I'm conflicted. I don't think I want him anywhere near a group that includes Cowboys playoffs legend Dak Prescott.
Early Dak was really impressive, in part because they didn't have to over rely on him. Zeke was a force back then. Honestly, that's where Dak is at his best. As soon as they have to put the game into his arm and decision making, he shows his warts. Dak at 40+ passes is an Audi with a flat tire.
On polarizing topics my experience says that you owe it to yourself to be informed on all viewpoints and stances in order to be able to come up with a custom, original thought and not fall victim to groupthink or hive mentality. Sample size is obviously at play here and I have to expect CJ will hit some road bumps along the way, but its been a fun start. Film matches the eye test. He's a franchise type QB and he gives off that quiet confidence by saying all the right things and giving credit to everyone around him for his successes. Solid young man and overall a great person to be the face of this franchise. After being irrelevant for so long it feels good to be talked about again with some promise and hopefully this new iteration of the Houston Texans will finally break through.
I was thinking about all the kudos Stroud had received early on about his leadership skills. Vets were talking about it even before the season started. I've always felt like that's an aspect of players that fans remain largely in the dark about. Those kind of skills are displayed in 1-on-1 conversations at locker rooms, or over texts during times of trouble. Or a quiet word on the sideline after a teammate makes a mistake and needs a pick-me-up. We don't typically see that, so it's always been a hard thing to confirm with my own eyeballs when I hear other players talk about leadership. But I was thinking back to CJ's presser after the Steelers win, when he referenced this being the first home win in however many ridiculous amount of games and saying something like "Nah, that won't fly with me." And I looked at him, and I listened to him, and I totally believed it. It wasn't just saying the sound bite thing, or repeating cliches ala Bull Durham. He said that and he meant it, and in that moment I knew that he was going to do everything in his power to bring wins, and he had the confidence that he could do it. If he's doing and saying those types of things to his teammates week in and week out, then yeah, he's a leader already 4 games in. And his guys will run through walls for him. I know because after he said that at the press conference, I wanted to run through a wall for him. So excited we have this kid.
I just hope some of the bigger names returning from injury PERFORM as well as their backups did. It's sometimes harder to get max effort out of more talented players because they never needed the max effort before. I'm basing this on my own ability to slide by college classes without ever learning how to study because I never needed to. I could slide by because I had almost total recall of verbal lectures which was always enough for a B.
For those of you that have not seen the CJ Stroud, Pat McAfee interview yesterday I suggest you watch it DAWG
Well he's also not a pocket passer as his athleticism is off the charts and I think he scored super well on the S2 test lol. There's definitely elite QB potential given a guy with a strong arm, great athleticism, and can process the field (based on the S2 test) even if he had a slow release. No prospect is perfect.
B/R Next NFL Superstar QBs? Ranking Best Young Signal Callers Who Could Join Elite Tier 7. Jordan Love 6. Anthony Richardson 5. Justin Fields 4. Brock Purdy 3. Trevor Lawrence 2. CJ Stroud Signs of elite The rookie No. 2 overall pick is the sixth player in league history to average 300 passing yards and have zero interceptions through the first four games of a season. He's making game-breaking throws (including a 126.1 rating on third down), avoiding killer mistakes and improving by the week when it comes to yards per attempt and sacks allowed. Signs of something else Well, there's no doubt the sample is too small to anoint Stroud at this point, and he does have a few fumbles already. For what it's worth, he also sports the second-highest bad throw rate in the league. But you really have to nitpick to find reasons not to believe in the 22-year-old right now. 1. Tua Tagovailoa
I follow the 49ers very closely. Brock Purdy's likelihood of becoming elite is tiny. He is great at following instructions and executing Kyle's offense, but he'll never be a player that can elevate receivers or carry a team. He is a younger, superior version of Jimmy G who will hopefully play his best in clutch playoff (Super Bowl) situations. I'm also a longtime Clemson fan. I love Trevor to death but I doubt he'll ever have the pure accuracy of Tua or CJ. He's always missed a lot of throws that make you shake your head. That's part of what you get with him. It's unreal when he's locked in but he has bad games on a regular basis. His NFL flaws were on full display in college. I'm still waiting for CJ to hit a wall and be forced to adapt. It's gonna happen this year a couple of times. When it does, don't abandon ship.
I don't plan on abandoning ship on him unless he plays at least a couple years of mediocre to horrible football. I just don't see that happening though. I'm really optimistic at this point.
Apparently he's in 2nd for bad throw rate yet he has yet to throw an interception. What does this even mean? He's smart enough to chuck it away which leads to high bad throw rate? He passes a lot, more throws = more bad throws? He's lucky that no one intercept those had throw?
The tweet I saw was that he was in 2nd for fewest "interception-worthy" throws. He had 3, with 0 resulting in interceptions. I think everyone else had 3 and maybe one person had two. I'm not sure if that is what you are referring to on "bad throw rate".
First game+ he was hesitant to throw the ball away while outside of the pocket (take sack or force throw) trying to make a miracle play...we all yelled about it. He has learned the way over the past 2 games: play for the next down
Part of me feels a little bad for Puka Nacua (as much as I can feel bad for anyone making NFL money). He's setting rookie records too but isn't getting near the attention, and that despite being drafted waaaaaay later. It would probably be a great feel-good story if people weren't focusing so much on what CJ is doing.
I think it’s more because QB is a more important position AND Cooper Kupp comes back and we know that won’t continue.
