AROUND THE NFL

Daily Briefing

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com, a hardline wait for Dr. Fauci’s vaccine guy, seems to take the side that a lockdown is harder to end than it was to impose.

The President conducted a conference call with sports commissioners on Saturday, and as to one sport in particular he expressed an opinion.

Via ESPN.com, Donald Trump said that he believes the NFL’s regular season should begin on time in September.

Trump also added that he hopes to have fans in stadiums and arenas by August and September. However, it’s hard to imagine packed stands until scientists develop a vaccine for the coronavirus. A vaccine isn’t expected until the middle of 2021, at the earliest.

The NFL has said it’s planning for a full season. More recently, NFL chief medical officer Allen Sills expressed a more pragmatic viewpoint, one that acknowledges the many unknowns and factors that will influence a final decision.

Ultimately, scientists and other skilled experts will determine if, when, and how football will return. It’s currently hard to envision any type of sporting event resuming any time soon. However, as quickly as things changed to shut the world down, things possibly could change quickly to open the world up again.

Florio has backing in California Governor Gavin Newsom:

Governor Gavin Newsom said he is not anticipating that NFL and college football games will go on as scheduled in the fall due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“I’m not anticipating that happening in this state,” Newsom said Saturday in response to reporter who asked if he believes stadiums will be packed for games in August and September.

“We’ve all seen the headlines in the last couple days in Asia where they were opening up certain businesses and now they’re starting to roll back those openings because they’re starting to see some spread and there’s a boomerang,” Newsom said. “One has to be very cautious here, one has to be careful not to overpromise.”

Newsom said he recently had a conversation with a well-known football player who asked him if he expects to come back.

“I would move very cautiously in that expectation,” Newsom said.

He said any decisions made in California will be based on facts and determined by health experts.

“Right now I’m just focused on the immediate, but that’s not something I anticipate happening in the next few months,” Newsom said.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump reportedly believes the NFL season – scheduled to begin Sept. 10 – will start on time with fans in seats.

So far, 351 people are credited with having died from coronavirus among the 40+ million people in California, so even if the pace stays steady under 5,000 per year.  In a typical year, more than 3,000 Californians die from firearm violence with 4,000 suicides (not sure if these totals overlap).  More than 6,000 die from pneumonia, more than 8,000 from diabetes.   

Peter King has this on the schedule process.

Be prepared to see football games played without fans. No one knows the alternatives that will present themselves in the next six months. We don’t know if there will be any sporting seasons in 2020. But the NFL’s medical director, Dr. Allen Sills, pointed out to Judy Battista of NFL Media how far there is to go before we even think of playing games with any normalcy: “As long as we’re still in a place where when a single individual tests positive for the virus that you have to quarantine every single person who was in contact with them in any shape, form or fashion, then I don’t think you can begin to think about reopening a team sport. Because we’re going to have positive cases for a very long time.”

What does that mean? Daily temperature-taking for every participant and coach, and perhaps daily testing. In this scenario, it’s certainly pragmatic to consider games without fans sitting in close proximity. As one NFL executive said to me the other day: “Everything [related to football] is on the table for discussion, and we’ve got a very large table.”

• How does the NFL schedule the Rams for a Week 1 opener at new So-Fi Stadium? With reports that Covid-19 could slow the finish to the new Los Angeles stadium—expected to be open by late July—and with California Gov. Gavin Newsom saying Saturday he is “not anticipating” sports events with full stadiums in his state in September, it’s hard to plan a celebratory launch in L.A. Around the NFL, and around Dallas and Los Angeles, there has been anticipation for a national-TV Cowboys-Rams season-opener. Speaking of schedules . . .

• It’s likely the NFL schedule-makers, led by Howard Katz, will spend their extra time this month working on 12-game and 14-game schedule alternatives. Roger Goodell sometimes sounds like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he says inside NFL offices: “Hope is not a strategy.” In this case, the league hopes it can play a full 16-game regular-season schedule with a bye week. But nothing is certain these days. In the wake of the league saying the schedule would be released on May 9 at the latest, it would be foolish to sit on the schedule that could be ready by next week and not take the next five weeks to prepare for alternatives. That’s why I’m sure they are working on shorter, compacted schedules.

Spitballing: A 14-game schedule could be as simple as the league assigning every team one home and one road game on the weekends of Sept. 13 and 20, and if the season couldn’t start till the weekend of Sept. 27, those first two games could simply be lopped off the schedule, and each team would be left with seven home and seven road games. A more radical idea, if the season couldn’t start till mid-October: Opening night Oct. 15 at Kansas City, opening weekend continues on Oct. 18 and 19, a 12-week regular season, no byes, final regular-season games on Jan. 3. In that case, imagine the NFL scrubbing all preseason games and having training camps, likely closed to the public, beginning in early to mid-September. That’s five months from now. So much can happen to affect the schedule, obviously.

– – –

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com on the escalating quarterback market:

After helping Matt Ryan become the NFL’s first $30 million per year player, agent Todd France was thrilled for Ryan but didn’t pop any corks around the Creative Artists Agency office in Atlanta.

France, who co-brokered the deal with Tom Condon that earned Ryan $150 million over five years with $100 million guaranteed in May 2018, went home to see his family, mentally celebrated the Ryans’ dreams realized, then it was onto the next one.

“You can’t celebrate too long,” said France, a sports division co-head with CAA, which has a quarterback roster that includes Ryan Tannehill and Dak Prescott. “Those numbers can get passed quickly. As an agent, you hope they do as that’s how the market grows.”

Less than two years later, the game has seen a true market explosion at the quarterback position that could forever change the way teams pay top earners.

In the past 12 months alone, April to April, veteran quarterbacks racked up more than $900 million in extensions or deals with new teams. That’s more than double the total from the previous 12-month span.

