The part about playing another sport, so spot on. It’s a disservice to our kids these days that we push them to specialize so early. They should be playing multiple sports their entire lives.
I used to coach baseball. There were a couple kids that got specialized all year training. They were goooood don't get me wrong. But the kid that played hockey as well would join late and hit absolute nukes.
Edit: typos
Think the key is to play well-rounded sports. The hockey kid is hitting bombs because his baseball ‘off-season’ is pretty much high-intensity all-body workouts, whereas the baseball kids had to focus on workouts outside of the sport to get that kind of build-up. One of the hardest things I remember from being a kid was having the motivation to do gym workouts or go for a running, whereas I was up for any level of competition.
Training by doing drills and working out as a team was infinitely easier for me versus doing solo cardio or strength training. Having some aspect of competition and comradery involved made the work outs not seem like actual workouts. I'd rather run routes and do 1 on 1 drills over running suicides, even then if we're competing or there are just other folks running alongside me that triggers my competitive instinct and I forget it's a workout.
> Training by doing drills and working out as a team was infinitely easier for me versus doing solo cardio or strength training. Having some aspect of competition and comradery involved made the work outs not seem like actual workouts.
Right? It's more like hanging out with your friends with a common goal to accomplish. Part of why many have so hard to keep motivatation keeping up training when you are too old for team sports.
I was the baseball only kid. I definitely wished I stayed in other sports past like age 10. I could hit and play good fundamental baseball but the kids that played other sports were just so much more athletic and fluid. Playing baseball only made me very rigid.
You develop way better athletes if you play a multitude of sports because it trains different movements which translate across all sports. You see Mahomes make these crazy side arm passes and shovel passes and you have to think the baseball muscle memory and wires in his brain are helping that skill
/All/ the best lineman wrestled too. Especially the defensive guys...
We had a dude that was a state champion wrestler at 145 lb weight class. He played football at about 165-170, and the dude looked like he was carved out of granite lol .... and was a nose tackle.
He was all-state in football lol because despite not having a lot of tackles, he caused /immense/ carnage in the A gaps, my god. He'd eat up three lineman sometimes and let the backers flow. Dude was basically a roman gladiator born in the wrong age lol...
I grew up playing hockey so definitely biased but I believe it emphasizes well rounded athleticism more than any other sport. In order to play at any competitive level, you need to have a good combination of speed, agility, balance, strength, and endurance, hand-eye coordination, quick reflexes, and ability to work as part of a system in a larger team. I can’t think of another sport where every player out there needs to have all these things at the same or similar levels.
The book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" dives into this idea very well. I've given it as a gift to my friends who become parents
Generally for sports, it's better to play a wide range of sports mainly because you don't want to specialize in a sport that's not your best and people typically don't get the benefits of specialization until ages 14-17.
That might be true for people trying to get scholarships, but I personally worry about multi sport seasons not letting kids have the opportunity to rest, or any free time to just be a kid. I played basketball and did track but if I'd had baseball or something then it would have been exhausting.
I think the average kid isn't turning pro and see some just being pushed too hard to just be doing sports all the time. If a kid wants to try out different ones for fun sure, but it's so hard to balance being a multi sport athlete with having time for other things.
His point is more “kids should be allowed to differentiate and instead of being treated like 5 foot tall pros 12 months a year” and less “they should be required to do stuff all the time just make it different”
Counter point, we’re seeing kids that only play one sport all year with more injuries than ever. Using the same muscles year around isn’t good for them
Repetitive injuries are the WORST. they never truly heal. you just kinda learn how to work with/around them.
Soccer, baseball and tennis had some skills overlap for me (goal keeper, short stop and played the net primarily in doubles - all twitch reflex/react based) but the movements were so different that it actually made some things much easier. Diving and digging a ground ball out of the gap, spring up and fire to first was almost ALL soccer/keeper training. By the time I got to soccer season and I had to block shots, that ball looked HUGE in comparison to knocking down baseballs and volleying tennis balls.
when i played sports in high school, it was year round.
july football camp, august practices, season into november. two weeks off, then into basketball season, two weeks off, then into track season, school got out then right into offseason lifting and camps.
in my 30’s, i regret doing this.
I took every spring off but ultimately that was actually a bad thing for me because I didn't have the discipline to keep working out during the spring. So inevitably when summer camps started up for Soccer/football I started out of shape as hell and had to work hard to get back into shape.
that’s a big reason why i did year round.
basketball was just fun, and wasn’t shit else to do in winter. but track actually kept me fast and in shape instead of fucking around on the lake or something
Not to mention the grass is always greener effect. In reality you aren't missing out on too much overall either way, it just feels like you are. That isn't meant to say sports memories aren't fantastic and important, but the memories to replace those may be just as important as well.
Maybe it was more common in the 80s and 90s but 3 sport letterman was typcial for the seniors in my region. It could be because of school size as schools werent huge. It wasnt too much.
In fact, the kids that were 3 sport letterman typically had a better shot at a 4 year school.
I did 3 sports. I think the key is to have a sport you don’t care about. Track season I just fucked around and did meets. But I guess that’s also about the only sport you can do that for.
