It remains to be seen if Justin Herbert has played his last down for Oregon. If he has, though, it shouldn’t be because of injury.
Late in the first half of Saturday’s Civil War win over rival Oregon State, Herbert went down with an injury to his right (throwing) shoulder and did not return. While there has been no official word from the football program, The Oregonian, citing multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, reports that the quarterback did not sustain serious damage to the shoulder and it’s merely bruised.
As for the future, the newspaper goes on to write that the injury “is not expected to have any lasting implications on Herbert or impact on Oregon’s bowl game.”
While no final decision has been made, it’s believed that Herbert is leaning toward returning to the Ducks for another season. Should he decide to leave Eugene early, he would likely be one of the first quarterbacks selected in the 2019 NFL draft.
It’s unclear at the moment whether Herbert, because of the shoulder issue and regardless of how minor it is, would join the growing trend of top players sidelining themselves from bowl games in order to protect their draft stock.
Herbert is currently fifth in the Pac-12 and 32nd national with a 147.7 pass efficiency rating. The true junior has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards (2,985) this season, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio is better than 3-1 (28-8).