The going rate for top quarterbacks has ballooned from around $20 million to $35 million per year since 2015. That’s 75% growth in that span, far exceeding an NFL salary cap that rose from $143.8 million to $198.2 million during the same time period.

Two rounds, 64 picks and 12 WRs: McShay’s new NFL Mock Draft goes deep

“Holy… mackerel,” said one NFL general manager when asked about the current pace of pay, pausing between words for effect.

Russell Wilson started things off last April with a record-breaking four-year, $140 million deal, resetting a robust market for Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Tannehill and others. One of the best quarterback classes in NFL free-agent history, led by Tom Brady and Drew Brees, got in on the fun. The sheer volume of payouts during this span is not normal, and next year’s crop probably won’t exceed it. But Prescott, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson can push well beyond a half billion combined if their deals get done.

In fact, NFL owners were so concerned about quarterback earnings that they tried to squeeze a player salary cap — like the NBA’s max deals for superstars — into recent collective bargaining agreement negotiations, according to sources. Owners broached the subject early in the process, but it died pretty quickly once players wouldn’t go for it.

Head coaches and general managers lament the struggles of building a 53-man team when one player occupies nearly 20% of their cap. And the anticipated boom of 2023 — when a 17-game regular season and gambling money will be in full bloom — could incentivize Prescott and others to do shorter-term deals and keep the power on their side.

“Everyone could see this storm coming,” said veteran agent Ryan Tollner, who did megadeals for Goff and Wentz worth a combined $262 million this past offseason. “More and more money coming into the league and the quarterback salaries were only going to go up.”

The recent boom is a confluence of timing and leverage. Quarterbacks were due.

The first half of the decade produced modest growth. Brees and Aaron Rodgers broke the $20 million per year threshold. But four years after Peyton Manning signed a five-year, $96 million deal with Denver in 2012, high-level quarterbacks such as Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Newton were still signing deals worth around $20 million per year because that was simply the ballpark for the top guys.

On the field, quarterbacks were strengthening their grip on the game, dictating pace of play with more sophisticated passing attacks. Ten of the 12 5,000-yard passing performances in NFL history have come in this decade.

In 2016, Andrew Luck coupled youth (26) and just enough “generational quarterback” cache to strike a six-year, $140-million deal at just over $23 million per year.

The timing was even better for Derek Carr, who played like a star in 2017 and was one year from free agency. So the Raiders locked him up at $25 million per year, which is all Matthew Stafford needed to get Detroit a few million over that per-year average later that summer. Stafford passed the baton to Jimmy Garoppolo ($27.5 million per year), who passed it to Ryan, and passers have gone deep into the pockets of owners ever since.

Almost all of these players were 30 or younger at the time of the deal.

“When you have a young quarterback, you do everything to keep him,” said Mike Tannenbaum, former New York Jets general manager and Miami Dolphins vice president who now serves as an ESPN front-office analyst. “It’s the quarterback and it’s everything else. You’d rather have the cost certainty now, so from a team-building standpoint, you’d rather lock up those numbers and plan around them accordingly.”

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

Former Redskin and Hall of Famer Bobby Mitchell has died.  ESPN.com:

Bobby Mitchell, who was the first African American player to sign with the Washington Redskins, died Sunday at 84, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced.

“I was extremely saddened to hear the news about the passing of the great Bobby Mitchell. Bobby was a Hall of Fame player and executive and represented the Washington Redskins organization with integrity for over 50 years,” team owner Daniel Snyder said in a statement. “His passion for the game of football was unmatched by anyone I have ever met. Not only was he one of the most influential individuals in franchise history, but he was also one of the greatest men I have ever known. He was a true class act and will be sorely missed. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Gwen and the entire Mitchell family during this time.”

Mitchell began his pro career as a halfback for the Cleveland Browns in 1958. A running and receiving threat, he shared the backfield with Jim Brown, giving Cleveland one of the strongest offensive attacks in the league. During his four seasons in Cleveland, Mitchell accounted for 3,759 yards from scrimmage.

– – –

Former Redskins CB DeANGELO HALL doesn’t think QB DWAYNE HASKINS is a good bet against KYLE ALLEN who knows the Turner offense the Redskins will now employ, especially without a hands-on offeseason.  Seth Allen of the Washington Post:

At his introductory news conference in January, Washington Redskins Coach Ron Rivera was careful not to anoint Dwayne Haskins, the team’s top draft pick a year ago, as the starting quarterback. Rivera said Haskins would have to “step up and become a leader,” and after Washington traded for former Carolina Panthers quarterback Kyle Allen last month, he indicated there would be a healthy competition for the job in training camp, if and when it begins.

Former Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall, for one, doesn’t believe the acquisition of Allen, who is familiar with new Redskins offensive coordinator Scott Turner’s system from their two years together in Carolina, bodes well for Haskins’s future in Washington.

“I don’t think Dwayne Haskins is going to respond,” Hall said Thursday during an appearance on NFL Network’s “Total Access.” ”… Ron Rivera is an old-school mentality type of coach. He wants competition. These young guys want things given to them.”

Haskins has given every indication publicly that he would welcome a competition for the starting job, but Hall expressed concern that the 15th pick in last year’s draft will be constantly looking over his shoulder.

“With Kyle Allen breathing down your throat, you are not going to be able to make many mistakes,” Hall said. “I love the kid, but I don’t know how [Haskins] wins the starting job. I really don’t.”

Hall noted that the Redskins traded a fifth-round pick for Allen, which was no small pittance, considering that’s what Washington got from the Seattle Seahawks for disgruntled cornerback Quinton Dunbar. Allen, who went undrafted in 2018, started 12 games in place of the injured Cam Newton last season, and he finished with 17 touchdowns against 16 interceptions. Haskins started seven games as a rookie and struggled at times, finishing with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. In his last two starts, he threw four touchdowns and no interceptions while completing 72.1 percent of his passes.