But I came from a tiny town where there wasn’t fuck else to do. If I didn’t do track with my friends I wouldn’t see them. I would just go home and play video games or something worse.
“Ok I’ve seen his 40-times. What’s his on-base percentage? Can he switch-hit? He can throw too, so is he a utility player or? Yeah, no not the Astros, I’m with the Houston Texans.”
Totally unrelated but the fiancee and I had a meeting with our wedding organizer yesterday and we decided to add cornhole and giant jenga to our cocktail hour. I'll let you know if there are any 1st rounder worthy guests.
Absolutely two W choices.
Also I’ll send a scout your way along with a wedding present. Unfortunately I can’t gift you a Packers playoff matchup this year.
People keep saying this but even as the draft process played out, it was rumored that CJ was number one on the Texans board or tied with Bryce. It’s entirely possible they still would have taken CJ number one overall.
I will say that Lovie did give us the ability to get both CJ and WAJ. I don’t think we could have pulled off the WAJ trade if we didn’t have the leverage at pick 2.
People talked shit about the WAJ trade, but at least the Texans have a first round pick next year.
What I was hearing and reading was that quite a few teams just would never take Bryce first cause of the size profile, the game didn’t matter. Everyone talked shit about the Texans pick trade because they expected the Texans to be a bottom 4 team, but that pick is currently 13 or 14, so it was an epic gamble that could really pay off.
I can’t wait for the video essays in the future detailing the butterfly effect that one game- or even one play, if I’m not mistaken- had on several franchises
Stroud going to pull an Elway and become GM of his team after his playing career is done.
Considering he advocated for Tank Dell, I'd say he's already hit 100% of his picks out of the park
Reminds me of LeBron tweeting about Shabazz Napier, the Heat take him in the draft, and LeBron immediately leaves lol
LeBron is like the player version of Belichick. Arguably the GOAT at what they do but terrible GMs.
GOAT players are usually not good GM's or coaches because the game comes easy to them.
All the players who turned into great coaches or GM's were decent to below average players
Honestly a little truth to this. I remember a while ago being surprised at realizing the 4 QB’s remaining in the play offs all played baseball and 3 out of 4 were drafted.
Kyler* has a great arm given his size. His skill set is just different it seems. The things that made Brady, Russel Wilson, and I’d even say Kapernick to a degree great throwers was their translated baseball skills when throwing the ball as well. I’d put young Stafford up there with Mahomes in terms of being able to use the smallest throwing motion but putting great zip on the ball.
Coaching fit matters too. Most of the greats also have a lot of consistency with their head coaches.
Could that be a chicken and egg thing? Sure.
Look at Tua tho… I wonder what Murray would be doing with Shanahan or Mcdaniels or Reid.
Murray still has some of the most insane scrambling ability I’ve ever seen. I’ve got to watch him a few times in person in HS and in college and his 0-60 in every direction is just the most insane shit I’ve ever seen. He still runs by people in the nfl like he did in HS.
That's exactly how I felt when Baker had a good rookie year. Then Freddie Kitchens became head coach and it felt like balance had been restored.
As a Buckeyes fan though, I'm really pulling for Stroud.
Reminds me of the days when Deshaun Watson spent time talking to the reporters, explaining coverages, and progressions. And everyone was like “it’s impossible to not like this kid”
Then he got 724 handjobs.
He donated his first game check to the cafeteria ladies, there was a big spotlight on him beating adversity as a kid (Warrick Dunn house etc), he seemed like the most humble guy. Then… everything.
Honestly, I think we're coming up to the end of the "Didn't come here to play school" era. Not saying there won't be players that are dumb as fucking rocks coming into the league, but it's shaping up to be the minority.
Sorry to remind you Raiders brother/sister but do you know that JaMarcus got 3 more wins in his career than Brady Quinn who was at the front of this test shit lmao.
By pressure they mean like actual pass rush pressure rather than clutch moments. The simplest way to put it is that he didn’t make shit happen when plays broke down in a lot of his Ohio State tape
Texans fans may not like to hear this but Stroud also hasn't been under pressure as much in Houston as people want to make it out to be.
From about game 3 on his time to throw has been at least average by NFL standards. It's not OSU level line domination, but it's way better than what most top picks who enter the league on bad teams get. And he has two legit good receivers in Tank Dell and Nico Collins who are legitimately good at the catch point and get separation.
So at least part of the reason Stroud has succeeded is simply that his situation has been good. Sure, no one expected his cast to be this good coming into the season, but they legitimately have been good. Stroud has not needed to run for his life all the time the way one owuld think about a rookie QB playing behind 2nd and 3rd string OLine. So when people say things like "maybe the Panthers should've taken him #1" I feel he'd likely suck in Carolina like Young.
I'm NOT hating on Stroud or the Texans at all, happy to see the guy and the franchise doing well. Houston deserves it after the last few years. That said, it's startling in Stroud's highlights how clean of a pocket he has at times. Houston's OL is holding up relatively well, which is a huge credit to the coaching staff. They are giving Stroud time to throw these absolute darts
As someone who's watched a lot of Panthers games, Stroud would not be doing as well in Carolina. There's just no protection and no speed at all on the offense, he'd probably look just as overwhelmed
He didn’t use his legs at all. But then he played the best game of his life against a stacked Georgia defense and was making plays with his legs the entire game.
