C.J. Stroud was awful in Texans’ playoff loss in New England

23 comments

1. Postgame Stroud: For me football is and has always 50/50. 50% my reciever gets the ball.50% the defense gets it. Not too bad when you think about it.

2. CJ has done nothing but regress since his breakout rookie year. At first it looked like a sophomore slump, but his rookie year looks fraudulant now.

3. Every position if u play bad u get taking out y not d QB he didn't give his all to d team

4. Josh and CJ panics when stakes high, deer in head lights. Fire coaches.. eeh

5. Demeco should’ve sat his ass after that terrible pick 6 imo. That’s the worst decision I’ve ever seen a supposed top tier qb make. I think anyone in Houston would trade Stroud for Jackson or Burrow in a heartbeat. Problem is those teams aren’t dumb enough to take Stroud now.

6. Seth talking about QB pay made me chuckle. Seems like it’s a generational thing, there are young guys here at my work that have been here less than 3 years and they are expecting the same pay as a veteran and management is giving it to them and they still haven’t proven themselves.

7. It was a payoff lost.
   The coach sold the team out by not replacing that
   "Android QB"!
   I've never seen a so -called QB , play that bad, He didn't even look like a Quarterback.
   I've watched the NFL for 50/60yrs,and that was the worst I've ever seen.The defense needs to run the coach and CJ Stroud, out of the city and state of Texas!

8. Tlaw catching strays 😂😂😂 Seth is still upset with CJ.

9. A question that needs to be asked: Is there any NFL head coach in the entire league except Demeco that would want Stroud as their starting qb? I seriously doubt it.

10. Everyone seems to miss the plot when they point out how C.J. has regressed since his outstanding rookie season. Actually, C.J.’s true weakness has always been present, as have his known strengths. The only difference between his 2023 rookie season and the past two years (2024–2025) is that his primary weakness—one no one has really talked about—has been secretly exposed.

    It all has to do with his S2 cognitive test. This test measures football-related cognitive skills and reveals how a player's brain is wired to perform under pressure: perception speed, search efficiency, tracking capacity, visual learning, instinctive learning, decision complexity, distraction control, impulse control, and improvisation. C.J. scored 18% (18 out of 100).

    When his score was brought up prior to the draft, I believe C.J. knew deep down this was an issue, but it hadn't been a problem at Ohio State because he was rarely placed in situations against elite defensive teams. He also had a great offensive line, a strong running game, and elite NFL-ready WRs. The exceptions occurred twice—against the nation’s best defensive team (Michigan)—and Ohio State lost both games in 2021 and 2022. Prior to those two losses, Ohio State had won eight straight against Michigan.

    C.J.’s low S2 score shows up in a big way when he faces a stronger defensive team or when the offensive line loses the battle in the trenches—stuffing the run game and forcing the offense to become one-dimensional. Forcing a passing game, especially when the Texans’ WR1, WR2, and WR3 are all injured, makes matters worse. He is then forced to rely on his mental instincts under a strong pass rush, with receivers tightly covered and/or distractions from crowd noise or weather. All these conditions can create a complex situation that challenges C.J. to make the right decision. It’s like a perfect storm.

    When C.J. is between a rock and a hard place and forced to make tough decisions, his S2 score of 18 out of 100 becomes obvious. Some of his choices look like something not even a high-school quarterback would attempt. That 18/100 was never an issue at Ohio State because he had a stout offensive line, a strong running game, and an abundance of elite NFL-ready WRs—all top-12, first-round talent. Under those conditions, S2 doesn’t matter.
    
    But when he faces a bull rush… Houston, we have a problem.

    C.J. struggles to process when to take a sack, when to throw the ball away, who to throw the ball to, and where to run. He looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Even the way he speaks shows how slowly he processes information. He spent the entire year trying to memorize when to throw the ball away, but in real time, he can’t consistently recognize when to simply take the sack.

    If C.J. had Collins, Dell, and Schultz healthy as his primary weapons, this wouldn’t even be a discussion. But with all of them injured, no running game—and since he’s not going to run to keep the defense honest—you get the perfect storm.
    
    Yes, C.J. has things he needs to improve. His decision-making is not instinctive at an NFL level, but he’s a Top-5 quarterback when he has time to throw and 2–3 elite receivers available. Nobody throws a softer, more catchable ball than C.J.

    To elevate him:
    
    1. Fix the offensive line to allow both the run game and pass protection.
    
    2. Get a new OC or a strong QB mentor—give him more plays that roll him out of the pocket or allow receivers to find soft spots instead of running predictable scripted routes directly into defenders.
    
    3. Create a bull-rush decision-making drill to force C.J. to make fast reads and speed up his internal clock.

    If the Texans fix these weaknesses, C.J. will be a Top-5 quarterback—and everyone will jump right back on the bandwagon.

11. Terrible team, Terrible organization. Tear it down

12. Texans just guaranteed this will be the peak of their existence. No offensive players want to come here in FA. We're set to fire sale in 2 years.

13. One too many concussions methinks. Cj is now Tua 2.0

14. Ryans is not head coach material. He's a great DC. But the bigger issue is that Stroud is not a smart QB. He consistently makes bad decisions with the football. Just listening to him in an interview is excruciatingly painful to the ears. Every sentence has 15 "you knows" in it. Even worse, he's not improving. He's getting progressively worse. Then, as you noted, he goes and throws himself a pity party after every series. If Ryans had a shred of leadership ability, he'd have pulled Stroud after the second or third pick. Mills isn't going to light it up but he couldn't do any worse than Stroud. My father used to have a saying about guys like Stroud. He'd say "He's a good ol' boy. Problem is there just isn't any demand for good ol' boys."

15. Robert Kraft paid CJ 10 million smackers to ' throw the game ' and Stroud did just that

16. You can't ever say Trevor Lawrence choked like you're quarterback

17. CJ was awful all year

18. Radio 610 the flagship for Texans has been gaslighting us for years! How great CJ Stroud is and how great Ryans is all gaslighting.

19. Can't afford to have CJ waste another season

20. Texans head coach got out coached the man had no timeouts an pat had all 3 timeouts and didn’t even need them 😂

21. I remember Matt Schaub’s decline and coach Kubiak’s loyalty to his QB. I think that next year the Texans went 2-14 and coach lost his job.

22. Stroud did seem like he was moping.

23. I love this ignorant comments regarding Trevor. I love seeing how out of touch other fan bases are.

    You can bet your ass that some of those defensive players are turning on CJ behind closed doors.