Complicating matters is the fact that the novel coronavirus pandemic could curtail teams’ offseason activities, giving Haskins less time to familiarize himself with Turner’s system.

“We’re going into camp believing [Haskins is the starter], but they’re going to be competing,” Rivera said when asked about Washington’s quarterback situation during an interview on WFNZ radio in Charlotte last month. “At the end of the day, nobody knows what’s going to happen, so we just have to get ourselves ready, and [we] really like what we have in terms of our young quarterbacks. Kyle is also a young guy, has a long arm, understands the game, understands how we do things, so I’m excited about what the potential could be.”

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

Former Saints PK Tom Dempsey, famous for the first 63-yard FG, is a victim of coronavirus.

Former New Orleans Saints kicker Tom Dempsey, who famously made a 63-yard field goal in 1970 despite being born without toes on his right kicking foot, has died due to complications of the coronavirus, his daughter said. He was 73.

Ashley Dempsey said Sunday that her father tested positive for the coronavirus a little more than a week ago.

Dempsey had been battling Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. He was a resident at the Lambeth House senior living center in New Orleans, which has been hit hard by the virus. More than 50 residents have been affected, according to NOLA.com.

The Orleans Parish coroner has yet to release an official cause of death.

Saints owner Gayle Benson released a statement Sunday morning on Dempsey’s death.

“The New Orleans Saints family is deeply saddened and heartbroken at this most difficult time. Tom’s life spoke directly to the power of the human spirit and exemplified his resolute determination to not allow setbacks to impede following his dreams and aspirations. He exemplified the same fight and fortitude in recent years as he battled valiantly against illnesses but never wavered and kept his trademark sense of humor. He holds a special place in the hearts and minds of the Saints family,” she said.

The Saints’ extended family has been affected in multiple ways by the coronavirus. Coach Sean Payton tested positive last month before saying he was cleared last week. Also, Bobby Hebert Sr., the father of former Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert, died last week at the age of 81 after testing positive for the coronavirus.

NFC WEST

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Rams COO Kevin Demhoff is doubling down on the Rams’ new look despite growing opposition.  Lindsey Thiry of ESPN.com:

If you were under the impression that the Los Angeles Rams might be thinking twice about moving forward with their recently revealed rebranding effort, think again.

The Rams have no plan to move away from their new logos and colors and are taking in stride some of the backlash they’ve received from fans and even Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson.

Kevin Demoff, the Rams’ chief operating officer who has been heading the project for more than two years, promised to read mean tweets about the new logos if a recent telethon hosted by the Rams and KABC, the local ABC affiliate in L.A., raised more than $2 million for coronavirus relief efforts.

The fundraiser passed the $2.2 million mark, and Demoff kept his word, recording a video that was published on his Twitter feed.

Among the nine mean tweets that Demoff read:

“This is actually embarrassing. Looks like some freshman college students in Graphic Design 101 made it in about 6 minutes.”

“There’s a Rams logo debate? What’s it between? Trash and hot garbage?”

“If you’re low on toilet paper, don’t worry. You can get it now on NFL shop. #ramslogo”

Demoff followed the video with a statement about the feedback the Rams have received in regard to the rebranding.

“While it isn’t always the easiest to hear, we value the commentary you have provided on the logo & colors,” Demoff wrote. “We are excited about the future of our team, our brand & our stadium, but recognize we can always get better through feedback and engagement and appreciate your passion.”

Dickerson, who starred for the Rams in the 1980s, said last month that he would meet with Rams front-office executives on behalf of fans who were angry with the rebranding, and he included himself among those angry.

However, Dickerson wrote Sunday on Twitter that his discussion yielded no change in the Rams’ plan to move forward with their new colors and logos.

“I spoke with the Rams front office on behalf of our great fans and former players,” Dickerson wrote. “Unfortunately, the front office is set on their new logos.”

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

GM Eric DeCosta won’t say “no” on signing WR ANTONIO BROWN.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Pictures of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and wide receiver Marquise Brown hanging out with former Steelers, Raiders and Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown after a recent drew notice for a pair of reasons.

One was that the three players weren’t following the social distancing guidelines put in place to help slow the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. The other was that the connection to two Baltimore players might open the door to Antonio Brown joining the Ravens.

Ravens General Manager Eric DeCosta was asked about the workout and potential interest in the veteran wideout during a Monday conference call, but declined to share his thoughts on anything having to do with Brown.

“Those are in-house things. I don’t really feel the need to share that right now,” DeCosta said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com.

In addition to workouts, Brown has legal issues to deal with on a couple of fronts. He was charged with felony burglary conveyance, misdemeanor battery, and misdemeanor criminal mischief in Broward County following an altercation with a moving truck driver and was sued for sexual assault and rape last year. An NFL investigation into the latter remains open.

THIS AND THAT

PROSPECT PROFILE – JUSTIN HERBERT

The third quarterback on most draft lists is Justin Herbert from Oregon.

There is a lot to like on the surface about Herbert.  He looks like a pro pocket star at 6-6 and he has decent mobility with 15 rushing TDs in his career with the Ducks.

Speaking of that career, he was a four-year starter, opening up in 43 games with a 29-14 record.  Eschewing the draft in 2019, he returned for a senior season where he led the Ducks to the Pac-12 title and a Rose Bowl win – a game in which he was the MVP.  He was also deemed to be the MVP of the Senior Bowl after a somewhat effective stint early in the game.

Herbert grew up in Eugene, a few minutes away from the Oregon campus.  His father Mark, is now a management consultant specializing in employee relations after teaching biology earlier in life.  The family home is a 23-minute walk from Autzen Stadium, something the family often did together in Justin’s youth.  His maternal grandfather, Richard Schwab, was a receiver at Oregon and stayed active in booster groups in Eugene throughout his life.

