Eagles Officially Waive Nate Herbig
PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles officially waived offensive lineman Nate Herbig on Wednesday, about 48 hours after the news broke that the veteran was going to be released.
The lag could have been one last-ditch effort from Philadelphia to get something for a player that has performed admirably as an injury replacement over the past two seasons on the interior of the offensive line.
As a second-year player in 2020, Herbig started 12 games and played 79% of the Eagles' offensive snaps, grading out as the 13th best guard in the NFL that season by Pro Football Focus.
Last season, Herbig was again pressed into action at all the interior line positions at times, starting five games and playing 43% of the offensive snaps and still performing admirably, grading out as No. 31 of 82 by PFF.
"Unfortunate," All-Pro center Jason Kelce said Wednesday at the NovaCare Complex when asked about Herbig moving on. "Nate's been a big part of our offensive line, a big part of our team through the injuries the last couple years. He's been a really important piece and he's played really, really well."
The Eagles have impressive depth on the interior of the offensive line and added to that in the draft with second-round pick Cam Jurgens, who is predominately a center.
Rising star Landon Dickerson is expected to start at left guard next to Kelce and the other side figures to be the returning Issac Seumalo, who missed most of last season with a Lisfranc injury, trying to hold off Nick Sirianni favorite Jack Driscoll.
Jeff Stoutland also has interior players like Sua Opeta and Jack Anderson at his disposal while Le'Raven Clark, Brett Toth, and Kayode Awosika have guard/tackle versatility.
Once Jurgens was added to the mix, the writing was all the wall for Herbig.
"Every player when you're young is asked to do multiple positions," Kelce said. "Until you're a starter, you only get to dress seven guys, eight guys if you're lucky on game day. Guys are gonna have to play multiple positions if you're in that sixth, seventh spot.
"... Stature-wise [Jurgens] probably fits the center role more I'm sure he'll play a little bit at guard and he'll be able to do a great job at that."
Herbig, 23, was tendered as a restricted free agent with a salary of $2.433 million and the Eagles no longer wanted to pay that price for a player who was unlikely to be active on game days.
Meanwhile, Herbig's agent Ken Sarnoff understood the numbers game facing his client.
"When I say unfortunate, I mean unfortunate for us," Kelce said of Herbig's release. "What he's meant to our room and how awesome a player and person he is but I'm excited for him to get a really good opportunity."
Originally an undrafted free agent signed out of Stanford in 2019, Herbig leaves Philadelphia having played in 34 games and starting 17 of them.
"He's gotten some opportunity because of some injuries and stuff like that and hopefully that will stop happening for us but he's proven he can play and be one of the better players in this league," Kelce added. "So as a young player hope he gets a great opportunity to showcase that."
-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
