Bears Should Call Steelers About Alex Highsmith After Nick Herbig Extension

Nick Herbig's extension gives the Bears a fresh reason to call Pittsburgh about Alex Highsmith, a proven edge rusher Chicago still badly needs in 2026.

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith. | Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

With the Pittsburgh Steelers extending edge rusher Nick Herbig on Tuesday, the Chicago Bears should be putting in a call to the Steelers to inquire about fellow edge rusher Alex Highsmith.

According to reports, the Steelers are signing Herbig to a four-year, $100 million contract extension that includes $42 million guaranteed.

That now leaves the Steelers with three high-paid edge rushers in Herbig, Highsmith and T.J. Watt, and that has led many to believe Pittsburgh could move Highsmith.

If so, the Bears would be wise to pursue him.

Why Bears need more edge rush help

Chicago Bears defensive end Austin Booker. | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

The Bears finished tied for 26th in the NFL with 35 sacks last year yet did nothing to improve their edge rushers room this offseason.

Instead, the Bears plan on depending on the trio of Austin Booker, Dayo Odeyingbo and Shemar Turner to improve in 2026 opposite Montez Sweat, which amounts to a risky bet.

"We are excited about the guys that ended up finishing the season on IR, the trajectory that they were on, both Dayo and Shemar," head coach Ben Johnson said.

"I think you saw tremendous growth from (Austin) Booker when we were finally able to get him back (healthy), as well," the Bears head coach added. "The combination of us being able to coach better and those guys taking the next step as part of this system, I think we have some pretty good pieces to work with."

Turner and Odeyingbo combined for just one sack in 2025, and both are returning from serious injuries, so there's no telling what to expect from them in 2026. Not to mention, Odeyingbo has just four sacks in total over his last 25 games and has Turner yet to record a sack in his very brief NFL career.

Booker posted 4.5 sacks in 10 games last season, but, like Turner and Odeyingbo, it's hard to know what to expect from him this season.

The Bears sure could use a more proven commodity across from Sweat, which is why a trade for Highsmith makes sense.

What Alex Highsmith would bring to Bears

Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith. | Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Highsmith has been a consistently productive edge rusher during his career, posting six or more sacks in each of the past five seasons, including a career-high 14.5 in 2022.

The Steelers edge rusher is also a superb run defender, which is important to note because the Bears sported the sixth-worst run defense in 2025. According to Pro Football Focus, Highsmith has run defense grades of 73.3 or higher since 2022 and his career-high 82.1 ranked fourth at his position in 2025.

Highsmith posted 9.5 sacks despite missing four games last year, and he had six in 2024 despite missing six games.

His last two seasons point to the biggest concern with Highsmith, which is his injury history. However, the veteran only missed one game over his first four seasons in the NFL, so we wouldn't call Highsmith injury-prone quite yet.

The Bears aren't really in a position to be overly-concerned with that, anyway.

The bottom line is Chicago needs more help at edge rusher ahead of a season in which the team has Super Bowl aspirations, and preferably someone with a more proven track record than the guys they have now.

Highsmith checks that box.