Justin was a three-sport star at Sheldon High School which his father also attended.

Justin is an outstanding student, winning numerous awards for his high GPA in biology.  He wants to pursue a career in medicine.  He graduated in three years, and played as a graduate student in 2019.  Here is some info on Herbert and his academic pursuits:

Now in his fourth season as the Ducks quarterback, the 6-foot-6, 237-pound Herbert has already completed his degree requirements and walked in last spring’s commencement ceremonies. He earned a degree in general science with an emphasis in biology and finished with a 4.01 grade-point average, and his list of academic accomplishments rival his on-field feats.

HERBERT’S ACADEMIC HONORS

2019 William V. Campbell Trophy Award Winner

2019 CoSIDA Academic All-America Team Member of the Year

2019 CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American

2019 Pac-12 Conference Football Scholar Athlete of the Year

2018 Google Cloud Academic All-America Team Member of the Year

2018 Google Cloud First Team Academic All-American

2018 Pac-12 Conference All-Academic First Team

2017 CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American

2017 Pac-12 Conference All-Academic First Team

He’s a two-time Academic All-America first-team honoree and the reigning Google Cloud Academic All-America Team Member of the Year. He’s twice been named to the Pac-12 All-Academic first team. As a sophomore, he tutored fellow students in a demanding biology class.

Herbert said he’s proud of his academic achievements and attributes them to good study habits fostered by his parents.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” he said. “It’s a good product of all the hard work I’ve put in.”

Herbert is dedicated to football, but biology might be his first love.

“It really explains a lot of things that go on around us,” he said. “It explains how you breathe and how your cells work together. It explains everything, and I think it’s really cool to have an understanding of how things work.”

Growing up in Eugene, biology was always in the background, and in the backyard.

“I really grew up around biology,” he said. “My grandfather was a biology teacher and my father was a biology teacher.”

His paternal grandfather, Roger Herbert, was a biology teacher for 34 years at Sheldon High School, where he was also the track and field coach. His maternal grandfather, Rich Schwab, was a leading receiver for the Ducks in the early 1960s, and went on to coach football at Sheldon, Churchill and Marist high schools.

“He always had biology activities around the house,” Herbert said of his grandfather. “Growing up, we’d spend a lot of time over there just hanging out and learning from him.”

Herbert and his brothers, Mitch and Patrick, raised a veritable Noah’s ark of animals in their grandfather’s backyard, including but not limited to hermit crabs, parakeets, quail, chickens, lizards and yes, ducks.

Justin Herbert in cap and gownWhen he got to the UO, “I wanted to study something I was interested in, and biology was the best choice,” he said.

Herbert would seem to be the perfect QB candidate, but the fact is that in many of his Oregon games, he just didn’t put on a performance that said, “wow.”  The sum of his performance seemed less than what the pieces would add up to. 

Spending the summer of 2019 as a biology teaching assistant could be a red flag about how much being an NFL success means to him.

There also were issues about “leadership.”  And clearly it must have been an issue at one point.  Aaron Fentress in The Athletic, in a piece written at the Combine last month, offered a long defense – excerpted below:

Justin Herbert’s hair has evolved over the years, much like his demeanor, his personality and his game.

Gone are the days of the boyish short hair in 2016, the buzz cut of 2017 and that wild, unkempt hairdo from 2018 that screamed for someone to hold him down and take shears to his hair. His hairstyle Tuesday at the NFL Scouting Combine was next level — thick, wavy, clearly styled despite the early wake-up call for the day’s activities.

Herbert very much resembled a leading man in a movie, the hero who inevitably wins the day and sweeps the leading lady off her feet. That look was fitting for Herbert, given that he has been auditioning to become the leading man for an NFL franchise, one likely very much in need of a savior — with emphasis on the word “man.”

Herbert is all grown up. It’s been a steady rise since he became Oregon’s starter as a true freshman in 2016 and was asked to salvage a sinking ship. The journey has had its share of down moments in which he didn’t always handle things with the steely resolve of an alpha male capable of leading a football team. There were enough of those moments to raise questions about Herbert’s abilities in that area. During this week’s combine, the top storyline surrounding Herbert seems to be his leadership abilities, or potential lack thereof.

That narrative should be put to rest. Seeing the finished product on display in Indianapolis cemented the reality that Herbert has arrived. His swagger was apparent. He confidently strolled into a ballroom at the Indiana Convention Center for interviews with an air of confidence. The once super-shy teen who often answered questions during media sessions as if he were merely trying to survive now is far more confident, more introspective. Let’s not get wild here, though: Herbert remained guarded when he felt the need and he likely never will be described as a go-to source for a great quote. But he certainly has come a long way and that is reflected in his leadership abilities.

“I’m a different person, to be honest,” Herbert said when asked to look back at his 18-year-old self. “And I think the kid that showed up at the University of Oregon isn’t me anymore. There’s aspects of my game that have changed. I’ve become more vocal. I’ve become more outgoing. And there are things you have to do to be a quarterback. And the way a quarterback carries himself — I think that I’ve done a great job of becoming that over these past four years.”

By all indications, Herbert will be a top-10 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. He could go as high as No. 5 to Miami or No. 6 to the Los Angeles Chargers, teams without starting quarterbacks. The size, arm and athleticism are there. The only question that has dogged him was his maturity and leadership. It’s a question that his former Ducks teammates believe is now moot.

Maybe no teammate had a better view of Herbert’s maturation process than Jake Hanson, his center of the past four seasons. When asked at the combine about the type of player the team that drafts Herbert will be getting, Hanson responded, “They’re getting a competitor. He doesn’t like losing, that’s for sure. His main goal is to win. … He’s going to do everything in his power to make a play and help his team win games.”

