CJ Stroud has already earned a spot on the Texans roster, but getting there required a lot of hardship and unfavorable circumstances. Recently, the quarterback shared one of those in an interview.
Nicknamed ‘Cool Breeze’, he was taken by the Texans with the No. 2 overall pick in the first round, making him the second quarterback taken after Bryce Young of Alabama by the Carolina Panthers.
What did CJ Stroud experience during his time at Ohio State that hurt him?
The quarterback discussed a problem with his time at Ohio State in a pre-draft interview with the Houston sports podcast “Beltway Boyz.” The quarterback was reminded of the time his previous team introduced Quinn Ewers as their starting quarterback, despite the star player leading Ohio State to 21 victories out of a possible 25.
CJS claims that by doing this, they minimized his importance and contribution to the team, leaving a lasting negative impact on him and making it difficult for him to move on.
Cj stroud talking about why he has a chip on his shoulder and how he felt disrespected when ohio st brought quinn ewers in 2 weeks before his first game. pic.twitter.com/XHIfHADIJy
— BELTWAY BOYZ (@beltwayboyz) May 8, 2023
“They brought someone else in — Quinn Ewers, the Texas quarterback. He was the No. 1 player, I think, ever ranked out of high school. They brought him in like a week into fall camp, which is training camp for us. I kind of felt disrespected. I didn’t like that,” Stroud said.
A Heisman finalist twice, the second-ranked pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class had a successful career as the starting quarterback at Ohio State. Being the only starting quarterback in the state to ever pass for more than 500 yards in a game, he also left a legacy for his junior player to follow.
The legendary athlete averaged 369.9 passing yards per game, shattering the previous mark of 345.1 set by Dwayne Haskins in 2018.
Following a record-breaking career, the 21-year-old is now attempting to establish his value with the Texans as well. Despite how much this incident hurt him, he could still use the incident as motivation to work hard and disprove the Ohio State coaches’ judgment.
