I think people who like Herbert don't know football, which is fine, it's hard to see the little things unless you've been educated by someone or really put in the work. He rarely if ever throws receivers open. This really can't be understated. His comp % and int % are excellent, but if you look behind the curtain you see that's largely a result of him basically only throwing screens and outs to wide open receivers. Something like 80% of his passes are within 5 yards of the LOS. You're gonna see ESPN and the westcoastfootball twitter account trot out "catchable pass %" and he'll be in the top 5. Shocking, he threw 15 screens in 29 attempts. Those stats are fluff for the people trying to sell advertising space and ignore the massive, massive issues he has as a *quarterback*, not as an athlete.
Look at the final "game winning" drive tonight that people will use to hype him up. Screen, out, out, screen. Nothing down the seams, no posts or crossing routes. 1st read throws to the sideline, and screens. That's what he can do for you. What does that tell you about how much the coaches trust his decision making process when they refuse to put his laser rocket arm to use more than a few times a game? He's a senior, yet they know he's going to miss reads, take a bad sack instead of throwing it away, bail from a perfect pocket(this will KILL him at the next level), or escape and then slide down 5-10 yards behind the LOS instead of just flicking it out of bounds.
Remember the play, I think in the 1st half, vs UW last week where he slid nine yards behind the los after being flushed out of the pocket? This wasn't DTR stepping out of bounds 3 yards behind the LOS last year as a freshman. This was a 4th year starter. Or how about against Auburn when he threw the final pass of the game 10 yards out of the back of the endzone.
You know how WSU's pedestrian front 7 got so much pressure on Oregon's vaunted OL tonight? Their staff recognized that it doesn't take Bill Belichick's defense to make Herbert "see ghosts". WSU took huge splits and didn't even try to bend the edge, because they knew once Herbert felt them get level with him in the pocket, regardless of how safe he actually was, he'd panic. Instead of stepping up and making a throw, he bails into pressure, misses open receivers and makes otherwise stupid decisions. He's a senior QB who plays like a freshman, but with NFL athleticism.
Darron Thomas was relegated to a similarly small playbook because his mechanics were so bad he couldn't be trusted to not over throw balls to the middle of the field. Mechanically Herbert is solid, but his decision making is so_bad, the playbook is limited like it was for a dude who couldn't hold his jock from an arm talent stand point. When your 4th year starter has to have the playbook limited for him, again, that's damning.
I hate going after guys, or pumping them up because of intangibles, because those things are hard to define and therefore easy to defend(or attack), but Herbert lacks all of them. Poise, moxie, gamer, whatever you want to call it, he ain't got "it". If it were on the hard court people would say he has a low basketball IQ. How is that suddenly going to get better in the NFL? People are going to look at the measureables, it's easy and you can move right on: 6'6 240, 4 sport HS athlete(high jumper even), 69%, 1 INT, massive arm, good overall movement abilities. But just watch him play the game, just watch him quarterback and think "is that the guy I want leading my team?". Don't watch him throw, watch him quarterback. I think he's as sure fire a bust as you'll ever see. It sucks too, because he's so close to being great, but actually astoundingly far away.