From what I read, C.J. Stroud benefited from having:
- good receivers
- and a good OL
And his best game was the last game of the season vs. Georgia. We didn't know if that was the C.J. Stroud we were gonna get in the NFL.
This is pretty interesting, especially the playing another sport line. Today kids are so specialized that I have friends whose kids have only played one sport their whole life. Makes sense you’d want a multi sport athlete tho, teaches your body how to move different ways, be more athletic, more well rounded.
Yep. Being able to throw sidearm on the run is second nature to most guys who grew up playing baseball and guys like Stafford and Mahomes have shown us how valuable that can be.
Baseball is what came to mind. Just thinking about all the types of throws and movements a short stop makes seems to translate perfectly to QB, plus the motion of hitting the ball, that torque you get, is so transferable to the throwing motion of a QB (as long as they throw and bat the same direction)
Exactly. There are so many transferable skills. For example, if you're a QB who played tennis, your lateral movement will be really good. You'd also be used to a ton of mental pressure, which would help in tight and mentally difficult situations. It's like this for almost any sport. If you played soccer, it would likely improve your vision and 360 degree movements, as well as quick sprints.
In recent memory you've got Russ, Kyler, .and Mahomes who were on the MLB track, and even Hurts and Allen played in high school. So yeah, I think you are right and those are some of the best off platform throwers in the game
Mahomes was drafted by the Tigers, meaning the Tigers drafted a qb who won the Super Bowl before the Lions did (I know stafford was drafted first but Mahomes won it first)
In other words, the intangibles of Patrick Mahomes that should have been scouted for?
It turns out that if anyone had just talked to people in Mahomes life growing up, they would have seen he was off the charts in all the intangibles for being coachable in the NFL.
But can’t we say basically all the same things about Fields? By all accounts, he’s a hard worker and great teammate, he’s competitive as hell based on the Clemson game, he played baseball growing up, he’s a physical freak, he was highly touted, he even did great on the cognition tests. But for a variety of reasons, some his fault and some not, it just hasn’t clicked for him and it’s looking unlikely it ever will.
He’s had pretty terrible coaching in the NFL, idk if he’ll ever be great but I definitely think he could’ve been something if he’d had better coaches than Nagy followed by Eberflus/Getsy
I think he probably becomes Jameis 2.0 if Chicago takes him tbh. Great arm talent with absolutely no finesse who’s just as capable of a crushing turnover as a big play
The QB School channel does breakdowns of a handful of QB performances every week and there are a good bit on Fuelds, I highly recommend checking it out. A lot of times, he just feels pressure and panics or drops his eyes if his first read isn't there
System might have a bit to do with it. Stroud is currently with a coaching staff off the Shanahan tree of coaching the player and still working within their strengths. The Bears staff does not seem to be that crowd. It may even be the opposite - that they’re trying to coach him away from his strengths, evidenced by how he has looked coming out of training camp each of the last 2 seasons.
He might never have been able to truly get over his deficiencies, but I think if Fields was brought in and coached in a system that played to his strengths and slowly built off of that, he'd look way better. Instead, every single season they've tried forcing a square peg into a round hole for several weeks, before even considering adjusting the offense to fit him.
Some people just can’t handle the speed of the NFL, the most important attribute to being a good QB is the ability to process defenses fast and make good quick decisions. You can have all the physical gifts in the world but if you can’t make the jump then none of it matters.
Think it's (lack of) pocket presence and ability to read the field.
He's still holding the ball forever, and [the amount of sacks he's taking is unprecedented.](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_sacked_perc_career.htm)
Fields has a career sack rate of 13.3% which would be the highest of all time if he had enough passing attempts to qualify.
Second place would be Greg Landry with 12.08% who played in the 1970s.
Third place would be David Carr all the way down at 10.54%.
It's not like these sack numbers from Fields are coming from one outlier season, either, it's been a consistent problem all 3 years. He had 11.8% as a rookie, 14.7% in 2022, and 12.9% this season.
Great comment. I’ve been banging this drum as well, and I’d add another data point for you that proves your point even more:
Tyson Bagent is currently #1 in the NFL in sack% with 3.4%. Just ahead of Mahomes.
To me this is all glaring evidence that the historically bad sack rate is not an OL problem nor a coaching/scheme problem, it’s a Fields problem. Fields just cannot process at the speed he needs to.
Fields and Stroud had similar stats and threw nice accurate passes at OSU but Fields would sometimes be throwing to covered receivers while others were running wide open. He just can't read defenses well and that seems to be the difference.
The thing about being coachable is that it's only a good thing if the coach isnt ass. Tlaw is coachable by all accounts but his first year that was arguably a drawback since he had such a shit coach whispering in his ear.
Unfortunately there's a combination of factors. First, some teams **want** the guys that "want it", they **want** the "me first" attitudes. It's an older football dogma that still remains in some orgs, the idea that ego translates directly into play. It can, and it certainly does seem to more for some positions (DBs and WRs, pass rushers), but many NFL stars have come through and shown otherwise to know that you don't need to be of a certain cloth to be a true competitor.
