I was sitting on my couch sipping coffee and wiping the sleep from my eyes Monday morning when I heard sports pundit Ryan Clark — of ESPN’S sports talk show “Get Up” with Mike Greenberg — mention that he believed Trevor Lawrence’s “rookie year ceiling” would be to put up the same type of numbers that Justin Herbert did in 2020. “Yes!“, I shouted inside of my head because I was still too lethargic to verbalize anything resembling the English language.
That’s right, the highest that many experts expect of Lawrence, the all-encompassing top pro-ready quarterback prospect in a decade since Andrew Luck in 2012, is that he could possibly match what Herbert did in his record-setting rookie campaign with the Los Angeles Chargers. How proud this must make Oregon fans feel that their undervalued former quarterback is now the gold standard by which top rookie quarterbacks are measured.
Sport-talk titan Colin Cowherd believes Herbert is potentially a better talent than Lawrence, and also on Cowherd’s show, NFL insider Greg Cosell of ESPN’S NFL Matchup believes Herbert to be more physically gifted than Lawrence.
So what is Herbert’s ceiling? Solid NFL starter? Pro-Bowler? Hall-of-Famer? Or, will the sophomore jinx take hold of Herbert in 2021?
I’ll be betting that he turns out to be better than Trevor Lawrence.
Darren Perkins
Spokane, Washington
Top photo credit: Twitter
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Darren Perkins is a sales professional and 1997 Oregon graduate. After finishing school, he escaped the rain and moved to sunny Southern California where he studied screenwriting for two years at UCLA. Darren grew up in Eugene and in 1980, at the tender age of five, he attended his first Oregon football game. His lasting memory from that experience was an enthusiastic Don Essig announcing to the crowd: “Reggie Ogburn, completes a pass to… Reggie Ogburn.” Captivated by such a thrilling play, Darren’s been hooked on Oregon football ever since. Currently living in Spokane, Darren enjoys flaunting his yellow and green superiority complex over friends and family in Cougar country.