To understand how far Herbert has come, one must understand where he began.

– – –

Still, his youth showed. After throwing an interception in the second overtime to seal a 52-49 loss, Herbert crumbled to the turf in despair. Helfrich rushed to help his distraught quarterback to his feet. Teammates encircled him, offering words of encouragement and hugs. But tears streamed down Herbert’s face. Had his team lost a football game or had he lost his puppy?

But that was the 18-year-old Herbert, a sensitive teen who, because of his immense talent and the dysfunction around him, had been asked to do something he could handle physically but wasn’t quite ready for mentally.

Was that fair to him? No. But it was the reality of the situation, and one that his teammates recognized on and off the field.

“He was quiet, kind of laid-back, didn’t really talk much,” Breeland said doing combine interviews.

To hear Herbert tell it, he simply was shy. Having grown up in Eugene and attending Sheldon High, Herbert looked up to and revered Ducks players. The stars through the years were superheroes to him. Who was he to assert himself? Who was he to lead these men? “I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes,” Herbert said.

The season ended with a 4-8 record and the firing of Helfrich and his coaching staff. Herbert couldn’t save the season or the staff. But he could help save the program. He just needed to grow up. And do so in a hurry.

As a freshman, Herbert flashed his immense talent several times. He tied another single-game school record with 489 passing yards in a 54-35 win against Arizona State. He led the team to a 30-28 comeback win at No. 10 Utah by throwing a 17-yard touchdown pass to Darren Carrington II in the left corner of the end zone with a few seconds remaining. That pass couldn’t have been thrown more perfectly by any quarterback in the history of the game.

Herbert no doubt had the goods. But could he develop the demeanor? Helfrich’s replacement, Willie Taggart, wasn’t so sure.

Herbert didn’t really have a veteran role model on the team to emulate. One of the major weaknesses of that 2016 team was a lack of veteran leadership. That impacted all the young players on the team. “We were obviously helping each other,” Hanson said. “But we were both trying to figure it out on the run.”

Still, by the spring of spring 2017, offensive lineman Calvin Throckmorton said, Herbert had taken it upon himself to raise his leadership game. Throckmorton said he saw a change in Herbert, who became more assertive, organized team workouts, encouraged, no, demanded that players buy in to doing extra work.

Breeland said the losing spurred Herbert to take charge. “That’s when I saw him start to become the man that he was,” Breeland said.

Still, the emotional components were a bit slow to follow. Taggart said during that spring that he saw Herbert allow mistakes to impact his emotions, body language and how he approached the next play. Taggart bluntly stated that Herbert had to mature if he ever wanted to reach his potential.

Herbert was trying to but needed time. At least he knew what and who he needed to become.

“To be a successful team, you have to have a quarterback that can be himself,” Herbert said. “He’s going to be genuine and real, and he needs to demand from his offense, from the team, what he needs to get out of them. I’ve done a better job of being vocal, stepping up and stepping out of my comfort zone to get there.”

– – –

Each uncomfortable moment created increased comfort. The stages of growth were noticeable by his teammates.

“Each year, he kept getting more vocal, better at becoming that leader we could look to and really just follow,” Breeland said.

A broken collarbone cost Herbert five games in 2017 and the team finished 7-6. Before he left, Taggart noted the growth in Herbert as a leader. Herbert took another step as a junior in 2018, and the Ducks won their first bowl since 2014 with a win in 7-6 the Redbox Bowl against Michigan State to finish 9-4.

By the time he reached his senior season, Herbert had 29 games under his belt and really no excuse not to view himself as the unquestioned team leader, a guy who could step on as many toes as he wanted.

“He just totally accepted that leadership role and to be that guy that everybody looks to, not only on our offense but on our team, “Throckmorton said. “Somebody who really just set the standard of what it means to be an Oregon Duck.”

What he had to prove was that he could lead well enough on the field to help his team win a championship or risk becoming Oregon’s first multi-year starter not to do so since Dennis Dixon injured his knee in 2007.

Herbert and Oregon got the job done last season, winning the Pac-12 title and the Rose Bowl. Herbert’s play in the title game and the bowl game wasn’t spectacular. But, as a leader does, Herbert found ways to impact the games. In the Rose Bowl, he rushed for three touchdowns, including the game-winner from 30 yards out in the final minutes. A leader finds a way. Herbert had done just that.

At this point, it’s safe to say a lack of leadership won’t be what causes Herbert to fail in the NFL. He is the entire package, and no team interested in his physical gifts should worry about how he will handle himself as a leader.

Plus, he still is far from a finished product in this area. Justin Herbert at age 25 will be more mature and a better leader than Herbert is today. What’s most important is not what fans, media or scouts think. It’s the opinions of teammates that matter, and his former Oregon teammates at the combine have watched him grow, were inspired by him and followed him to great heights.

“When you get to know Justin, you can see he is a very goofy guy,” former UO linebacker Troy Dye said. “He has fun. He enjoys life.”

But Dye also called him “a tremendous leader. He’s stepped up big-time when we’ve needed him to step up.”

His former teammates expect to see him continue to thrive.

“Just seeing him progress, it’s just awesome,” Breeland said. “No words can describe how proud I am of him.”

The DB’s sense from watching a handful of games is that Herbert’s passing ability is only okay.  Others, who have spent more time in study, say it is better than that.  Garrett Ballard of NFL Mocks had this to say:

Film Assessment

Games Watched: 2018- Stanford, Washington; 2019: Utah, Wisconsin, Washington, Auburn

Accuracy and Ball Placement: Natural arm talent. Once he gets in a rhythm, he can make any throw on the field. Not pinpoint accuracy but throws balls that his receivers can have a chance on every play. Will sometimes miss throws once forced to move around. Has nice touch accuracy on throws. Can drop a ball in a bucket. He has shown the ability to throw pinpoint accurate balls, but he is more consistently a general accuracy thrower.

