FIRST TAKE | CJ Stroud is an ‘elite’ QB – Stephen A. claims Houston Texans will dominate AFC South

FIRST TAKE | CJ Stroud is an ‘elite’ QB – Stephen A. claims Houston Texans will dominate AFC South

divisional takes and today we spotlight the AFC South. After a rough end to the season, CJ Strad looks to lead the Texans to their third straight AFC South Division Crown. The former offensive rookie of the year has 25 to1 odds to win MVP according to ESPN bet. And with his third head coach, Liam Cohen, Trevor Lawrence is coming off a season that was riddled with injuries as he looks to turn things around and get the Jaguars back on track after missing the playoffs in back to back seasons. And after being selected first overall on the draft by the Titans, rookie quarterback Cam Ward looks to give the Titans a spark after Tennessee finished last in its division in each of the last two seasons. It is an open QB battle in India between Anthony Richardson and Daniel Jones as Richardson looks to have a bounceback season. Richardson finished 2024 with a 48% completion percentage. The lowest by far of any quarterback in 2024. Kanty, which quarterback in the AFC South has the most approve? Oh, it has to be Trevor Lawrence. He’s teetering right now on being the god is just good enough to get you fired, right? It didn’t work out with Urban Meer. It didn’t work out with the last guy. Now, the question is whether or not it could work out with Liam Cohen. Now, they’ve gone out of their way to try to support him properly. They mortgage the future in trading a future first round pick in order to move up from 5 to two to get him yet another playmaker out on the edge in Travis Hunter. So you got a one two punch with Brian Thomas Jr. who’s a phenomenal young receiver 1000 yards out the gate and Travis Hunter. You got two solid running backs in ETN and Bigsby. You got a solid offensive line. This is on Tlaw to make it work. And we saw what Liam Con was able to do with Baker Mayfield last year and Baker Mayfield and the weapons that he’s had with the T Buers. This is on Trevor Lawrence to make this work. Make no mistake about it. Of all the quarterbacks in this division, he’s the one that’s under the most pressure. Kevin, it’s CJ Str and here’s the reason. CJ Stroud is the only one of these guys putting aside how I feel about Cam More, but that’s just a Miami thing for me. Uh, but when I look at CJ Strout, he’s the only one who can get into the upper echelon of AFC quarterbacks with an unbelievable year. What does that mean? We know what that means. Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Patrick Molmes. If CJ Stroud can build on what he had as a rookie, not the second season, a rookie he can get on that trajectory eventually even this year. He was the most pressured guy on the planet last year on throws over 15 yards. That’s why his deep ball regressed. The protection schemes the officer coordinator were amateurish. The offensive line was amateurish. If you take a step forward and they have some new guys across the offensive line, you can see a leap here that can get him on that plane and that is special. I like CJ Strut. I think that last year was a tough year for him, but even still they round up in the playoffs. I think he is a guy that is on a trajectory that to your point will put him in the elite amount of quarterback. To your point about Trevor Lawrence, I think he for sure has the most approved because what’s on the line for him is how the entire league is going to view him. When you line his stats up against Daniel Jones, they have almost the same record. T interpers quarterb sitation with all the coaching changes but if it doesn’t work now with those catches that they brought in it’s going to feel very late early for Trevor Lawrence the same way we view Daniel Jones you can make a case that Trevor Lawrence is in that same camp yeah they definitely didn’t have the same expectations to entering on Jones Oh my god, you hit it. The contract I think protects Lawrence. It’s longer than Daniel Jones is. I think is going to be I think Anthony Richon’s the only guy playing for his career this year. I think CJ Stroud is more the CJ Stroud we saw in his rookie season than he is the second season. I just feel like that team was in a tough spot last year with a lot of injuries. Do you guys concur? Yeah, I agree with that, Molly. And here’s the thing. We we looked at CJ St 2024 campaign as a sophmore slump. It ended the exact same way as the 2023 season. So maybe they didn’t realize the he that everybody expected them to go. But when we think about floor raisers around the National Football League, you be hard pressed to find a better guy than CJ St. Think about what the Houston Texans were before he got there. An absolute dumpster fire. They had a chaplin running the team and now they are one of the most respected