{"id":689476,"date":"2026-01-19T20:16:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/689476\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T20:16:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:16:16","slug":"valid-questions-about-c-j-stroud-make-panthers-look-brilliant-in-retrospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/689476\/","title":{"rendered":"Valid questions about C.J. Stroud make Panthers look brilliant in retrospect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 2023, the Carolina Panthers<\/a> made a huge deal to move up to the top spot in the NFL draft. The choice was 2021 Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young<\/a>. He suffered through a rough rookie campaign, and then was benched by new head coach Dave Canales<\/a> after two games in 2024. <\/p>\n

After Young went number one, there was another young signal-caller taken at No. 2. \u201cNot that long ago,\u201d explained Gary Davenport <\/a>of Bleacher Report, \u201cHouston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud<\/a> appeared destined to become one of the NFL’s top young signal-callers. The 24-year-old threw for over 4,100 yards with 23 touchdown passes and just five interceptions on the way to capturing Offensive Rookie of the Year honors in 2023. He has led the Texans to the postseason in all three of his professional seasons and won a playoff game in all three as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a woeful performance against the New England Patriots Sunday,\u201d added Davenport, \u201cthe Texans have still never advanced past the Divisional Round.<\/a> Much of their success in 2025 was as much in spite of Stroud as because of him. And with the Ohio State product eligible for a major extension in 2026, Houston’s offseason begins with a huge question looming over the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Stroud<\/p>\n

Jan 18, 2026; Foxborough, MA, USA; Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) is sacked in the second quarter against the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional Round game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images | Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to say that the 2025 postseason has been personally disastrous for the third-year pro. The Texans won at Pittsburgh last week, then lost at New England on Sunday. In the playoff split, Stroud connected on only 51.9 percent of his throws <\/a>(41-of-79) for 462 yards, two scores and five interceptions. He was sacked six times, and lost two of his five fumbles. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, Young has show steady growth, and his ability to win games late was a big factor in Carolina winning the NFC South<\/a> (albeit with an 8-9 record) for the first time since 2015. Are these two young quarterbacks headed in opposite directions? It\u2019s makes for a very interesting debate.<\/p>\n

– Enjoy more free Panthers coverage with Carolina Panthers on SI –<\/p>\n

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Panthers should replace Ejiro Evero with Sean McDermott<\/a><\/p>\n

NFL\u2019s RB rankings show two top-30 backs on Carolina Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in 2023, the Carolina Panthers made a huge deal to move up to the top spot in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2075],"tags":[235,260,2567,7,6,236],"class_list":{"0":"post-689476","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-carolina","9":"tag-carolina-panthers","10":"tag-carolinapanthers","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115923609335380666","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689476","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=689476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}