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Swanson: Texans don’t let C.J. Stroud get away, draft him No. 2 behind Bryce Young

April 28, 2023

Bryce Young went where we all knew he would Thursday – No. 1, to the Carolina Panthers.

His buddy, C.J. Stroud, went No. 2 in the NFL draft, the Houston Texans doing well to block out noise building in opposition to the Ohio State prospect.

Young was the odds-on favorite to hear his name called first – and why not? What’s not to like?

His 5-foot-10, 204ish-pound stature, perhaps. Otherwise, the former Santa Ana Mater Dei High star has the IQ and instincts, the poise and pedigree. He’s a responsible, elegant quarterback. Level-headed and buttoned-up, with a multi-million-dollar smile. Seems like a real nice guy, “a safe pick,” said Cam Newton, the QB who went No. 1 in 2011, the last time the Panthers picked first. “A very safe pick.”

And to start the NFL draft, Young slid safely into No. 1. Here’s to a long, illustrious NFL career following his Heisman Trophy-winning tenure at Alabama – and to Stroud, too.

What about Stroud, the former Rancho Cucamonga High School standout – what was there to quibble with there?

The dude is 6-3, 214 pounds. He has probably the biggest and most accurate arm of all the quarterbacks in this year’s draft. Threw for 8,123 yards and 85 touchdowns (vs. just 12 interceptions) while going 21-4 in two seasons as Ohio State’s starting quarterback. He was a Heisman finalist both years.

For a while, people thought he’d go No. 1. But then they got on podcasts and got to talking.

“C.J. Stroud is an interesting guy,” NFL insider Michael Lombardi said earlier this month, on The Sports Betting Network’s platform. “When you talk to people in the league, they’ll tell you – this is not a knock, this is just a conversation – not an easy guy to coach.

“He’s very – the word that people use is – very not believing in what you’re saying.”

Skeptical, a sentiment that grew after former Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn said Stroud “ghosted” the folks at the high-profile Manning Passing Academy. And with the hullabaloo following a report that Stroud scored low on multiple S2 Cognition tests, which NFL teams use to assess athletes’ ability to process information.

Not the warmest welcome to the league. But also, kind of perfect.

If you’re a public school kid from the Inland Empire who didn’t start until your junior season, you can take it. If you’re a self-taught quarterback who grew up mimicking YouTube videos because your family wasn’t in position to employ a quarterback coach, you can take it.

And if you missed out on some high-profile passing tournaments back then because of commitments to your basketball team, you get it. When you didn’t get any college recruiting interest after your junior year, not until Colorado called on Christmas Eve, you know to keep the faith.

If you’re someone who’s dealt with real-life adversity, who watched your mom struggle to make ends meet as your father serves a long prison sentence, you know you’re tough enough. You can take it.

“God has battled-tested me,” Stroud told ESPN’s Suzy Kolber moments after hearing his name called, speaking to a prime-time TV audience from the heart, his comments unrehearsed. “I have the armor of God on me. Everything I’ve been through has prepared me for this moment right here.”

Stroud is plenty strong, but he’s also really dang good. The smart pick for a Texans team that has struggled without a reliable quarterback in two seasons since Deshaun Watson was dealt to the Cleveland Browns.

“I think he’s the best quarterback in the draft, and I think he’s going to have the best NFL career,” said Mark Verti, who, as Stroud’s coach at Rancho Cucamonga, is both biased and a witness for how very coachable he is, for how cerebral.

The Houston Texans select Rancho Cucamonga alumnus C.J. Stroud with the second overall pick in the 2023 #NFLdraft.

(Photo by Terry Pierson, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG) pic.twitter.com/qwO6ZoGwc7

— James H. Williams at Coachella (@JHWreporter) April 28, 2023

Stroud wowed Verti and his staff at his first Cougars scrimmage, before he even knew the offense, because of how he read passing lanes like a basketball player. And then often after that, when the backup quarterback would come to coaches at halftime to tell them, say, “if we do the out-and-up on the left corner, he’s gonna bite.” And he would, and Rancho Cucamonga would put six more points on the board.

“That stupid test score,” Verti said. “That was a shock because that was his strength for us; his vision and awareness were unmatched. He’d see things on the whole field.”

He’d see, and he’d deliver – right on the money, in high school and at Ohio State, where he completed 69.3% of his passes.

Stroud explained once: “I don’t want my receivers to have to do anything but catch the ball.”

And he always wanted all of his receivers to catch the ball, Verti said.

“It wasn’t for stats, how he’d spread the ball to people in practice, or in a game,” Stroud’s former coach said. “He always wanted to make sure to spread the ball around, he was always going to get a guy a touchdown pass.”

CJ Stroud interview immediately after being drafted and putting the Houston Texans hat on for the first time.

Check out what the franchise has to say. pic.twitter.com/reHFp4jBR1

— V̷a̷t̷o̷r̷ (@Vator_H_Town) April 28, 2023

On Thursday, he wanted to make sure all of the kids watching realized the significance of his second-overall selection. When Kolber teed up the question, “What would you say to all the young boys …?” Stroud knocked it out of the park.

“I’m a living testimony that you can really do anything, because I come from nothing,” he said. “And to that little boy, that little girl out there, man, you can do anything you put your mind to.”

That’s what it took. Good old-fashioned dedication and discipline. Self-discipline.

“People think you have to get a quarterback coach,” Verti said. “But so many college coaches liked that he didn’t have a quarterback coach and that he wasn’t a robot. So many parents are afraid to not do something if they think it’ll hurt their kid, but he’s an example you don’t have to do that.

“You don’t need to pay money to someone to train you to be a good player, you just have to work hard. And I think he did it the right way.”

Keep doing that, and it’ll be just a matter of time until Stroud proves critics they got it wrong.

Orange County Register

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Swanson: Texans don’t let C.J. Stroud get away, draft him No. 2 behind Bryce Young

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