franchises and we’re looking at them as a team that has a choke hold on the AFC South. When you start outlining the division winners, the teams that we expect to be at the top at the end in 2025, I mean, you’re talking about the Houston Texans being one of the more prohibitive favorites when it comes to winning their respected division. So that’s all because of CJ. So when we start talking about this pressure conversation in quarterbacks in this division, I don’t think there’s any on CJ. I still don’t know who Trevor Lawrence is. That’s the point. The contract doesn’t tell you. The contract doesn’t match the performance on the field. And that’s the biggest question, right? Yes, the contract protects them. Well, at some point we got to say, “Hey, is your performance matching what you’ve been giving?” And I would say it has not. To your point about CJ St. They got a great defense. They brought him more weapons with them for for Higgins, Noel to add to Tank Dell and Nico Collins. If they can protect that interior offensive line for CJ Stroud, he’s going to take a step that feels like he’s a consumant veteran. Just so how unfair it is how we talk about these guys. CJ Strut accelerated the timeline for the entire franchise. He made them good and then we got upset he didn’t get to an AFC title game in his second year. He created all of this as Kanty said. Yeah, absolutely. That’s a fantastic point. All right, tomorrow we continue our divisional takes as we head to the AFC West. Is this the year Patrick Maholmes and the Chiefs get dethroned? That’s tomorrow right here on first take. Coming up back to the Cowboys, our top story of the day. Wait till you hear our reaction to Jerry Jones commenting on ever giving up his GM role. That’s going to be Musy TV. And can NVP season for Jayen Hurts finally silence the doubters after his amazing Super Bowl win not seeing I to I. We’ll be right back. [âm nhạc] I love that open. As long as this show is there, I decree that open shall run. Here is the man Dominique Foxworth Raider to answer a series of hard hitting football questions whether he is ready to or not. Let’s start with rookies. All right, let’s start with the most intriguing rookie quarterback is who? I mean, it’s kind of a cop out, but it’s the number one overall pick, Cam Ward. He’s gotten better year after year on his way from high school all the way to the pros. His ceiling as far as athleticism and arm talent is as high as anyone in the league. Going to a situation where he is not competing for a starting job, I’m looking forward to seeing how special this player can be. And Grey, that’s why the news yesterday was, as you would say, sneaky big news that Will Levis underwent shoulder surgery or is having shoulder surgery that will knock him out for the season because the Titans of the quarterbacks are Brandon Allen and Tim Boyle. And the Titans have not named Cam Ward their starting quarterback. But from the moment that Will Levis said he was going to be undergoing shoulder surgery to end the season, it became readily apparent that Cam Ward is going to be their starting quarterback on opening day against the Denver Broncos and the wait and watch for him is on. They haven’t named him but he’ll be the guy. And Cam Ward now is going to be thrushed into the spotlight as he was leading up to the draft process. I will just say this if I may counter. I just looked up the definition of the word intriguing and it says engaging the interest to a market degree. Now maybe I’m I’m uh I’m sort of parsing not at a market degree. I’m at a market degree. No market a market degree. A market degree. Cam Wen is going to be the starting quarterback in Tennessee. He was going to be regardless and that’s we’re going to see how that thing plays out. The most intriguing rookie quarterback to me is definitely Shador Sanders because I am Markedly inter to a market degree interested to see is he the player that many like Mel Ker Kiper thought he was or is he actually the guy who fell to the fifth round and I don’t know that we’ll know that in this training camp but we’ll start getting that answer. I’m intrigued by that. Let me just say that every rookie quarterback is always intriguing. That’s true. because you don’t know whether your team hit and is going to be set for years to come, right? Or your team missed and is going to be back in that market for another quarterback. You say right now that Shador Sandre is the most intriguing. I can make an argument that Cam Ward is the most intriguing. I can make an argument that Jackson Dart is the most intriguing. I can make an argument that Tyler Chuck is the most intrigued. I have a marketing degree as well. Uh and I actually I’m with the Cam Ward because he is the first overall pick. Yes, we understand that we know he’s going to be the starter, especially now with the Will Levis news, but I