter of his progression is a miserable way to test depth.

Pittsburgh had every reason to expect more. Before the game, the Steelers' history of tormenting Watson made the matchup look favorable. He had taken 18 sacks across his first three meetings with Pittsburgh. Thursday produced two, and Cleveland converted the breathing room into 268 passing yards and three second-quarter touchdown drives.

Watt still created the splash Pittsburgh needed when he stripped Watson and recovered the fumble himself in the third quarter. Jack Sawyer later tipped a pass that became an interception. Those plays helped Pittsburgh erase the deficit. Consistent pressure never followed, and Watson remained comfortable far too often.

Steelers Need Their Young Money To Start Showing Up

There is plenty of season left for Herbig and Benton to make four quiet games look irrelevant. Both earned extensions because of what they had already put on NFL film, and neither contract should be judged permanently before Halloween. Pittsburgh also rotates a deep front, so production will never belong to two players alone.

But this is exactly when the contracts become fair game. Pittsburgh did not pay Herbig and Benton to merely be respectable pieces of an expensive front. It paid them to make nights like Cleveland much harder for the quarterback. If Watson can sit behind the line long enough to browse the coverage menu, the Steelers are not getting the advantage those deals were supposed to purchase.

Fittipaldo's criticism lands because the secondary needed help Thursday. The assignment was simpler than producing a sack on every series: shorten the coverage clock, muddy Watson's reads and prevent young defensive backs from being stranded through extended plays.

Cleveland instead found comfort exactly where Pittsburgh has spent heavily to create chaos. Herbig and Benton have enough time to change that story, but the price tags mean the clock on patience moves a little faster.

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