In the midst of a second consecutive 0-2 early-season slide by the Houston Texans, quarterback C.J. Stroud has actually enjoyed a mostly productive two-game start individually.
Even though the objective in the NFL is for the football team to win games--and eventually a Super Bowl--Stroud and his representation are also in a position where the fourth-year signal caller is eligibile for a potentially market-setting contract by the end of this season. After failing to come to an agreement with the Texans this offseason, Stroud has now been tasked with betting on himself and increasing his value throughout the regular campaign.
At the moment, Stroud is the third-leading passer in the NFL in yards produced with 627, second-best in completions with 56 and all with zero interceptions thrown through two games. Not only that, but even the mainstream media is starting to acknowledge that Stroud is actually not the biggest problem in Houston right now (which is saying a lot after they torched his reputation in the offseason).
The mainstream media is finally acknowledging that C.J. Stroud is not the problem with the Houston Texans
On today's episode of ESPN's Get Up, NFL Analyst Dominique Foxworth went on to give his assessment of the offensive inefficiencies surrounding Stroud when he expressed,
"That Stroud is going to get a lot of negative attention because things aren't going well for them offensively, and he's betting on himself. And I know no one wants to hear people make excuses for him, but I'm going to make excuses for him. Because like, they can't run the ball, they can't protect him, his best receiver might be a tight end. This is a tall task they're asking for him. The defense seemed to play better than it has last week, but they were out of this game because they couldn't produce anything offensively. And I know there are some quarterbacks that might be able to come elevate above all of this stuff, but there's not very many that can do something with what he's been dealing with."
Houston's offense appeared to be a revelation after week one, igniting against the Buffalo Bills' defense for 381 yards of total offense, which included 257 passing yards, 124 rushing yards, a 7/16 rate on third down, a 2/2 on fourth down rate and the unit being 4/5 in the red zone. For all intents and purposes, it was one of the best offensive performances by a Texans offense under DeMeco Ryans across his four years at the helm.
Stroud himself contributed 274 passing yards, two touchdowns, zero interceptions and 15 rushing yards of that offense on the afternoon (along with his only blemishes being two fumbles across four quarters of play). Not perfect, but highly productive.
On ther hand though, they also did this against a Bills defense that allowed 31 points to opponents in back-to-back weeks (Texans and Detroit Lions), along with 736 yards of total offense. Thus, the quality of defense certainly contextualizes things a bit.
Then you have Sunday afternoon's week two match up against the visiting Cincinnati Bengals and their new-look defense with former New York Giants defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and co. Stroud showed up again, this time with 353 passing yards, zero interceptions and 29 rushing yards. Unlike last time however, none of his other offensive pieces made the trip from the Memorial Hermann Practice Field.
His offensive line was ravaged by Bengals defensive linemen all game long, none of his wide receivers consistently made plays on the outside, he had no rushing attack to speak of and he ultimately had a play caller in Nick Caley who did everything possible to submarine Houston's offense in short yardage situations (namely, the red zone area). The abysmal offensive output resulted in six total points through four quarters.
Their poor collective play is why Houston is currently winless after two weeks and facing a litany of questions from the fan base and local media. However, Stroud is only improving his case for why many shouldn't have been as harsh on him to begin with, even with his struggles in the playoffs last season.
By season's end, Stroud will be entering a quarterback market that will also feature his draft mate in Bryce Young and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson who'd also be in pursuit of brand new pacts from their respective teams. If Stroud continues his statistical pace for 17 games, I believe it would be more than enough for him to cash out and finally land that elusive contract that evaded him this offseason.
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