BRAIN POWER
Mauling Jets lineman a Stanford math whiz from a football family
BACK in May, the Jets quietly made a waiver claim on a little-known offensive lineman named Nate Herbig, who had been released by the Eagles and figured to be an insurance backup.
Six games ago, Herbig quietly was inserted into the Jets’ starting lineup at right guard, after injuries caused them to rearrange their front five.
This is how Herbig, a 24-yearold from Hawaii, does things. Quietly.
His impact for the Jets, however, has been anything but.
Starting tackles Mekhi Becton and George Fant and starting guard Alijah Vera-Tucker all have been lost for the season, but Herbig has helped solidify a Jets line that has become a team strength.
The Jets have won five of the six games since Herbig began starting. They have rushed for 135 or more yards in four of those six games and have protected quarterback Zach Wilson well. Along the way, Herbig has been right in the middle of it.
He delivered the lead blocks on both Jets touchdowns in their upset win over the Bills last Sunday.
Herbig’s tenacious play completely defies the person he projects himself as off the field, which is baby-faced, shy and docile.
Mention Herbig’s name to Jets players and coaches and it always elicits a smile.
“We call him ‘Nasty Nate,’ because if you look on film, he’s always out there trying to dump somebody,’’ Jets veteran left guard Laken Tomlinson told The Post.
“Nate’s love for the game is more than others,’’ Vera-Tucker, out with an elbow injury, told The Post. “I joke around with him and say, ‘Don’t be too good or you might take my spot.’ ’’
With Herbig playing so well and Vera-Tucker, who started at three different positions this season, so versatile, that might be too late.
“He’s just all ball — he just loves football, he’s a grind-it-out kind of offensive lineman, and you can never, ever, ever have enough of those guys,’’ Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur said.
Herbig’s grind-it-out mentality is a direct byproduct of his upbringing on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where his father, Bruce, pushed him and his brothers to the point where fights constantly broke out from the competitive environment.
Nate’s younger brother, Nick, is an All-American junior linebacker at Wisconsin. His older brother, Jake, is a UX and UI tech designer.
Bruce Herbig, a retired high school counselor, spoke to The Post over the phone from home in Hawaii on Friday and described his boys as “uber competitive, and I was right there with them.’’
“I never let them win anything,’’ he said. “They had to earn it. I still don’t think they’ve won anything from me. I don’t like to lose. I guess that spilled over to them and they took the ball and ran with it.’’
Nate told The Post that his father “is one of my best friends,’’ adding, “Everything I do, I try to make him proud.’’
It’s a family affair, with Nick looking up to Nate the way they both look up to their father.
“Honestly, it leaves me speechless sometimes seeing my brother out there doing his thing, playing the game he loves,’’ Nick Herbig told The Post. “I know how hard it was on him, everything he went through being undrafted and seeing the grind he had to go through and the constant stress he puts on himself and his body just trying to make it.
“He’s my role model. I’ve looked up to him my whole life.’’
Nick recalled his father being “super-hard on Nate, and I think that really benefitted him.’’
“Nate needed a little push,’’ Bruce Herbig said. “He sometimes wanted to take the easy way out.
You get what you put into things, and I wanted to make sure he understood that’s how it works.’’ Bruce’s message took. When Herbig came out of Stanford and was signed to the Eagles’ roster in 2019 by Joe Douglas, who’s now the Jets’ general manager, he was an overweight kid who needed to get into shape.
That’s when he was taken in by Eagles tackle Lane Johnson, who has a detached barn at his home outside of Philadelphia equipped with state-of-the-art workout equipment, and a trainer named Gabe Rengel, a former Marine.
Eagles players and others from the South Jersey area gather at the barn, work out together, eat together and hang out. That’s where Herbig met Brian Baldinger, the NFL Network film breakdown guru and a former NFL offensive lineman, who’s also a frequent visitor to the barn.
It was Baldinger, in fact, who facilitated Herbig’s signing with the Jets.
According to Baldinger, the Eagles wanted to cut Herbig’s pay in half and retain him. Herbig asked Baldinger for advice. Baldinger called Douglas to gauge his interest (he was interested) and told Herbig to have his agent call the Jets GM.
“He got his money, he’s playing for a winning team, he’s playing good football, it all worked out for him,’’ Baldinger told The Post. “He just wanted that opportunity, and now he’s getting the opportunity.’’
Bruce Herbig called his son “a sharp dude, almost like a genius in math,’’ adding, “I think that helps with his blocking and angles. I think he understand offenses as well as anyone in the NFL — on the planet — with that math.’’
Bruce recalled a high school teacher of Nate’s once calling him and saying, “I think your son’s cheating.’’
“Well, what makes you think that?’’ Bruce asked.
“Because he didn’t write down any of his formulas and he got the right answers,’’ the teacher responded.
“Nate does all his math in his head,’’ Bruce said.
Baldinger also marveled at Herbig’s physical ability.
“He’s got something inside of him,” he said. “He knows how to physically push himself. There’s a standard inside of him. I think he’s got a button that he can push for sure to get the most out of himself.’’
Herbig, who’s painfully humble, simply said he’s “very thankful for the opportunity’’ the Jets have given him.
When asked what starting has meant to him, Herbig uncomfortably pushed back at any praise coming his way.
“I’ve got a lot of work to do, man,’’ he said. “Look at Alijah VeraTucker, he’s a special player. He’s played All-Pro [level] at three different positions this year.
That’s flat-out amazing. I just look at that I think,
‘Man, I’ve got to elevate my game.’
“I want to play better for him. I don’t want to be the weak link on the line.’’
Quietly, he has been anything but. mcannizzaro@
nypost.com