Justin Herbert is college football’s most divisive quarterback

If you were to pick the names of two quarterbacks out of a hat, the gulf between Peyton Manning and Josh Allen is about as wide as you could get.

Both are 6-foot-5 and about 230 pounds, possessing the ideal body type for a quarterback, but the similarities stop there. Manning retired a surefire Hall of Famer, won two Super Bowls and holds the career passing touchdowns record. Allen came into the league last year as one of the most polarizing prospects in recent memory, then threw more interceptions than touchdowns in his rookie year.

But when the army of hot takes and NFL draftniks come for Oregon’s Justin Herbert, both names will be bandied about.

Herbert enters his senior year with the Ducks as a near inevitable top-10 pick next April. He stands at 6-foot-6 and weighs 237 pounds, a stout body and a strong arm, the kind scouts drool over. He threw for 3,151 yards, 29 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year, checking boxes as needed. In all likelihood, Herbert could have left Eugene last year and been a high first-round pick. Instead of fall camp and preparing for a prime-time opener against Auburn on Saturday, he could be competing for a starting NFL job somewhere, making millions on a rookie scale contract.

But he chose to come back to Eugene — a decision his coach says came quickly. He’ll get another year of playing in his hometown, finish a biology degree and throw to his brother, Patrick, a freshman tight end. The pull of another year in school, and the knowledge that he can make the NFL wait, made things clear.

“I think he feels he could develop more,” Oregon coach Mario Cristobal told The Post. “That he could have an opportunity to do something at Oregon that he came here to do from the beginning, in terms of elevating the program to a new level.

“He loves his teammates, loves the opportunity to be around his brother. Just felt like he has unfinished business at the college level, and he also feels that due to another year of development, not only will the NFL be there but he has a chance to really elevate his status as an NFL prospect as well. All in all, he feels it’s a win-win situation.”

Cristobal, who led Oregon to a 9-4 record last season, says Herbert’s understanding of the game has taken a leap in the three years they’ve worked together, that he leads by example and has little interest in the noise or pressure that will come with this season. He compares Herbert’s decision to return in 2019 to Manning’s at Tennessee in 1997. When asked about Herbert’s biggest challenge, Cristobal takes a long pause before landing not on an aspect of his development, but on the Ducks’ road schedule.

Herbert, though, is on track to be a more polarizing prospect than that. For all the natural ability inherent in his body type, questions linger about his decision-making and accuracy. Durability may crop up as an issue should Herbert fail to play a full season for the second time in three years. His consistency leaves something to be desired, and as many personal reasons as there were to go back to Oregon, there were football reasons, too.

“I think this year is gonna be — it’s either gonna change the narrative or it’s going to become the Josh Allen narrative,” ESPN draft analyst Todd McShay said. “Because there are a lot of times where I look at him, I’m like, man, if he could just become a little bit more consistent and have better, more consistent mechanics, he could be great. And then there are times I look at him and it’s like Josh Allen is the same type of player.”

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To be clear, that comparison isn’t necessarily a knock so much as a word of caution. Allen is 23, with his entire career in front of him — and there’s a reason the Bills took him in the top 10.

In the 2020 quarterback class, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa is a clear frontrunner for the first overall pick, but there’s good reason to be excited about Herbert, too. Ultimately, the criticisms amount to the difference between being an NFL starter or in its top tier of quarterbacks.

“You can live with, alright, he’s gonna miss some throws,” McShay said. “But because he can run and he’s so big and he can move around the pocket, he’ll be fine.”

There’s also the simple matter of age, one that often comes up amid breathless discussion of a player’s stock. Herbert is 21 years old, with ample time and space to develop and get better.

Obligatory as it is for Cristobal to speak of his starting quarterback in laudatory terms, that praise comes in degrees. It means something that Cristobal’s is at the nth.

“He might be a better human being than he is a player,” Cristobal said. “That’s saying something, cause he’s the best I’ve been around.”

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