- 2 days ago
Clint Stoerner is noticing something odd about the reps C.J. Stroud is taking at training camp. Load management, or something deeper?
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00:00It's been a little up and down. It's been, as you would expect, the defense is well ahead of the offense.
00:09In the middle of an installation of a new offense, which is terminology and everything is completely new to the stars.
00:16And it's been a little bit of a struggle for the offense.
00:20There's a lot of youth on the offense.
00:22There's also been a three or four day, three or four practice run that was an acclimation period that was more of like a let's get everybody in shape.
00:35Let's get everybody, let's do some accelerated walkthrough stuff.
00:38We're not going to wear pads.
00:39One of those was actually a walkthrough, like a legit walkthrough.
00:43We're beyond that.
00:44I think practice five and six is something.
00:46They've had pads on.
00:47The physicality's been turned up.
00:48It's a real practice.
00:49They're going an hour and 45 minutes.
00:51It seems like they're working into a little bit more real NFL training camp situation here, y'all.
00:58And I'm telling you, something's not right with C.J. Stroud.
01:03Now, after D'Amico Ryan's spiel yesterday to the media about people trying to get, you know, tell everybody what's wrong and diagnose injuries.
01:11I'm not trying to do that.
01:12I don't know what in the hell is wrong or not wrong with C.J. Stroud.
01:17Something's not right with C.J. Stroud.
01:19There's too many coincidences that are just one after another here to ignore them, in my opinion.
01:25You take it for what it's worth, but ignoring them is not an option for me, right?
01:30And I'm going to lay it out here for you, Ron.
01:32I'm listening.
01:33The quarterback rotation since they've started camp has been odd to me.
01:38It's never made sense.
01:39I've always just chalked it up to, hey, man, it's an acclimation period.
01:44It's a ramp-up period.
01:45It's that phase of camp.
01:46This is an encamp.
01:49Who am I to say that there's something wrong, right?
01:53But there's four quarterbacks getting reps, and they're split.
01:57You know, from the beginning, they've been split up pretty evenly.
02:00And that's always been strange to me.
02:04I thought that would change at some point.
02:06And then you go to practice today, and it never stopped.
02:09It was always a true rotation of four quarterbacks, pretty even rotation of four quarterbacks.
02:14And today, there were two extended team periods and one seven-on-seven period, I believe.
02:19And I think Davis Mills got more reps than C.J. Stroud did, for those that were counting.
02:24I think C.J. Stroud would go, like, he went two reps in seven-on-seven, one of them which he threw a pick.
02:32And then, boom, he's out of practice and the next up in the rotation, right?
02:37The rotation has been strange.
02:40You got Graham Mertz and Keaton Slovic getting more or as many reps as C.J. Stroud, right?
02:47That's always been odd to me.
02:48Now that we're seven days, six practices in, it's becoming more and more odd to me.
02:55Right?
02:55You go back to practice number three, that was a walkthrough.
02:58C.J.'s throwing all the short passes, as many as he can, underhanded.
03:01Not a big deal by itself, but if you start kind of connecting these dots,
03:05it seems like there's a little something going on there that could be a little residual left over
03:11from the OTA arm-shoulder situation, right?
03:14And then I go to practice today, and I'm watching the quarterbacks during the special teams periods.
03:18And at one point, all the quarterbacks are throwing routes.
03:23They're throwing to spots, right?
03:25C.J. Stroud, he's watching a little bit of film, then he puts that down,
03:31and he comes over and kind of watches special teams practice.
03:33He's not throwing with the other quarterbacks, all right?
03:37And I don't know about y'all, but all I can do is I can tell you I've been to a lot of Texans practice,
03:43and if C.J. Stroud has an opportunity to throw the football, he throws the football.
03:47If C.J. Stroud has a chance to work any kind of rep or discuss any kind of action
03:52or any kind of scheme that's going on, he discusses it.
03:55He didn't do that in those moments today where the special teams was going on.
