Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Now that we have senior film for both, below is the senior tape for both Ty Thompson and Justin Herbert at the same age.





Thompson: 381 ypg, 59.4% completion, 18.7 yards/completion, 34 TDs, 7 INTs
Herbert: 265 ypg, 66.5% completion, 16.5 yards/completion, 36 TDs, 3 INTs

I remember seeing Herbert's highlights and thinking there was no way he wasn't going to start for us at some point and thinking he was a much better prospect than Terry Wilson. I think it would be safe to say though that Ty Thompson's competition was likely better than Justin Herbert's. Hoping he's the next great Oregon QB!

GoDucks7 wrote:Remembering seeing Herbert's highlights and thinking there was no way he wasn't going to start for us at some point and thinking he was a much better prospect than Terry Wilson. I think it would be safe to say though that Ty Thompson's competition was likely better than Justin Herbert's. Hoping he's the next great Oregon QB!

Not that it's a big deal, but I don't think that's accurate that Thompson's competition was better than Herbert's. Likely the opposite. Cactus High - who Thompson's Mesquite team beat in the 4A finals - doesn't have any players going D1 in college. Arizona 4A is probably comparable to Oregon 5A (think West Albany, Thurston, Lebanon), but less good than Oregon 6A (Jesuit, Central Catholic, Clackamas).

Evaluating QBs is the most difficult scouting thing there is. I had long since admitted that I can’t discern much. But the same could be said for the recruiting experts, QB coaches, and NFL GMs. My amateur observations:

* Herbert’s arm talent is so evident. I can’t believe people weren’t more excited for him. I think it was Norvel from Nevada who took a private plane to see Herbert and his zero FBS offers. He must have thought he hit the jackpot. Herbert makes the same throws now that he did then. Beautiful touch, placement, and not shown is the occasional dart that you have to be an NFL WR to catch.

* Thompson doesn’t have that rare arm. Few do. Don’t get me wrong it looks like he can make every throw, has great touch, and accuracy. Velocity when needed. But some of this long throws are the result of trajectory. They look under thrown and float too long. You don’t complete overthrown passes, but you also don’t get them picked.

* Hebert is faster. Thompson is more physical. FWIW Tyler Shough looked faster than Thompson as well. I could be wrong, I thought Shough was faster than Anthony Brown and I no longer think that.

* Thompson is built like a LB while I forgot Herbert was made out of matchsticks. Both are baby faced, probably a pseudoscience not rooted in anything but makes me think there’s more physical maturity on the way.

* Thompson’s receivers are open so often it’s hard to tell how good he is.

* Between 1:00-4:00 there are three or four lovely throws over the middle hitting the receivers in stride at eye level, beautiful. Shough can’t do that. Thompson’s throws are crisp.

Ty hasn't played a single down in college. There is nothing to evaluate.

Hey, Thompson doesn't have the arm talent of the guy who had one of the best NFL rookie passing seasons ever. I want my bag money back!

Ty throws pretty well on the run

And the throw about 1 minute in is about 55 yards in the air to the boundary (which is pretty good for a high school kid)

I am just echoing what others said, but holy cow it's hard to believe Herbies arm was missed by so many.

wlduck wrote:I am just echoing what others said, but holy cow it's hard to believe Herbies arm was missed by so many.

Wasn't he coming off a pretty bad injury? I believe that really hampered his evaluation in high school.

Didn’t Herbert also play baseball so he never went to any camps?

duckfan96 wrote:Didn’t Herbert also play baseball so he never went to any camps?

I don't personally know, but I can add that he did break his leg during his junior year and that kept him out of spring activities that offseason. But frankly, he had plenty of junior tape to scout from. Just a failure by coaches to see a talent. Lots of great QBs don't go to camps.

So I think part of why I posted this is to get as many people as I can to see what I see. In hindsight, Herbert should have been a 5-star QB, and I don't say that because of his NFL performance but rather what he did as a true freshman. He was ready to go right out of the gate, plus had projectable upside still to go. Kayvon is that guy - big impact as a true freshman, but also clearly only going to get better.

What you can see from the tape is that Thompson is a good QB but isn't as far along Herb at the same age. He doesn't place the ball as well (under throws deep passes, doesn't lead receivers quite so well) and doesn't have the same bazooka attached at his shoulder. That doesn't mean he's bad (at all), it just means he's likely a longer shot to come in and be Herb-esque as a true freshman. There's more development necessary. He could come in and kick ass, but he also could come in and have to really fight to beat out Butterfield.

I'm glad Herbert was a duck. Cant imagine if someone that runs the air raid would
have done with him at qb. He may have won a Heisman.

Hopefully the difference between Thompson and Herbert is that Thompson has a solid offense to play with all 4 years. Just imagine Herbert if he wasn’t stuck with Arroyo and had a solid OC his entire Oregon career.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ujxQpAuz0

A good 2:19 watch