Derrik Klassen of Rotoworld:

Let’s start with the basic adjusted accuracy score. At 73.08%, Herbert is in the upper echelon of prospects in my database with respect to accuracy. However, if you ask many analysts, myself included, a gripe with him may be that consistent ball placement isn’t always present in Herbert’s game. To a different degree, the same sentiment and accuracy success was true of Lamar Jackson.

The disconnect with QBs who fall into this perplexing category is this: when they (Herbert, in this case) miss, it looks bad, and a good portion of their misfires seem to come in situations that should have no excuse for a bad throw. Even though Herbert is “on” a lot of the time, at least with respect to accuracy, he has a handful of confusing misses from clean platforms or rockets that fly behind a WR’s head each game. Since the ugly is so bad and apparent, it may stick around in our mind more than it actually should, which is a sentiment I’m willing to buy into given how impressive his adjusted accuracy score is.

All of Herbert’s situational accuracy numbers are impressive, too. With over 65% accuracy outside the pocket and nearly 80% accuracy on play-action, Herbert has proven himself someone who can function on long-developing plays, whether that is by design or forced upon him by the defense. Granted, a decent portion of Herbert’s play-action passes are RPOs, but Oregon did call for standard play-action shots down the field quite often and Herbert often executed them well. The two categories even overlap a bit as just over 8% of Herbert’s attempts were on rollouts, which almost always are preceded by a hand-off fake before the QB rolls from the pocket.

Even Herbert’s accuracy under pressure is solid. Herbert has often been criticized for his play under pressure, which is fair based on his tape, but when he lets it rip, he does a good enough job of getting it to his man. The bigger issue with Herbert under pressure is that he will freeze and take sacks that he shouldn’t, which obviously won’t show up in passing chart numbers.

The main gripe I have with Herbert in this section is the same gripe I had with Tua Tagovailoa: a low rate of snaps played out of empty formations. To reiterate, empty formations spread the field horizontally, which both forces defenses to declare their coverages more clearly while also giving a defense’s pass rush a clearer picture of what the protection will be. In turn, QBs get a clearer picture of how to attack a defense, but have to do so very quickly because the pass-rush can get home almost instantly. While playing out of empty a lot in college isn’t a necessity, it’s a bit of a barometer for me in terms of which teams trust their QB to see the field well and act on it without delay. For comparison, LSU QB Joe Burrow played from empty formations about 17% of the time through his sample. This is by no means a killer for Herbert, and it doesn’t even really hurt him in my eyes, but rather it was a chance to earn a “boost” from me and he didn’t earn it.

The DB was thinking that Herbert is somewhat comparable to Falcons QB MATT RYAN who has compiled more than a decade worth of stats (and truth be told, wins) that should make him a first ballot Hall of Famer.  But he had done it all without a smidgen of flair (or scandal).  If you ask people who judge by the eye test, they question Ryan’s HOF stature although 51,000+ yards and 321 TD passes (and climbing) would seem inarguable.

And, then we found out that Herbert is the only Matt Ryan fan in Oregon.  This from Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post:

It is clear, of course, that Herbert, the Oregon star, is a first-round talent, by any and all physical measurements. That cannon arm. That ability to scramble.

Herbert is smart, too. Really smart.

The cardinal sin in the eyes and hearts of some NFL scouts, it seems?

He’s quiet. An introvert, even.

“I don’t think I’m really an introvert,” Herbert said. “I think I’m somewhere in the middle. There are shades of both in me. It’s something I’ve really worked on. And the coaches have done a great job of pulling that out of me.”

Herbert chose to come to the Senior Bowl, unlike Joe Burrow, the presumed top pick in the NFL draft, because he feels a need to answer some questions.

“I think people are worried about leadership and me being a pretty quiet guy,” Herbert said. “But I would say I’m not too quiet. I’ll talk your ear off. So there are these things I want to be transparent with. And give a good representation of myself.”

“Big, strong arm, hard to bring down,” said Bengals coach Zac Taylor, Herbert’s coach this week. “He can make plays with his feet as well. All the impressive tools you’re looking for in the top quarterback in the draft. Excited to spend time with him this week and get a feel for where he is mentally. We know what’s reported, but that’s one of the advantages of coaching the Senior Bowl is being able to coach the guy in meetings, see how quickly he takes the information from the meetings to the field.”

– – –

Herbert, who can complete passes of a high degree of difficulty and can deliver a Josh Allen-like off-target attempt but sometimes seems shaky under pressure, is going to have every move he makes monitored closely this week.

Herbert worked hard to engage with his teammates at Oregon, and those were his classmates and friends. How will he react to leading a team of strangers?

“You’ve just got to meet as many of them as you can,” Herbert said. “You go out of your way to say ‘hi’ and get to know someone. You have to step up and you have to speak. When you’re in the huddle my voice has to the loudest. And people’s eyes have to be on me. And I have to direct the traffic.”

If the Dolphins fail to land Tua Tagovailoa or if they decide they’re not comfortable with the medical reports on the Alabam quarterback, Herbert could be considered.

Herbert would not say which teams he has or is scheduled to meet with this week. Herbert also would not compare himself to Burrow or Tagovailoa.

Herbert, it seems, would like to keep some things private. And it is clear he’s not like the many quarterbacks who traditionally suggest before the draft that they are the best in class and should be taken above all peers.

Herbert is fan of the Falcons’ Matt Ryan, who is similarly humble. Some scouts have compared his skill set to that of Ryan.

