{"id":19366,"date":"2025-05-03T01:25:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/19366\/"},"modified":"2025-05-03T01:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T01:25:23","slug":"texans-gm-breaks-down-the-right-mindset-of-qb-c-j-stroud-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/19366\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans GM breaks down the ‘right mindset’ of QB C.J. Stroud for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

C.J. Stroud’s<\/a> growth in 2025 could be the reason why the Houston Texans<\/a> take the next jump forward in AfC contention this fall.<\/p>\n

The Texans<\/a> posted back-to-back 10-win seasons under Stroud’s watch. They won the division each year and a playoff game, orchestrated behind a quarter of dominance from the former 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n

But that’s where conversations stop. In back-to-back divisional round losses, Houston’s offense struggled to find consistency. Stroud also never found a ryhthm, leading to setbacks on drives and eventual dissolving moments of promise to pull away with a victory.<\/p>\n

Year 3 is somewhat of a prove-it one for Stroud under new offensive coordinator Nick Caley. No, the former No. 2 overall pick won’t be out of a job or alter the Texans’ plans of his long-term future with the organization, but his execution could decide if Houston can be trusted as a legimiate playoff force in the future with teams like Kansas City, Buffalo and Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Texans general manager Nick Caserio is confident that his quarterback has only scratched the surface of his potential entering 2025.<\/p>\n

“He’s very prideful,” Caserio said on the latest episode of the ‘Up and Adams Show’ with Kay Adams<\/a>. “He cares a lot about winning, and he wants to go out there and perform well on a weekly basis. And I think any player, every player gets frustrated when things don’t go your way, but your ability to bounce back and have a certain level of mental toughness, to be able to handle what’s in front of you.”<\/p>\n

What version of Stroud is the real one? In 2023, he led the league in touchdown-to-interception ratio (5:1) while throwing for over 4,000 yards and completing 63.4 percent of his passes. Last season, the interception total doubled while his touchdown total decreased.<\/p>\n

A sophomore slump is common in the NFL as more film is put out on a player. It also doesn’t help that Houston allowed the third-most sacks in 2025, including 52 against its franchsie quarterback.<\/p>\n

Caserio mentioned that the offseason acquisitions should help Stroud feel more relaxed in the pocket, but his mentality and drive for success will also be factors into his growth.<\/p>\n

“C.J. cares a lot about winning,” Caserio said. “He’s had a great offseason. He’s been here, really, since February.”<\/p>\n

“I think he’s got the right mindset. He understands that we can all improve, and we can all get better, and this is what the offseason is for.”<\/p>\n

The Texans return to practice for the start of rookie minicamp next week. Voluntary OTAs begin on May 26.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"C.J. Stroud’s growth in 2025 could be the reason why the Houston Texans take the next jump forward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[247,265,825,1456,1028,324,7,221,253,2368,248,267,246,88,6,245,264,1602,1982,9,266,1457,222,1980],"class_list":{"0":"post-19366","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-american-football-conference","11":"tag-c-j","12":"tag-c-j-stroud","13":"tag-conference","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-houston","16":"tag-houston-texans","17":"tag-houstontexans","18":"tag-national","19":"tag-national-sports","20":"tag-neutral","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-nfl","23":"tag-overall","24":"tag-overall-neutral","25":"tag-smg","26":"tag-smg-timely","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-sports-news","29":"tag-stroud","30":"tag-texans","31":"tag-timely"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114441297952927310","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}