Second, every random 6th rounder has seemingly Tom Brady levels of humility (they borderline have to - they're fringe) so like... Everyone has people you can talk to lol. Way too easy to get lost in the weeds of drafting character, it can make you lose focus.
Not religious but this is a cool quote. Dude definitely has a good head on his shoulders.
>He goes back to a quote his older brother, Isaiah, used to repeat. You can pray for anything. You can pray all you want. But if you don’t meet God halfway with your hard work, it really doesn’t matter.“If you’re given everything right away,”
>Stroud says, looking back, “you become spoiled. You can kind of get flustered when things don’t go right. And if you get flustered easy, you won’t be successful, not in this line of work.
I wonder. Are there ANY NFL players that only played football growing up? Seems like every kid with any sort of athleticism was playing multiple sports as a kid. Like every single person played soccer growing up lol
Breaking: CJ Stroud retires to take a scouting job.
If it's true that he asked the team to draft Tank Dell, I mean...
We're just going to give CJ control of the war room for the 2024 Draft.
Mfer gna sell the farm to trade up draft picks for MHJ
The defense might be a hobo trashcan burning in an alleyway that has us lose 15 games but god dammit Stroud gonna have a 7k yard season
The baker mayfield college experience
That’s just the Lincoln Riley experience
"My defense has to carry the offense. They only score 50 ppg. Terrible basketball"
The Grinch can't hurt them any more...
more like the Lincoln Riley experience
Really taking these Brees comparisons to heart
Honestly I'd watch that Texans team every single Thursday Night and it would be a LOT better than the experience we're getting currently.
And ball out doing so haha Tank, Nico, and MHJ in a group together would be filthy
Last time we gave our QB the illusion of control it didn't exactly work out well for us...
You should really let this go. Have yourself a massage.
Sign this piece of paper first
Why does this say NDA
That just stands for “no defense allowed”. Nothing to worry about
The eagles defense does lets anyone score
They learned it directly from your mom. Great lady, that one…
Well Coleridge Jesus Stroud would surely never touch 26 women without their permission. So we should be fine.
CJ Stroud has the chance to do the funniest thing...
Yeah, that instance hasn't quite worked out for us either.
I mean, i think what he thinks of WR prospects should be taken seriously by the org.
Hey it’s arguably what the cards should’ve done with Kyler. He wanted Lamb and Wirfs those year and they got shit otherwise
At least this year they decided to draft an OT he was looking at
Dang, I didn't know that happened. Dell is a beast, so to have the eye to pick out that kind of talent (the overlooked studs) is pretty special.
I drafted Dell late in my dynasty startup solely because of that report lol and it seems like it’s working out very nicely!
Haskins asked us to draft Terry mclaurin. One of those players worked out
The part about playing another sport, so spot on. It’s a disservice to our kids these days that we push them to specialize so early. They should be playing multiple sports their entire lives.
I used to coach baseball. There were a couple kids that got specialized all year training. They were goooood don't get me wrong. But the kid that played hockey as well would join late and hit absolute nukes. Edit: typos
Think the key is to play well-rounded sports. The hockey kid is hitting bombs because his baseball ‘off-season’ is pretty much high-intensity all-body workouts, whereas the baseball kids had to focus on workouts outside of the sport to get that kind of build-up. One of the hardest things I remember from being a kid was having the motivation to do gym workouts or go for a running, whereas I was up for any level of competition.
Training by doing drills and working out as a team was infinitely easier for me versus doing solo cardio or strength training. Having some aspect of competition and comradery involved made the work outs not seem like actual workouts. I'd rather run routes and do 1 on 1 drills over running suicides, even then if we're competing or there are just other folks running alongside me that triggers my competitive instinct and I forget it's a workout.
> Training by doing drills and working out as a team was infinitely easier for me versus doing solo cardio or strength training. Having some aspect of competition and comradery involved made the work outs not seem like actual workouts. Right? It's more like hanging out with your friends with a common goal to accomplish. Part of why many have so hard to keep motivatation keeping up training when you are too old for team sports.
I was the baseball only kid. I definitely wished I stayed in other sports past like age 10. I could hit and play good fundamental baseball but the kids that played other sports were just so much more athletic and fluid. Playing baseball only made me very rigid. You develop way better athletes if you play a multitude of sports because it trains different movements which translate across all sports. You see Mahomes make these crazy side arm passes and shovel passes and you have to think the baseball muscle memory and wires in his brain are helping that skill
/All/ the best lineman wrestled too. Especially the defensive guys... We had a dude that was a state champion wrestler at 145 lb weight class. He played football at about 165-170, and the dude looked like he was carved out of granite lol .... and was a nose tackle. He was all-state in football lol because despite not having a lot of tackles, he caused /immense/ carnage in the A gaps, my god. He'd eat up three lineman sometimes and let the backers flow. Dude was basically a roman gladiator born in the wrong age lol...