“We watched a lot of Matt Ryan in college,” Herbert said. “We watched a lot of his play-fakes, a lot of his play-action, rolling out, getting his eyes snapped around. We were big on Drew Brees and Tom Brady, their mechanics. We looked at a lot of their stuff as well.”

So there is a lot to like about Herbert.  The questions, which he can answer positively in time, seem to have to do with his quiet nature and emotional maturity (which is not to be confused with intelligence) and the pureness of his arm talent.

PROSPECT PROFILE – JORDAN LOVE

Utah State QB JORDAN LOVE comes from Bakersfield, California in the southern part of the Central Valley.  It’s the same town/city that gave us the Carr brothers, David and Derek, as well as Cody Kessler, Joey Porter and Frank Gifford.  Country legeneds Merle Haggard and Buck Owens and NASCAR driver Kevin Harvick also hail from Bakersfield.

Love’s father, Orbin, had been on the Bakersfield police force for 27 years when he committed suicide when Jordan was 14.  This from Chantel Jennings in The Athletic:

Jordan was a rising sophomore, and his team was playing in a summer tournament. At just 14, he was one of the youngest players on the team, but he was naturally talented beyond his years. At that point basketball had panned out better for him at that point than football, as he had played wide receiver, safety and backup quarterback on the freshman team the previous fall.

Jordan didn’t notice during the game when his younger sister, Alexis, walked into the gym without her dad or how his mom left immediately after Alexis arrived. When his aunt picked uphim and his sister from the game, didn’t think anything of it until she started driving them back to her house instead of their own. Jordan asked why, and he remembers her saying that their mom had to go do something, so she would take them home in a bit.

But when they pulled into the driveway, his aunt put the car in park and paused.

“She just said it straight up — that’s the only way you can be with it, I feel like,” Love said. “She just told us, ‘Your dad committed suicide.’”

Orbin had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in their family’s home, in his and Anna’s bedroom, after dropping off Jordan’s sister at the basketball game. Orbin was 16 days shy of his 52nd birthday.

In San Diego, Dennis Hicks I got a phone call from a friend relaying the news. The family hadn’t been at that basketball tournament because Dennis II was finishing up his summer track season.

“I’m like, ‘No, that can’t be — you know how rumors start; they must be talking about someone else,’ ” Hicks I said. “I said, ‘We’ll get back and I’ll go by and talk to Orbin, because I don’t want to believe these calls that we’re getting.’ ”

But Jordan didn’t have the same disbelief. He knew that his father had attempted this once before. And he knew that his dad had been on blood pressure medication and it had recently been switched. There were times when Jordan would look at his father and know that he was in a bit of a daze and unfocused, which was unusual for Orbin.

“It just messed with his head,” Jordan said. “And he was not the same for a little bit. You could tell.”

At Liberty High School, Love was a two-year starter at quarterback, shining as a senior. with about 3,200 yards of offense (2,400 passing) to earn a scholarship to Utah State.

He red-shirted as a freshman in 2016 and started the final six games in ’17.  He was brilliant in 2018 (3,567 pass yards, 32 TDs and 6 INTs).  He was not as good in 2019 (the TD-INT ratio was only 20-17), but still opted to forego his senior year and declare for this draft.

Mike Farrell of Rivals.com has a good snapshot of his progression:

Recruiting: Love committed to Utah State in the summer before his senior season over Eastern Washington, Northern Arizona, Sacramento State and Northern Colorado, his only other offers.

Ranking: Despite attending a Rivals Camp Series event and looking the part, Love was ranked as a high two-star prospect coming out of Bakersfield (Calif.) Liberty.

The latest: Despite having head-scratching numbers this past season, it seems NFL decision-makers are looking past that and relying on the eye test at the combine, where Love impressed with his physical makeup and on-field performance. He could be moving much higher in the first round after Indianapolis.

Farrell’s take: Love was a two-star for a reason — he had a live arm but he was a high-risk high-reward kid and that’s why many passed on him. He’s still the same way but his big plays jump off the tape and some NFL teams are infatuated with him being possibly the next Patrick Mahomes.

He gets outstanding marks for his arm and athleticism.  The state of his character and intelligence is not as clearly defined.  In December, he was arrested in Utah when driving with some teammates in a car where marijuana was found.  Those charges have been dropped.

This from Mike Tanier of Bleacher Report:

Jordan Love’s favorite NFL quarterback is Patrick Mahomes. And like most of the football world, Love was awe-struck by Mahomes’ 27-yard touchdown run and four-touchdown performance against the Titans in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.

“It was magic,” Love told reporters on Tuesday at the Senior Bowl. “He’s just out there making magic happen.”

Love made a little magic happen himself as Utah State’s starting quarterback over the last two-and-a-half seasons. But surely Love, who is beginning his journey to the NFL draft by participating in Senior Bowl practices this week, wants to avoid any unrealistic expectations by throwing ice water on any comparisons to the Chiefs superstar. Right?

“I like that comparison,” Love said. “We’ve both got strong arms. He obviously makes ridiculous throws off-schedule and stuff like that. It’s something that I’ve tried to model in my game, just trying to make throws like that. And I hope to be on the same platform as him.”

We better slow down for a moment. Love has a long way to go before he even approaches Mahomes’ platform. But the similarities make Love the most intriguing wild card in this year’s quarterback class: a player with All-Pro tools and upside but a knack for some of the worst interception sprees this side of Jameis Winston’s blooper reel.

Love, who left high school as a scrawny converted wide receiver and received just one FBS-level scholarship offer, leapt onto the NFL’s scouting radar with a 32-touchdown season for 11-2 Utah State in 2018. But Gary Andersen replaced coach Matt Wells after that season, and top receivers like Ron’Quavion Tarver, Jalen Greene and Aaren Vaughns graduated. The Aggies defense also took a step backward. Forced to play catch-up with few weapons to throw to, Love began forcing passes. He threw just 20 touchdowns and a whopping 17 interceptions as Utah State fell to 7-6 last season.

