Jim Harbaugh has made it incredibly clear throughout his first season in Los Angeles that Justin Herbert is his quarterback of the future. And on Wednesday, he again reinforced this sentiment with the help of a quote from Barstool Sports’ Dan Katz, better known as Big Cat.
Whether it be Emmanuel Acho taking a victory lap over his stance that Herbert is a “social media quarterback” or countless other prominent voices calling Herbert overrated or overhyped, Herbert’s reputation very clearly took a huge hit amongst most media personalities covering the NFL following his four-interception game against the Texans.
Big Cat took another approach when breaking down the Chargers’ loss on Monday’s edition of Pardon My Take. While he acknowledged Herbert had a game to forget, he also detailed that Herbert’s talent is something that he is “buying stock in”.
“I’ll say this right now. And this isn’t me defending Justin Herbert because he was terrible on Saturday. I will buy all of the Justin Herbert stock,” said Big Cat. “I will buy all of it. If you think he’s just a horrible quarterback, that’s fine. I still think he’s pretty good.
“I would like to see him with more weapons other than just Ladd McConkey. This is also just like a perspective game where the Chargers probably weren’t supposed to be in the playoffs this year given their roster. The overturn and the rebuild and everything. They overachieved this year.”
Harbaugh apparently noticed this clip from Pardon My Take because he actually referenced Big Cat’s quote in a press conference on Wednesday, doubling down on “buying all the stock” of his quarterback.
“I agree with Big Cat,” said Harbaugh. “I’m probably paraphrasing this but Big Cat said if you’re selling Justin Herbert stock he’s buying. Completely concur with that statement.”
confirmed: @BarstoolBigCat knows ball pic.twitter.com/I0ORP0x3xW
— Los Angeles Chargers (@chargers) January 15, 2025
It’s perhaps not all that much of a surprise to see that Harbaugh is at least somewhat in tune with the day-to-day discussions on Pardon My Take. Harbaugh did notably join the cast for an on-site edition of Pardon My Take from Chargers training camp back in August and has appeared as a guest on the show numerous times since its inception in 2016.
Still, it does show just how much impact the show does have, despite it being a non-traditional sports media program.