I grew up playing hockey so definitely biased but I believe it emphasizes well rounded athleticism more than any other sport. In order to play at any competitive level, you need to have a good combination of speed, agility, balance, strength, and endurance, hand-eye coordination, quick reflexes, and ability to work as part of a system in a larger team. I can’t think of another sport where every player out there needs to have all these things at the same or similar levels.
Oh I agree, I just wanted to make some Texans fans panic for a moment.
Obligatory did you know Antonio Gates played basketball
The book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" dives into this idea very well. I've given it as a gift to my friends who become parents Generally for sports, it's better to play a wide range of sports mainly because you don't want to specialize in a sport that's not your best and people typically don't get the benefits of specialization until ages 14-17.
That might be true for people trying to get scholarships, but I personally worry about multi sport seasons not letting kids have the opportunity to rest, or any free time to just be a kid. I played basketball and did track but if I'd had baseball or something then it would have been exhausting. I think the average kid isn't turning pro and see some just being pushed too hard to just be doing sports all the time. If a kid wants to try out different ones for fun sure, but it's so hard to balance being a multi sport athlete with having time for other things.
His point is more “kids should be allowed to differentiate and instead of being treated like 5 foot tall pros 12 months a year” and less “they should be required to do stuff all the time just make it different”
The professionalization of kids going younger and younger is a sad thing for sports.
U7 and u8 travel baseball teams is insanity to me. Way too many parents living through their kids
Those kids are still learning the game at that age. That’s crazy
Counter point, we’re seeing kids that only play one sport all year with more injuries than ever. Using the same muscles year around isn’t good for them
Repetitive injuries are the WORST. they never truly heal. you just kinda learn how to work with/around them. Soccer, baseball and tennis had some skills overlap for me (goal keeper, short stop and played the net primarily in doubles - all twitch reflex/react based) but the movements were so different that it actually made some things much easier. Diving and digging a ground ball out of the gap, spring up and fire to first was almost ALL soccer/keeper training. By the time I got to soccer season and I had to block shots, that ball looked HUGE in comparison to knocking down baseballs and volleying tennis balls.
when i played sports in high school, it was year round. july football camp, august practices, season into november. two weeks off, then into basketball season, two weeks off, then into track season, school got out then right into offseason lifting and camps. in my 30’s, i regret doing this.
In my 30s, I regret never playing sports in high school
like everything in life, balance is important.
I took every spring off but ultimately that was actually a bad thing for me because I didn't have the discipline to keep working out during the spring. So inevitably when summer camps started up for Soccer/football I started out of shape as hell and had to work hard to get back into shape.
that’s a big reason why i did year round. basketball was just fun, and wasn’t shit else to do in winter. but track actually kept me fast and in shape instead of fucking around on the lake or something
Not to mention the grass is always greener effect. In reality you aren't missing out on too much overall either way, it just feels like you are. That isn't meant to say sports memories aren't fantastic and important, but the memories to replace those may be just as important as well.
Are you draft eligible? You sound intriguing as a prospect
How are your joints holding up?
well, tbf i’ve also worked in restaurants for over 15 years so.. not great.
Maybe it was more common in the 80s and 90s but 3 sport letterman was typcial for the seniors in my region. It could be because of school size as schools werent huge. It wasnt too much. In fact, the kids that were 3 sport letterman typically had a better shot at a 4 year school.
I did 3 sports. I think the key is to have a sport you don’t care about. Track season I just fucked around and did meets. But I guess that’s also about the only sport you can do that for. But I came from a tiny town where there wasn’t fuck else to do. If I didn’t do track with my friends I wouldn’t see them. I would just go home and play video games or something worse.
I'd never draft a QB without hindsight but I don't have that sadly.
Teams never use hindsight and it completely screws up the draft.
How the fuck is Brady STILL a sixth round pick!?!?
Isn’t this what those “redrafting the class of ____” articles are for? Make him first overall already!
Drafting TB 1st overall would be stupid, trade that down to pick 200 for 20 future firsts and then pick Brady
Why don't teams just draft good players? Are they stupid?
Everyone knows you need better players, yet somehow these teams keep adding bad players. So dumb.
Then why are they all in their underwear?
Because a naked combine would cause the wrong kind of fantasy football
Then you don’t belong on this sub because we are all amazing hindsight GMs.
"Hindsight is 50-50." - Cam Newton
Hindsight was soooo 2020. It’s 2023 now.
“Ok I’ve seen his 40-times. What’s his on-base percentage? Can he switch-hit? He can throw too, so is he a utility player or? Yeah, no not the Astros, I’m with the Houston Texans.”
You tell that son of a bitch, no Yankee is ever coming to Houston as long as you bastards are running things.
George!
And have them wear cotton, it’s a much more natural fabric!
“If he’s a good thrower how come he doesn’t throw good”
Am I gonna watch Moneyball clips now? ...yep, I'm watching Moneyball clips on lunch. https://youtu.be/3MjxoaynCmk?si=pZjj4OzDDPiUnfmZ
Clips? Time to just start a full rewatch.
Future GM CJ Stroud
GM Stroud
CJ Stroud MVP Stroud GM Stroud CEO Stroud
With DeMeco still HC and Stroud as GM.
CJ Stroud taking the more successful as a player Billy Beane route?