“It was a little bit of a different year for us,” Love said. “There were a lot of changes … I didn’t play the way I wanted to. There were situations where I was forcing the ball downfield.”

– – –

Love crossed the fine line between aggressive and careless a little too often last season.

So while Love said he came to the Senior Bowl to “ball out,” he also knows exactly what he needs to show NFL scouts that he can improve upon.

“Decision-making,” he said. “I had some poor decisions this year. I want to show them I can read the field and be decisive, especially in an offense that I am not too familiar with.”

– – –

The challenge for Love in the months leading up to April’s NFL draft will be proving that he can cut down on the poor decisions without detracting from the daring, go-for-broke style that made him special. “You just have to be able to find the middle of it,” Love said, “push the ball down the field and make those big throws but also not force every throw and try to do too much sometimes.”

If he can pull off that balancing act, he will likely hear his name called near the top of the first round of the draft. NFL teams have been willing to take big risks on toolsy-but-blunder-prone talent in recent drafts. Josh Allen’s production sputtered when his top targets graduated in his final season at Wyoming, but the Bills took a chance on him with the seventh pick in the 2018 draft and are now building a playoff team around him. Winston, the first overall pick in 2015, has somehow gotten more interception-prone since college (and he threw 18 picks in his final college season), but the Buccaneers appear willing to keep working with a quarterback who can also throw for 5,109 yards and 33 touchdowns. And Mahomes threw 25 interceptions in his final two college seasons before becoming the 10th overall pick in 2017.

If Winston or Allen is the downside and the NFL’s Sorcerer Supreme is the upside, then Love is a first-round no-brainer. The traits and tape are there. Love just needs to convince the NFL that he can clean up a couple of things. Seventeen of them, to be precise.

“Every interception for me is a learning moment,” he said. “Obviously, I had [17] learning moments last season. But they’re all just something that you can go back and watch film on and learn from.”

Tanier leaves off the player the DB thinks is the best comparison – Colin Kaepernick (but Josh Allen may also be close).  Others have made that linkage:

Marino at Draft Report.com:

NFL COMP – Colin Kaepernick

Jordan Love isn’t without his warts but he possesses a high-level physical skill set and peaks on tape that reveal the ceiling of a potential dynamic NFL starting quarterback. His arm talent and mobility is perfect for the trends of today’s NFL and there is no limitations to what he can do on the field. The full playbook is open for Love and then some. With that said, he does need to make notable strides in several key areas including decision-making, timing and accuracy to achieve his ceiling. An early investment in Love is a bet on yourself to be able to develop his overall game but his upside is worth the calculated risk.

Kyle Borgonini at FantasyInsiders.com cautions us that Love is not the rusher that Kaepernick was:

Love totaled just 403 rushing yards in three years as the starter topping out at 175 rushing yards this past year . His seven rushing TDs in 2018 certainly look like a major outlier considering it came on just 63 total rushing yards. In terms of his body composition (and likely the college conference), I’ve seen many compare him to Colin Kaepernick. Guys, Kaepernick was a lethal runner putting up over 4,000 rushing yards in college!

Love profiles at best as Mitchell Trubisky-esque in terms of upside rushing but even that comparison has some leaks. He’ll hopefully learn how to move around the pocket and escape when needed ala Aaron Rodgers, rather than try to leverage his athleticism and end up being sacked at a high rate. He’ll never be the dual threat people think he should be but using your feet to create lanes within the pocket and buying an extra couple of seconds is how you find receivers on broken plays and frustrate opposing defensive coordinators.

So maybe it’s not Kaepernick.  We shall see.

Daniel Jeremiah, the Chargers radio analyst when he isn’t player scouting, puts his two cents in for Love over JUSTIN HERBERT:

“My question with (Justin Herbert) is, I I think when you compare him with somebody like Jordan Love, Jordan Love has a higher ceiling,” Jeremiah continued. “He’s the one that’s not ready to play right now. He needs to be developed a little bit more. But he has more of that playmaker gene to him, play off script and make things happen. It’s not always how it’s drawn up on the play card; you got to be able to adjust and react and make plays. That’s where Jordan Love has an advantage over somebody like Herbert, but he’s not going to be ready to play right away.”

Jeremiah ranks Love, who starred at Utah State, as the 18th-best player in the draft.

“I have him as a top-20 talent in this draft, and I would not be surprised if he ended up going in the early teens,” Jeremiah said. “When you look at the draft order, there’s two quarterback rows. You look at 5, 6 and 7, that’s the first run of quarterbacks you’re going to see with the Dolphins, the Chargers and the Panthers, and then you get down to that next wave where you start talking about the Raiders at 12, the Colts at 13, the Bucs at 14. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jordan Love ended up slotting into one of those spots [between 12 and 14].”

Love was incredible in 2018. He completed 64.0 percent of his passes for 3,567 yards, 32 touchdowns and six interceptions.

“I think if you go back and watch Jordan Love in 2018, he had a better cast around him, he had a better system around him that he was comfortable in, and he played really well,” Jeremiah said. “You go look at 2019 tape, and the numbers are not good.”

In 2019, Love completed 61.9 percent of his passes for 3,402 yards, 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

“The turnovers are way up,” Jeremiah said. “Well, the kid lost nine starters on offense. He lost his offensive coordinator, his head coach, so there was not a lot around him and he started to try to play hero ball trying to make things happen that weren’t there and forced some footballs and turned the ball over. But in terms of arm talent, athletic ability, playmaking ability, you see all that in the 2018 version of Jordan Love. If you draft him, you’re hoping that’s the one you’re getting.”