C.J. Stroud enjoyed a run with the Houston Texans carrying the approval rating of Noah Wyle’s The Pitt. Stroud might as well have been walking on air, nothing could puncture the good feelings all around him. That clearly is over. The restless boos from the stands, the relentless reading of his body language (doesn’t he seem annoyed?), the manufactured “tensions” some want to see between the quarterback and Texans coach DeMeco Ryans are all sign posts of this new post glow Stroud reality.
Which doesn’t make any of it significant.
The Texans are still fortunate to have a 23-year-old C.J. Stroud at quarterback. Yes, Stroud missed an open Nico Collins on the second play of that first-and-goal from the one-yard-line disaster movie sequence. Yes, he didn’t come close to hitting his target on a few deep balls. Yes, Ryans rightly pointed out some of this inaccuracy.
None of this means Stroud isn’t the franchise quarterback this Texans franchise has forever needed. He’s 23, early in his third season, and the Texans still do not have an offensive line and maybe a coordinator (it’s way too early to place a verdict on Nick Caley) capable of getting the best out of him. The Texans’ Monday Night Football 20-19 heartbreak is largely their own doing — the offense’s inability to follow up its opening drive with anything approaching consistency, the defense pitching a shutout for the first 28 minutes of the second half and then allowing Baker Mayfield to drive the ball 80 yards on them in the final two minutes.
If Will Anderson Jr., C.J. Gardner-Johnson and company don’t allow Mayfield to beat them with his legs on that fourth-and-10, the Texans are 1-1 and a whole lot less people are freaking out about C.J. Stroud. Instead, they’re one of 10 NFL teams that find themselves 0-2. The expected dregs of the league (Tennessee Titans, Miami Dolphins, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets, Carolina Panthers) are among this group. But so are the Kansas City Chiefs. These now 17 game NFL seasons are endless with no false start really dooming for a team with talent.
Outside of the Chiefs, no one’s faced a tougher opening few weeks than DeMeco Ryans’ Texans. They’ve lost two close games to two expected playoff teams in the Rams and Bucs, two teams that more than a few consider dark horse Super Bowl contenders. Which doesn’t make it sting any less.
“It’s a young offense,” Stroud says. “We can make a bunch of excuses but we’re just not getting it done. At the end of the day that’s all that matters. We are moving the ball pretty well. We just got to put seven on the board.”
Reaching 20 points in a game would be a nice step. But putting this all on Stroud is like blaming the Emmy winners for Nate Bargatze’s lame timer gimmick.
“Everybody will talk crazy,” Stroud says. ” ‘We suck. We this. We that.’ At the end of the day, we got to stay together and mesh well. Be honest and have hard conversations.”
That may be more honest than you’d ever hear Tom Brady be after a loss. But who doesn’t want a quarterback who’s real? An athlete who speaks in more than trite sound bites?
Houston’s NFL Quarterback Truths
C.J. Stroud lets you see him bleed. And the Texans offensive line often lets it happen.
When Stroud finds three charging Buccaneers in his face almost as soon as he catches the snap on a third down in the third quarter, the restless Texans crowd breaks into some boos. All is not right with this offensive line. Still.
That’s not the fault of Houston’s young quarterback. Stroud isn’t throwing anyone under the bus. He’s not trying to deflect blame anywhere else. He’s taking it on — and his teammates are right there with him.
“It’s about staying true to what we said we was going to do,” safety Jalen Pitre says. “It’s not always going to be sunny outside. You’re not always going to do what you want.”
“Everybody will talk crazy. ‘We suck. We this. We that.’ At the end of the day, we got to stay together and mesh well. Be honest and have hard conversations.” — Texans QB C.J. Stroud
No one wants to go to Jacksonville 0-2. (No one really wants to go to Jacksonville ever, but that’s a whole different story.) But No. 7 isn’t any part of the baggage holding this Texans team back.
Stroud will hone in his accuracy as the Texans get Christian Kirk and Braxton Berrios back (which is expected to happen this week), as young receivers Jayden Higgins and kickoff return hero Jaylin Noel get more comfortable. Missing Nico Collins on that should be touchdown isn’t a pattern. It’s an anomaly. A blip that no one will be talking about by late October.
“Everybody’s got to play better,” DeMeco Ryans says on the day after the Monday Night gut punch. “C.J. knows that he has to play better. There were some plays that we left out there that I know he can make.
“When it comes to some throws, comes to some decision making, things that he can make and do better. That’s for all of us.”
The perfect approval rating is suddenly long gone. But nothing else has changed about C.J. Stroud. He’s stll the guy, still the QB this franchise needs. This is no time to stop believing in him now.