With Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan calling the shots, Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert won the 2020 Senior Bowl MVP award for the south team.
Herbert played the first quarter of the all-star game, completing nine of his 12 attempts for 83 yards and a score, the touchdown coming on a screen pass to a back.
“He’ll be a really good player in this league,” Callahan said, according to Bengals.com. “He’s calm, he’s poised. He managed the offense and ran what we wanted him to do. It was a nice showing. He can run it. He can do that, he’s a really good athlete.”
We had previously asked if Herbert could do enough to sway Bengals coaches at the Senior Bowl with Joe Burrow taking a pass on the event.
And even now, the same answer is it’s largely unlikely. The Bengals have reportedly narrowed things down to four prospects at No. 1 and Herbert is one of them, but a good showing over the weekend doesn’t trump Burrow’s historic season — nor the must-have homecoming storyline for a team in need of fan support.
Herbert nailed a critical portion of his draft journey at the Senior Bowl by all accounts, which is especially interesting from a Bengals perspective thanks to the personal nature of it. But he’ll have increased competition from the likes of Burrow and others at the combine and other stops along the path to the draft as things continue.
