Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud is re-writing what we believed was possible from a rookie QB. Now sure, we've seen a handful of 1st-year QB's exceed expectations immediately in the past. In 2012, Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, and Russell Wilson were all rookies who were named day one starters and led their teams to a postseason appearance. In 2016, Dak Prescott was thrust into the Cowboys starting job late in the preseason after a Tony Romo injury, and he ended the season 6th in MVP voting. Appropriately, at the time of this writing, Stroud has the sixth best MVP odds, according to Fan Duel.
When Stroud was asked about his MVP candidacy, his response came with as much precision and maturity as he's shown on the field the first nine games of his rookie season.
“It’s been cool to be able to be in the [MVP] talk, but just like they love me this week, they’ll hate me the next,” Stroud said Wednesday during his media availability, per Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. “So, I don’t try to look at that stuff. I try to stay even-keeled and just stay on the straight and narrow, and just work really hard and make my teammates around me better.”
Now Stroud is correct in his interpretation of the way that the NFL media both celebrates and tears down the league's stars, and with one bad game any time down the stretch this season, he'll be skewered by the very same folks who have been touting his MVP candidacy in recent weeks. But we've reached the point where it's truly hard to imagine any Texans fans turning on Stroud at this point. He's gonna be their guy for the next decade-plus. You could feel it.
With just over half of the season in the books, Stroud is currently leading the NFL in passing yards per game, and he's thrown the fewest interceptions in the league despite being 10th in attempts and 3rd in yards per target, which means Stroud is not just dinking and dunking the ball down the field. He's pushing it, playing fearless, and embodying the mindset of Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans on the offensive side of the ball.
“I just want more. I want to do better. I want to be as complete as I can. This game is a process, and I know every week I have to bring it. And I know I’m not being treated as a rookie anymore, so people are bringing their ‘A-game’ because they want to knock me off or whatever they think. For me, I just really want to keep getting better and better and keep that chip on my shoulder and just keep grinding.”
Yeah, this dude's got it.
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