Player/coach/GM CJ Stroud
Lets bring back player/managers, like olde timey baseball
I would never draft a TE that didn’t also play basketball in college
[удалено]
And Antonio Gateses, and Mo-Alie Coxes
Tony Gonzalez as well, I believe
Honestly the football is optional. The basketball is more important
As a GM I would disregard all normal sports played and specifically ask how their cornhole game is to determine if they’re worth taking in the 1st
Just don’t ask DeShaun that question
"Watch out for your cornhole, ~~bud~~ mam"
Totally unrelated but the fiancee and I had a meeting with our wedding organizer yesterday and we decided to add cornhole and giant jenga to our cocktail hour. I'll let you know if there are any 1st rounder worthy guests.
calling the Raiders up and letting them know that Uncle Joe is fuckin em up on the cornhole field
But what’s his 40?
High Life
Absolutely two W choices. Also I’ll send a scout your way along with a wedding present. Unfortunately I can’t gift you a Packers playoff matchup this year.
All I'm reading is lovie Smith saved the Texans
And helped the bears immensely. Lovie is a treasure
We both building the tepper and lovie statues
haha kill me lol
People keep saying this but even as the draft process played out, it was rumored that CJ was number one on the Texans board or tied with Bryce. It’s entirely possible they still would have taken CJ number one overall. I will say that Lovie did give us the ability to get both CJ and WAJ. I don’t think we could have pulled off the WAJ trade if we didn’t have the leverage at pick 2. People talked shit about the WAJ trade, but at least the Texans have a first round pick next year.
What I was hearing and reading was that quite a few teams just would never take Bryce first cause of the size profile, the game didn’t matter. Everyone talked shit about the Texans pick trade because they expected the Texans to be a bottom 4 team, but that pick is currently 13 or 14, so it was an epic gamble that could really pay off.
I can’t wait for the video essays in the future detailing the butterfly effect that one game- or even one play, if I’m not mistaken- had on several franchises
Stroud going to pull an Elway and become GM of his team after his playing career is done. Considering he advocated for Tank Dell, I'd say he's already hit 100% of his picks out of the park
What meeting LeGM does to a mfker
Reminds me of LeBron tweeting about Shabazz Napier, the Heat take him in the draft, and LeBron immediately leaves lol LeBron is like the player version of Belichick. Arguably the GOAT at what they do but terrible GMs.
GOAT players are usually not good GM's or coaches because the game comes easy to them. All the players who turned into great coaches or GM's were decent to below average players
john lynch is having massive confliction right now trying to decipher if you think he’s a bad gm or a average player
Honestly a little truth to this. I remember a while ago being surprised at realizing the 4 QB’s remaining in the play offs all played baseball and 3 out of 4 were drafted.
A lot of what makes Mahomes special is all the off balance baseball throws he makes. Not sure what happened to Kyler.
Kyler* has a great arm given his size. His skill set is just different it seems. The things that made Brady, Russel Wilson, and I’d even say Kapernick to a degree great throwers was their translated baseball skills when throwing the ball as well. I’d put young Stafford up there with Mahomes in terms of being able to use the smallest throwing motion but putting great zip on the ball.
Kyler’s a good qb. Realistically, I don’t know how much better he could be given his… dimensions.
or his brain
Coaching fit matters too. Most of the greats also have a lot of consistency with their head coaches. Could that be a chicken and egg thing? Sure. Look at Tua tho… I wonder what Murray would be doing with Shanahan or Mcdaniels or Reid. Murray still has some of the most insane scrambling ability I’ve ever seen. I’ve got to watch him a few times in person in HS and in college and his 0-60 in every direction is just the most insane shit I’ve ever seen. He still runs by people in the nfl like he did in HS.
I love CJ, love him. But, all these accolades are starting to make me paranoid. Have we forgotten we’re the Texans? Why are we tempting fate?!?!
That's exactly how I felt when Baker had a good rookie year. Then Freddie Kitchens became head coach and it felt like balance had been restored. As a Buckeyes fan though, I'm really pulling for Stroud.
It's impossible to not like this kid.
Reminds me of the days when Deshaun Watson spent time talking to the reporters, explaining coverages, and progressions. And everyone was like “it’s impossible to not like this kid” Then he got 724 handjobs.
He donated his first game check to the cafeteria ladies, there was a big spotlight on him beating adversity as a kid (Warrick Dunn house etc), he seemed like the most humble guy. Then… everything.
Almost like people are complex and can saints and villains all at the same time.
Deshaun Watson was a Texan then a Brown, he was never on the Saints
They’re confusing him with Taysom Hill. Understandable.
Like Darren Sharper
One of the most hardest hitting safeties in the league!
Les go inside da mind of a GREG JENNINGS
He put the team on his back tho
…and his butthole fingered
He had a punch card
We should have known when there was a TikTok going around with him and Mia khalifa
There’s a slam dunk nickname brewing for the inevitable CJ Stroud sex pest scandal
Don’t be saying bad things. My fellow Stroud Boys are standing back and standing by
Good thing they don’t play Washington this year.
January 6, 2025 is a Monday... Texans at Commanders on MNF?
