It seems like it was a decade ago when Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud was being routinely touted as one of the potential future face's of the National Football League, but in reality, it was only about 24 months ago. Since then, Stroud's uneven play has been a major topic of conversation in Houston, and that chatter won't quiet down after Sunday's Divisional Round loss to the New England Patriots.
Against the Patriots, Stroud had the kind of performance that quarterbacks have nightmares about. In the 1st half alone, Stroud gave the ball away to the Patriots four times, including an egregious pick six that gave the Patriots a 14-10 lead early in the 2nd quarter when it appeared as if the Texans, behind an already dominant defensive effort, could potentially give themselves a little breathing room assuming they could've taken a two score lead.
Understandably, this abysmal performance -- which compounds a full two season slump -- will result in a whole bunch of questions being asked about CJ Stroud's competency, and whether the Texans should be too eager to hand the young quarterback a lucrative contract extension over the offseason.
But someone who isn't at all interested, at least on the surface, in having these conversations is Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans, who stated point blank that he continues to have belief in CJ Stroud.
"CJ is our guy," Ryans said during his post game press conference when asked if the Texans considered benching Stroud. "I believed that he could come back out in the 2nd half and flip it and I believed he could play better and he did that.”
Technically, DeMeco Ryans is right. Stroud did play a reasonably clean football in the 2nd half and he looked at least a little more confident in himself than he did during the opening two quarters. With that said, playing better than he did in the 1st half was a tremendously low bar to have to clear, and one would assume that backup quarterback Davis Mills -- who went 3-0 this season in relief of Stroud -- could've played just as well, if not better.
For the game, Stroud completed just 20-of-47 passes for 212 yards, 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions. His 42% completion percentage was the second-lowest of Stroud's career. This was also the first game of Stroud's career in which he threw 4 interceptions.