The internet is good for two things: ordering household goods quickly and getting mad about football lists. FanSided isn't really in the household goods market as much as I'd like, so we'll stick to the latter. And that's especially easy today thanks to our good friends at Pro Football Focus.
Good ol' PFF knows that mid-May is a slow time in the world of football content, and they've committed to not only cranking out random lists, but making sure there's plenty of meat on the bone to get angry about. In a way, we owe them all a debt of gratitude.
The latest? A listicle titled, "Ranking the top 25 players under 25 entering the 2024 NFL season." Outside of getting very angry, it's also a tremendous opportunity to feel old. But Texans fans in particular will feel a very certain way about a very certain decision.
Texans fans will be irate about where PFF lists CJ Stroud in latest rankings
Stroud comes in at #7 on the list, which in and of itself isn't that big of a deal. He's the reigning Rookie of the Year, but it has only been one season, and #7 on a list of best young guys, after only one year, is still a pretty good achievement. HOWEVER. The fine folks at PFF know that any list worth making has to get people angry tweeting, so they decided to go and put an AFC South QB above Stroud – and not just a couple spots above him: at #3.
Trevor Lawrence, according to PFF, is the 3rd best player in the NFL under 25 years old. Here's what they say about Lawrence:
"Many might call Lawrence’s 2023 season a disappointment, especially considering preseason expectations. However, he earned the highest overall grade of his career in 2023 and, during the first part of the season, demonstrated why the Jaguars selected him with the first-overall pick three years ago. Lawrence's 88.1 overall grade after 13 weeks last year ranked fifth among quarterbacks."
You know it's a strong argument when your opening sentence is essentially "lots of people think this good player wasn't good." So the gist of it is that he was a top-5 QB for 13 weeks? That seems as impressive as it is arbitrary. Here's what they say about Stroud:
"Stroud burst onto the scene as a rookie in 2023 as one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL. Out of 95 rookie quarterbacks who have played at least 100 snaps in their first season since 2006, Stroud’s 83.1 PFF overall grade ranks fourth. While Stroud's 4,108 passing yards ranked eighth in the NFL as he led the Texans into the playoffs, 59.0% of that total came before the catch, which ranked third in the NFL."
It's hard to really compare statistics when they're cherry-picked this way, but it seems like being ranked 3rd and 4th in passing stats is better than being ranked 5th! But I'm not good at numbers the way PFF's good at numbers, so who knows.
If it makes Texans fans feel any better, Stroud ranked higher than Brock Purdy. (Don't look at by how much, just trust me.)