Cristobal on Herbert: He will be a ‘super stud as a pro’

On a cross-country phone call from Eugene, Oregon, to South Florida, my conversation with Oregon football coach Mario Cristobal eventually leads us to talking about Cuban food.

Because I have no clue where he finds it. And I ask how he can live without occasional doses — which he doesn’t because his wife cooks and he informs me there are a couple of Cuban restaurants in Portland.

Then we get down to business because this isn’t about jamo’n (ham). This is about Herbert. Justin Herbert.

Cristobal has been Herbert’s coach the past three years, including 2019 when the Ducks won the Rose Bowl and Cristobal was named the Pac-12 coach of the year.

I covered Cristobal when he played at the University of Miami in the late 1980s and early

1990s. And when he coached at FIU from 2007 to 2011. So we get to the point.

Why is there a narrative among some in the NFL scouting community that Herbert is too quiet and isn’t a great leader because that would be a huge problem in the NFL?

“I’m talking as a player, as a person, as a teammate, as a competitor, this guy is a complete professional in his approach to everything he does,” Cristobal says. “And he’s the most unselfish guy I’ve ever been around. He is more than willing and happy to win a football game at the expense of any stat. He’s not into that stuff. He’s the complete team guy.

“That guy’s a great leader. He carries the respect and command of the entire locker room, at the line of scrimmage, on the field. Everything about this guy is championship DNA.”

So you have seen guys trusting him, buying into him? Playing for him?

“Without a doubt,” Cristobal says. “If there’s something out there that’s negative about that I’d like to see it because scouts are supposed to come see me and talk to me if there’s something negative. Because I always give them the truth. And the truth is the team absolutely loves this guy.

“He’s a tremendous leader, and he’s going to hold people around him accountable. Great quarterbacks have to do that.

“A guy like him that was thrown into the starting role as a freshman, on a team that went 4-8, to go through a head coaching and coordinator changes and still come out on the other side and figure all that out and still put together the type of numbers he put up, I mean, if you go through college football history and see that traumatic of a change for a quarterback, and he still produces, that’s rare.

“That shows the ability to manage, adjust, overcome, and push through ... I think he’s more than vocal enough. He’s done a really good job, and I thought that was a big part.”

Fine. So how about being competitive? Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores puts a premium on his players, all of them, being competitive.

How competitive is Herbert?

Cristobal recounts a conversation last offseason in which Herbert announced he wanted to attend the Manning Passing Academy, where the nation’s best quarterbacks gather to improve and compete.

“I asked him, ‘Why do you want to go to the Manning camp this year?’ Cristobal recalls. “He goes, ‘I really want to prove I’m the best.’ I thought that was awesome. When he came back I asked him, ‘What are some of the best things you learned?’

“He said, ‘I learned what I had been learning all along and that is for teams to be great, the quarterback’s got to be their best leader. And that’s going to be one of the focuses for me this year.’ And he did a phenomenal job with that here. Not a good job, not a great job, he did a phenomenal job as a leader for this football team.”

Herbert is not loud. He’s not outspoken. So I ask Cristobal about the description of his quarterback as an introvert.

“I was an introvert growing up,” he says. “So I know what an introvert is. Justin is very personable. Extremely well-liked. And you see him now on all these different interviews they have him on, his personality is really coming out. I think at the Combine when scouts were around him and actually got to ask him questions on anything regarding him and football and plans and desires and goals and all that stuff, I think he knocked it out of the park.

“Because he was able to be on a platform where he could actually describe that stuff and talk about it. No, I think this guy is open.

“It’s laughable to me when somebody uses a word like introvert to describe Justin Herbert. I’ve been around this guy for three years, man. You ain’t going to find better.”

Cristobal understands where these questions are coming from. He understands NFL teams — and he’s spoken with “all” of them, including the Dolphins — dive deep into players makeup when doing their research.

“Oh, yeah, I’ve talked to everybody,” Cristobal says. “I’ve talked to every single team. I’ve talked to everybody and everybody loves him. That’s why I say, if there’s a naysayer out there, they certainly hide their cards well because everyone’s raving to me about him.

“I know NFL people have to make decisions and have to analyze things forwards and backwards. I get it. I am all about it. We do it, too. But I’m telling you, I don’t know anyone who is better out there.

I’ve never been around one this good. And he’s going to be an absolute super stud as a pro.

“He’s going to win over a team, a city, a franchise.”