feel like he is the least talked about first overall pick that we’ve seen probably in two decades. That is intriguing to me because this is either going to be a why weren’t we talking about him more or everybody was right. It didn’t feel as exciting as Shador going in the fifth round for the Brown. In his style of play is such that it could be really incred. very Cebi and that he can do creative things that end up hurting your team or do creative things that saying wow this guy a magician. All right, let me get to the next one here because I have I’m intrigued by this one as well. Dominique, next question. Where should Travis Hunter start? On which side of the ball? Well, I mean, he should obviously start at receiver. I think as much as I would like to pretend that cornerback is a more impactful position, the way that the rules have changed and the um the league has made it easier for the offensive side of the ball, you can be more impact impactful on the other side. And of course like receivers are easier to play. You just show up, you run some RS, get some balls, run some touchdowns. It’s not too hard. All right. I I want him to play both ways and so we’ll have time to dive into that more a little bit later, but I want to set up the last one cuz this is this is the most intriguing. Ok. Despite winning the Super Bowl, Jayen Hz continues to have doubters. Cam Newton is among them. Still not sure if Hertz is a great player or a product of a great team. Camello, xin chào tất cả các bạn. Ngày hôm nay là một ngày đẹp trời, mình sẽ tô màu, mình sẽ chọn những sản phẩm đẹp nhất để mình tô. Nếu các bạn mà xem video của mình mà thấy mình tôi mò đẹp và hay thì hãy cho mình một lượt like và một lượt đăng ký kênh để ủng hộ mình. Như vậy là video mình kết thúc rồi nha. Bây giờ mình sẽ chụ t mỏi nha các bạn. Đ tí mình sẽ xó xanh nõn nha. Bây giờ mình xỏ màu xanh nõn nha mọi người. Mọi người ơi, bây giờ mình sẽ xỏ màu xanh nõn. Sáu màu của mình nha mọi người. Mọi người đây là sáu màu của mình. Sáu màu của mình nha. Tiếp tục là mình xó màu hồng nha. Bây giờ mình sẽ chọ màu hồng. Mọi người ơi, mình chả màu hồng nha. Só màu. Bây giờ mình sẽ xỏ hạ chữ nha mọi người. Mọi người mình xỏ hạ chữ nha. Giờ mình xóa chữ nhá mọi người. Mình kết vòng nha mọi người. Mọi người mình kết vòng nha. Đây là mình kế vòng nha mọi người. Các bạn ơi, vòng của mình hoàn thành hội trường nha. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc mọi người ơi. Đây là vòng của mình đã hoàn thành. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc nha mọi người. Ơ đây là vòng của mình đã hoàn thành. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc nhé. cho m nh bá. Xin chào tất cả các bạn. Ngày hôm nay mình sẽ cùng các bạn đi tô mò những bức tranh nha. Nh các bạn chưa biết bức tranh gì đúng không? Bây giờ các bạn hãy xem video và xem tên bức tranh đó là gì và xem mình có tô màu đẹp không nha. Các bạn hãy đón xem. Bây giờ các bạn cùng với mình đi tô mò nha. Bây giờ chết tiếp được tô món thôi. Mọi người ơi, bây giờ mình sẽ nối vòng nha. Mình kết vòng nha. Bây giờ mình kết vòng nha mọi người. Mọi người bây giờ mình kết vòng nha. Giờ mình sẽ dán các â chị không xem được cái nhán của Nghĩa thật đố mình gọi là gọi đứt hạng chả nghe đấy đâu mà đố gọi được nè thôi đi mọi người á đây là phòng của mình nha của mình hoàn thành rồi này. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc. Nếu các bạn thích thì cho mình xin một like, một chia sẻ, một đăng ký kênh nha mọi người. Đây là vòng của mình đã hoàn thành. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc. Nếu các bạn thích thì cho mình xin một like, một chia sẻ, một đăng ký kênh nha các bạn. Đây là vòng của mình này. Vòng của mình đã hoàn thành. Video của mình đến đây là kết thúc. Nếu các bạn thích thì cho mình xin một like và chia sẻ và đăng ký kênh nha. C màu xanh sẽ gà ra được nhau. Giờ mình sẽ dán vào nha các bạn. Thôi là quay cái gì nhở? Bao nhiêu video rồi? Một tiếng, hai tiếng 3 tiếng. Đ quay gì nhỉ? Ta không xem được ngã của gì hết ta. Đây mình sẽ vẽ thành các con gà con gà tí thì nó đã giống con vịt rồi đó là món ăn. Xin chào tất cả mọi người đã quay trở lại với kênh của mình. Ngày hôm nay mình sẽ tiếp tục hướng dẫn các bạn sỏ vòng và vòng hôm nay của mình sẽ là vòng nem chua rán. Bây giờ mình bắt đầu nha. Xin chào tất cả mọi người đã quay trở lại với kênh của mình. Hôm nay mình sẽ tiếp tục hướng dẫn các bạn sỏ vòng và vòng hôm nay của mình sẽ là vòng nem nướng. Bây giờ mình bắt đầu nha. Xin chào tất cả mọi người đã quay trở lại với kênh của mình. Ngày hôm nay mình sẽ tiếp tục hướng dẫn các bạn xỏ vòng. Và vòng hôm nay tổ mình sẽ là hiệp luộc. Bây giờ mình bắt đầu da. Đầu tiên là mình chọn màu tím nha mọi người. Mọi người ơ mình s nha mình sẽ tím nha mọi người. Tô màu xanh các bạn. H

FIRST TAKE | CJ Stroud is an ‘elite’ QB – Stephen A. claims Houston Texans will dominate AFC South