Tipped to be the best ever - but is Herbert the NFL's best underachiever?

Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh last week suggested Justin Herbert would go down as the greatest quarterback in NFL history by the time he had finished his career - that was followed by a Week One defeat to the Arizona Cardinals as more questions about Herbert were raised

The kids call it glazing. NFL folk might call it Jim Harbaughing. Either way, gushing praise of Justin Herbert is generating heightened and unavoidable attention around one of football's most gifted but divisive stars.

Herbert stepped out at SoFi Stadium as the best player on the field last weekend. He stepped off it having been out-duelled and outplayed by, with the greatest respect to him, everybody's favourite bridge quarterback in veteran Jacoby Brissett and a transitioning Arizona Cardinals team adrift of postseason discussion.

Brissett and a valiant defensive display had guided the Cardinals to a 26-14 opening weekend victory over Herbert's Los Angeles Chargers to pierce, but by no means burst (yet), the bubble of a team billed among the most exciting playoff contenders coming into Week One. Over-billed? Over-hyped? Time will tell.

It was the quintessential Chargers Chargering exhibition based on the discourse of recent years, a disjointed performance of mistakes and miscues negating the influence of superior individual talent. An all too familiar theme to this team.

Now, were you to drop somebody on earth for a day, ask them to watch a showreel of the NFL's starting quarterbacks and point out which they believed might be considered the best, the most feared, the most dangerous, you would bank on an initial eye test leading many to Justin Herbert. He remains something of a dream prototype blessed with the ludicrous arm talent, the marauding ground presence, the dwarfing stature, the fizzing needle-threading velocity and deep ball fireworks - as much, though, fuels most of the frustration surrounding his career thus far.

In his most successful moments, he has been spectacular, a match for any defense in the league and one of the most box office showcases in football. There has rarely been a flicker of doubt over his skillset, but noise-meets-uncertainty over both his killer instinct and credentials among the elite play-callers in the NFL is as loud as ever, you feel.

Herbert finished Sunday's loss 17 of 27 for 209 yards, one touchdown and an ill-informed interception while attacking double coverage downfield with 10 minutes to play and the Chargers trailing by nine.