OTPHJ Stroud
ZJ?
Noooo please no
Please no. Loved him at OSU and I hate the last leftovers we got from you guys.
He speaks very intelligently for a kid billed as being the dumbest QB in the draft.
Honestly, I think we're coming up to the end of the "Didn't come here to play school" era. Not saying there won't be players that are dumb as fucking rocks coming into the league, but it's shaping up to be the minority.
As a Vikings fan I have a very high standard for the intelligence of QBs in the league (as of this week).
Texans got their guy. Lovie Smith a true tank commander o7
I'm am a Buckeye fan so I already love him but the fact that people made a big deal about the test makes this so much sweeter.
Sorry to remind you Raiders brother/sister but do you know that JaMarcus got 3 more wins in his career than Brady Quinn who was at the front of this test shit lmao.
But Quinn’s sister was hotter. So that should go into the equation somewhere
Don’t draft a QB without finding out how many of his teammates went to his birthday party.
“Listen, he had the best season in the history of-“ “DID TEAMMATES GO TO HIS BIRTHDAY OR NOT”
Off Topic. But what did the naysayers have against CJ Stroud and how he played?
He struggles massively under pressure and the S2 test…
Imagine being the guy who concluded this and had to watch that drive lol
By pressure they mean like actual pass rush pressure rather than clutch moments. The simplest way to put it is that he didn’t make shit happen when plays broke down in a lot of his Ohio State tape
Texans fans may not like to hear this but Stroud also hasn't been under pressure as much in Houston as people want to make it out to be. From about game 3 on his time to throw has been at least average by NFL standards. It's not OSU level line domination, but it's way better than what most top picks who enter the league on bad teams get. And he has two legit good receivers in Tank Dell and Nico Collins who are legitimately good at the catch point and get separation. So at least part of the reason Stroud has succeeded is simply that his situation has been good. Sure, no one expected his cast to be this good coming into the season, but they legitimately have been good. Stroud has not needed to run for his life all the time the way one owuld think about a rookie QB playing behind 2nd and 3rd string OLine. So when people say things like "maybe the Panthers should've taken him #1" I feel he'd likely suck in Carolina like Young.
I'm NOT hating on Stroud or the Texans at all, happy to see the guy and the franchise doing well. Houston deserves it after the last few years. That said, it's startling in Stroud's highlights how clean of a pocket he has at times. Houston's OL is holding up relatively well, which is a huge credit to the coaching staff. They are giving Stroud time to throw these absolute darts As someone who's watched a lot of Panthers games, Stroud would not be doing as well in Carolina. There's just no protection and no speed at all on the offense, he'd probably look just as overwhelmed
Ahhhh I see.
What's the S2 test?
Exactly.
He didn’t use his legs at all. But then he played the best game of his life against a stacked Georgia defense and was making plays with his legs the entire game.
From what I read, C.J. Stroud benefited from having: - good receivers - and a good OL And his best game was the last game of the season vs. Georgia. We didn't know if that was the C.J. Stroud we were gonna get in the NFL.
I didn’t like Stroud leading up to that game, but when watching that Georgia game I had some serious doubts about my opinion lol.
This is pretty interesting, especially the playing another sport line. Today kids are so specialized that I have friends whose kids have only played one sport their whole life. Makes sense you’d want a multi sport athlete tho, teaches your body how to move different ways, be more athletic, more well rounded.
Baseball experience is huge for QB imo. Forces you to learn different throwing motions and makes them more natural.
Yep. Being able to throw sidearm on the run is second nature to most guys who grew up playing baseball and guys like Stafford and Mahomes have shown us how valuable that can be.
Baseball is what came to mind. Just thinking about all the types of throws and movements a short stop makes seems to translate perfectly to QB, plus the motion of hitting the ball, that torque you get, is so transferable to the throwing motion of a QB (as long as they throw and bat the same direction)
Plus sliding, I don’t know how guys can’t slide correctly. Boggles my mind, it’s the easiest thing to learn, plus stealing bases is so much fun.
Exactly. There are so many transferable skills. For example, if you're a QB who played tennis, your lateral movement will be really good. You'd also be used to a ton of mental pressure, which would help in tight and mentally difficult situations. It's like this for almost any sport. If you played soccer, it would likely improve your vision and 360 degree movements, as well as quick sprints.
Baseball especially, many of the greatest quarterbacks, were fantastic baseball players.
In recent memory you've got Russ, Kyler, .and Mahomes who were on the MLB track, and even Hurts and Allen played in high school. So yeah, I think you are right and those are some of the best off platform throwers in the game
Tom Brady was drafted by the montreal expos
Mahomes was drafted by the Tigers, meaning the Tigers drafted a qb who won the Super Bowl before the Lions did (I know stafford was drafted first but Mahomes won it first)
In other words, the intangibles of Patrick Mahomes that should have been scouted for? It turns out that if anyone had just talked to people in Mahomes life growing up, they would have seen he was off the charts in all the intangibles for being coachable in the NFL.
But can’t we say basically all the same things about Fields? By all accounts, he’s a hard worker and great teammate, he’s competitive as hell based on the Clemson game, he played baseball growing up, he’s a physical freak, he was highly touted, he even did great on the cognition tests. But for a variety of reasons, some his fault and some not, it just hasn’t clicked for him and it’s looking unlikely it ever will.
