To the talking heads who have pulled a switch-up regarding Justin Herbert:
It's nauseating.
For years, you people tripped over yourselves to bury Herbert. You mocked his “empty stats.” You said he wasn’t a “winner.” You nitpicked his every throw as if dissecting greatness would make it disappear. You shrugged off his talent, you wrote him off as a “social media quarterback,” and you acted like he was some mirage propped up by hype.
And now? Now that he finally has a competent coach and a semblance of support around him, you’ve flipped the script. Suddenly the same plays you ignored are “incredible.” The same stat lines you sneered at as “meaningless” are “MVP-caliber.” The exact same quarterback you dismissed is now “everything we thought he could be.”
Here’s the truth you won’t admit: Justin Herbert hasn’t changed—you have. He’s been this guy since Day 1. The only difference now is that the dysfunction around him isn’t so loud that you can hide behind it. You spent years ignoring that he was dragging broken rosters and surviving incompetent coaching. And now that the excuses are gone, you’re scrambling to rewrite history and pretend you were believers all along.
But we remember. We remember the hit pieces, the lazy narratives, the “he’s not clutch” talking points, the endless slander every time his defense blew a lead or his line collapsed. You weren’t just wrong—you were aggressively, loudly, stubbornly wrong. And instead of owning it, you’re trying to rebrand yourselves as if you always knew, or he changed.
So, let’s be clear: Herbert didn’t suddenly become elite. He’s been that guy all along. The only thing that changed was how long it took you to admit you were wrong.