Justin Herbert nails on-field drills at NFL Combine except for this notable flaw
The headband threw me for a bit of a loop. I’ll start there because otherwise this space would read like a Justin Herbert love letter.
So, yeah, the headband bothered me. It reminded me of 2013 Mark Sanchez.
And I get it: Sanchez was a West Coast kid with something of a chill vibe. And Herbert is a West Coast kid. And maybe he has a chill vibe.
But I have doubts about chill vibes from prospective face of the franchise QBs. And I don’t want 2013 Mark Sanchez on the Miami Dolphins.
So when Daniel Jeremiah, the NFL Network’s outstanding draft analyst, called Herbert a “tricky evaluation,” I was thinking about that horrible headband.
But, seriously now, I sure wasn’t thinking about what Herbert did on the field at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Thursday evening.
Because Herbert’s performance was very, very good.
So what does this mean?
The Miami Dolphins are seriously interested in Justin Herbert, as I’ve reported. They came to Indianapolis weighing Tua Tagovailoa against Herbert and open to leaning toward Herbert. And although it’s impossible to know how Herbert and Tagovailoa performed in their formal meetings with the Dolphins, we know how Herbert performed on the field as Dan Marino and others watched him throw from the team’s suite.
And that performance — imperfect in that it did not show him against a pass rush and did not have him in pads and did not show him leading an offense — will obviously help Herbert’s case to become the No. 5 overall selection to Miami during the April NFL Draft.
It didn’t start out that way. Herbert’s first throw on a slant was low and not precisely on time.
“A lot of times when you watch Herbert throw, it’s almost like he’s aiming,” NFL analyst and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner said.
And yet Herbert completed all his slants. And all his post pattern throws.
I could only watch this on television because I was flying home from Indy at the time. (Combine note: South Florida February weather > Indianapolis February weather). So I could not see the Herbert’s footwork on most of his throws because mostly the camera followed the football downfield.
But the result of the passes was quite good.
Post-corner routes? Dimes.
Go routes? Dimes.
“Normally we talk about 42 to 44 [yards] on these go routes,” Warner said. “He’s letting it go a little bit farther than that to show off a little bit -- but with nice air and nice touch so these guys can run underneath it.”
Former Carolina Panthers and Baltimore Ravens receiver Steve Smith chimed in, “I’ve seen him do this before when he was beating Utah.”
Smith attended Utah and obviously remains faithful to his school.
Herbert’s velocity drill delivered a 60 MPH throw. The top velocity in his group belonged to Jacob Eason at 62 MPH.
Hitch routes? This drill is about timing and the quarterback should release the ball before the receiver makes his cut. Herbert was fine, but it would have been nice to see him anticipate a little more.
More deep throws? Herbert was on fire with his deep passes.
“He’s throwing it well,” Jeremiah said.
Warner explained the deep passes could actually be easier throws for quarterbacks with big arms because their footwork, which Warner said “wasn’t necessarily great,” played less of a factor in the timing of the passes. The quarterbacks with big arms could “catch up on the stuff down the field,” Warner added.
The end zone fade is a new drill at the Combine this year. The ball is supposed to get to the back pylon. The drill was messy for most of the quarterbacks in that placement was bad or timing was bad or the receivers were running poor routes.
But overall Herbert’s placement near the pylon was as good or better as anyone else’s.
It is clear the Dolphins want an athletic quarterback to operate offensive coordinator Chan Gailey run-pass option. Herbert proved he is obviously that.
He ran a 4.68 official time in the 40-yard dash compared to 4.74 for Jordan Love. He turned in a 35.5-inch vertical leap which was a half-inch higher than Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. And he had a 10-3 broad jump which trailed only Hurts and Missouri’s Kelly Bryant, each of whom jumped 10-5.
“It was a good throwing session for Justin Herbert,” Jeremiah said.
True.
But the headband? Lose the Mark Sanchez look, kid.
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 2:16 AM.
