You can throw all the pretty, hopeful stats you want at me about "poise" and "rookie records," but the bottom line doesn't lie. The fact that CJ Stroud was 29th in EPA last year and has only "improved" to 28th this year is a damning indictment. It's not a slump; it's who he is. This idea that he's the franchise savior is pure fantasy. EPA is about your direct contribution to scoring, and being in the bottom five of the league two years in a row means you are actively holding your offense back. You can be a homer and blame the offensive line or the play-calling all day long, but at some point, you have to look at the quarterback. The evidence is overwhelming: he is not a good, or even a serviceable, starting NFL QB. He makes a couple of highlight throws a game and everyone loses their minds, ignoring the three quarters of inefficiency in between. Franchises that are serious about winning don't tie their futures to quarterbacks who rank next to last in the most important efficiency metric. He's a backup masquerading as a starter, and every game he plays just sets this rebuild back another year. But hey, keep wearing your jersey and telling yourself he's "the guy." Doesn't change the fact that the numbers say he's one of the worst in the league.
He knows he's about to get paid big $$ yet doesn't put the effort in during the off-season to learn the new system more? He's looked awful on some of these reads. He had an awful int vs Jacksonville. Almost threw 2 int on one drive against the Tampa.
None of us know the amount of effort he put in during the offseason. Maybe the OC and QB coach are really bad teachers. We know that pretty much everyone on offense looks bad up to this point. We don’t know details of what goes on behind the scenes or during the offseason. I will admit to wondering how everything looks so bad. But, I think fixing the offensive fixes a lot of other things.
Stroud may simply suck - but him looking bad doesn't necessarily mean that. Sam Darnold looked awful in NY. As did Daniel Jones. Baker Mayfield was run out of Cleveland. All top picks who looked awful and then looked like completely different players when you put them in the right system with the right support. There's just no real way to know at this point if the problem is Stroud or his surroundings. If the problem is the surroundings - like Cleveland, the Giants, or the Jets - then you can keep rotating QBs and get the same awful results.
It’s starting to feel like CJ’s surroundings in Houston is not letting him succeed. That unfortunately means that even the next QB might not as well.
Plus it’s hard to find a QB that looked “this” good in his rookie year…. And tailed off simply due solely to him. (Kurt Warner did have a similar decline, but he was more than a basic ‘rookie’). All of those above guys were pretty bad in their debut seasons. The inability for the Texans to value experience/pedigree has been there throughout this franchises’ history. Hell, was Dom Capers the only coach who was a previous HC elsewhere? (Seriously, is that right?!?… oh wait, yeah Lovie… but he wasn’t really a targeted HC hire, he was promoted and retained).
Watching the Lions - Ravens game last night and seeing what a competent offense can do has me jealous AF. IMO CJ is not as bad as what he has been showing, it is criminal on what the team did to not address the O Line and the play calling. It is such a long shot to get a FRANCHISE QB and then you give him an O Line of has been and never was athletes, stick a new OC whose never called a game in his life?? And what, we expect him to look like Lamar Jackson......................this franchise has done CJ no favors, and guess what, he has regressed because of it, he is gun shy, he is holding the ball to long, all the things the coaches have said are "fixable" yet no one gets them fixed. There is plenty of blame, but the bottom line is we really don't know what version of CJ we have, sure his rookie year could be a fluke and this is who he is but until you give him a CHANCE with a competent offense and play caller we will never know Think CJ would flourish is a Dan Campbell offense, a Sean McVay offense?? I would bet a dollar to a donut he would light it up
Just once...I would love for the Texans to have a good offensive caller. Someone who truly knows what he's doing. Look at the Lions, they had Ben Johnson...he leaves and their offense is still ticking along.
Foolish to pay him big bucks this offseason. Just continue him through the 5th year option and do what Baltimore did with Lamar. The Ravens are a much smarter organization, emulate them.
One thing that's becoming clear to me - and something I think I, and many others, have overlooked: the Texans don't have a ton of talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Nico is elite. And I think Stroud is among the.... top ~16 QBs. After that... pick one player that would start on a good offense: none of the RBs; none of the WRs; none of the TEs; none of the linemen... This goes back to Nick Caserio, who, after they found Stroud, continued to operate like David Culley was still the coach of Davis Mills: he searched the bargain bin for older players, who would take fewer years/dollars... Look at some of his moves: Mixon over Barkley; Hunter over Greenard; he went after Diggs; has ignored the tight end position for two years now (look at the impact Warren has had in Indianapolis...) (Thing about Mixon, Diggs, CJGJ... good teams were ready to jettison them - that should've been a red flag. Not with Nick!) He was passive, too. Look at the Bears, who, like the Texans had a young QB being failed by their offensive line. The Bears traded for Thuney, signed Jackson and Dalman, used a top 60 pick on a linemen + a top 10 pick on a TE... Caserio.... traded Tunsil, signed/traded for a few has-beens and never weres - hell, he didn't even use his top pick on a lineman in the draft, and only used one of his NINE picks on a lineman. Or, think about this... you could argue that Fairbarin was one of the five best players DeMeco inherited after Caserio ran the team for two full seasons. 1) he's a kicker; 2) Caserio didn't acquire him! We can b**** up a storm about a lot of things with this team... all legitimate. But the general manager - hired at the insistence of a unqualified youth minister - is the primary culprit here.
I can't wait until @Bobbythegreat looks like the threads biggest fool. He did this with Watson pre come up. Was hilarious. I will wait again for it to happen again.
For what to happen again? Me being completely right about a **** QB? Rape allegations? Do you think Browns fans think i was wrong?
