Before the Houston Texans upstaged the NFL Draft by taking CJ Stroud and Will Anderson with the second and third picks, there was a growing sense that the team might be pivoting away from the Ohio State quarterback in favor of a defensive player.
Multiple pre-draft reports pointed to Stroud's potential slide down the board as a result of his low S2 test scores. After the draft, there was a belief that Texans owner Cal McNair forced the front office to pick Stroud.
Speaking to reporters at the 20th annual Texans Charity Golf Classic, McNair flat-out said that he didn't force the Stroud pick, per DJ Bien-Aime of ESPN.
“Hannah and I don't make the picks. We'll make it clear there. We have a great group of scouts led by Nick [Caserio] and James Lippert, and they did a lot of work on the draft board, and then they followed that on draft day, and they moved up when they saw the value was there and moved back.”
Whether or not McNair truly did have a more heavy-handed role in the NFL Draft room that night, the world will never know.
But the fact that McNair is so adamant in his statement that he and his wife “don't make the picks” seems to officially end this theory.
The Texans, who have had some of the worst quarterback play in the league over the last few years, needed a signal-caller.
And Stroud, a two-time Heisman Trophy finalist and the next best option after Bryce Young went first to the Carolina Panthers, was too good to pass up with the second pick.
Texans general manager Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryans didn't need McNair to tell them that.
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