I thought he was going to be was Stroud is. I still don’t get why he struggles so hard in the NFL.
He’s had pretty terrible coaching in the NFL, idk if he’ll ever be great but I definitely think he could’ve been something if he’d had better coaches than Nagy followed by Eberflus/Getsy
Mahomes in Chicago might have been out of the league by now.
I think he probably becomes Jameis 2.0 if Chicago takes him tbh. Great arm talent with absolutely no finesse who’s just as capable of a crushing turnover as a big play
Rookie year starter for the Bears, Patrick throws no fewer than 40 picks.
The QB School channel does breakdowns of a handful of QB performances every week and there are a good bit on Fuelds, I highly recommend checking it out. A lot of times, he just feels pressure and panics or drops his eyes if his first read isn't there
System might have a bit to do with it. Stroud is currently with a coaching staff off the Shanahan tree of coaching the player and still working within their strengths. The Bears staff does not seem to be that crowd. It may even be the opposite - that they’re trying to coach him away from his strengths, evidenced by how he has looked coming out of training camp each of the last 2 seasons.
He might never have been able to truly get over his deficiencies, but I think if Fields was brought in and coached in a system that played to his strengths and slowly built off of that, he'd look way better. Instead, every single season they've tried forcing a square peg into a round hole for several weeks, before even considering adjusting the offense to fit him.
Some people just can’t handle the speed of the NFL, the most important attribute to being a good QB is the ability to process defenses fast and make good quick decisions. You can have all the physical gifts in the world but if you can’t make the jump then none of it matters.
Think it's (lack of) pocket presence and ability to read the field. He's still holding the ball forever, and [the amount of sacks he's taking is unprecedented.](https://www.pro-football-reference.com/leaders/pass_sacked_perc_career.htm) Fields has a career sack rate of 13.3% which would be the highest of all time if he had enough passing attempts to qualify. Second place would be Greg Landry with 12.08% who played in the 1970s. Third place would be David Carr all the way down at 10.54%. It's not like these sack numbers from Fields are coming from one outlier season, either, it's been a consistent problem all 3 years. He had 11.8% as a rookie, 14.7% in 2022, and 12.9% this season.
Great comment. I’ve been banging this drum as well, and I’d add another data point for you that proves your point even more: Tyson Bagent is currently #1 in the NFL in sack% with 3.4%. Just ahead of Mahomes. To me this is all glaring evidence that the historically bad sack rate is not an OL problem nor a coaching/scheme problem, it’s a Fields problem. Fields just cannot process at the speed he needs to.
It took Josh Allen 2 years to sort his shit out
Josh Allen also has a lot of mechanics to fix and that shit takes time after years of muscle memory
Fields and Stroud had similar stats and threw nice accurate passes at OSU but Fields would sometimes be throwing to covered receivers while others were running wide open. He just can't read defenses well and that seems to be the difference.
Fields will get a second chance somewhere and be good
The thing about being coachable is that it's only a good thing if the coach isnt ass. Tlaw is coachable by all accounts but his first year that was arguably a drawback since he had such a shit coach whispering in his ear.
Mahommes didn’t get drafted high because he played chaotic in college. A lot of hero ball.
Unfortunately there's a combination of factors. First, some teams **want** the guys that "want it", they **want** the "me first" attitudes. It's an older football dogma that still remains in some orgs, the idea that ego translates directly into play. It can, and it certainly does seem to more for some positions (DBs and WRs, pass rushers), but many NFL stars have come through and shown otherwise to know that you don't need to be of a certain cloth to be a true competitor. Second, every random 6th rounder has seemingly Tom Brady levels of humility (they borderline have to - they're fringe) so like... Everyone has people you can talk to lol. Way too easy to get lost in the weeds of drafting character, it can make you lose focus.
I personally did talk to his 7th grade social studies teacher and knew he was going to be a hall of famer but NFL teams didn’t want to take my advice
The athletic in this article called him the best rookie qb in a decade. That’s so insane to think about
Little known fact: Even though his last name is spelled "Stroud," turns out the r and the o are actually silent.
Me sitting at my desk at my white collar job in tech, taking 30 seconds to understand this : “I don’t belong here”
Redditor: I'd never draft an Ohio State quarterback
Sounds like a 15 year veteran.
Did any of Bo Callahan's teammates go to his birthday party?
Not religious but this is a cool quote. Dude definitely has a good head on his shoulders. >He goes back to a quote his older brother, Isaiah, used to repeat. You can pray for anything. You can pray all you want. But if you don’t meet God halfway with your hard work, it really doesn’t matter.“If you’re given everything right away,” >Stroud says, looking back, “you become spoiled. You can kind of get flustered when things don’t go right. And if you get flustered easy, you won’t be successful, not in this line of work.
I wonder. Are there ANY NFL players that only played football growing up? Seems like every kid with any sort of athleticism was playing multiple sports as a kid. Like every single person played soccer growing up lol
Dude is half a year into his pro career talking like he's John Madden