04:01Something's just a little bit off there.
04:03And here's what really, Ron, for me, that made me feel comfortable about this opinion.
04:10Again, we're in the phase of camp, guys, where we're six practices in, two of which were full pads, okay?
04:20We're in the phase of camp where C.J. Stroud should be getting more and more reps,
04:24and he damn sure should be getting more reps than Davis Mills.
04:27And as I said earlier, Davis Mills is getting as many, if not at times, more reps than C.J. Stroud, right?
04:35And I'll even go a step further, right, because some people may not understand the phase of camp I'm talking about, right?
04:41Whether it's because the Texans are installing a new offense and C.J. Stroud needs those reps,
04:48or it's that they are installing a new offense and it's not running smooth,
04:54and out of frustration, C.J. Stroud says, hey, enough's enough.
04:58I'm demanding more reps.
04:59I need more reps with my guys.
05:01I got to get this thing figured out.
05:02The task has been laid at my feet to right this thing and get this offense to do it.
05:10In that moment, I watched Davis Mills get four reps to C.J. Stroud's two reps in a team period today.
05:18There's no Nick Kaley wants this or that.
05:22D'Amico Rhines wants this or that.
05:24We want to look at this four-string quarterback.
05:26Nick Casario wants this or that.
05:27There's no scenario where that makes sense other than something's going on with C.J. Stroud.
05:35I'm not telling you that it's the shoulder.
05:36I'm not saying that it's anything more than maybe a load management issue,
05:39but there's something going on that's keeping C.J. Stroud from going,
05:43no, y'all back y'all's ass up.
05:45Davis Mills who?
05:45No, I got to get these right.
05:47Offensive line, they jumped three or four times today, false starts, right?
05:52That's something C.J. Stroud grabs a bull by the horn and says,
05:55no, we got to get this right, guys.
05:56But instead, he's getting two reps and getting out, right?
06:00Just keep an eye on it.
06:01I'm warning you.
06:02I'm letting you know that there's something off about C.J. Stroud right now,
06:06and I can't put my finger on it.
06:08Listen, I'm not going to say that what you just laid out isn't something that is normal, right?
06:22You have obviously lived it and been a quarterback in the league
06:27and kind of know how reps are usually distributed.
06:31And as somebody who has covered the league for over a decade
06:35and been at training camps and been at multiple training camps for multiple teams,
06:41I think that is unusual.
06:43In the times of starters I've watched,
06:47from Alex Deshaun Watson to Tyrod Taylor to Davis Mills to now C.J. Stroud,
06:57they usually get more reps than that.
07:01And now I don't know what they're doing.
07:04I would imagine, as you said at the end, maybe it is load managing
07:08and just clearly there was something with the shoulder
07:12that they wanted to stay away from during OTAs,
07:15and maybe this is just a continued process in that.
07:22But the thing that makes me feel like it's not really extremely alarming, Clint,
07:28is, and I've talked to you about this,
07:31and you can tell the people from what you see from your eyes,
07:34it does not appear that he's throwing the ball differently.
07:37It doesn't appear that he doesn't have the same zip on it.
07:43It doesn't appear like he is nursing an injury and he looks different, right?
07:51And it may just be the amount of throws they're trying to hold down.
07:56That's my only other thing.
07:58If it looked like he was throwing differently or something,
08:00I think that would be a little bit alarming.
08:02But I am just – I'm hopeful for C.J. and the Texans
08:06and believing that maybe this is just a precaution to slow things down.
08:11Yeah, look, Ron, again, I can't put my finger on it.
08:15There's nothing that C.J. Stroud has done from a I'm in the game,
08:20I'm throwing the football right now.
08:22There's no holding the shoulder.
08:23There's no hold back.
08:29Now, I've seen C.J. Stroud, I don't think at all,
08:32throw the ball down the field.
08:34I would say the most stress I've seen put on his arm
08:36is when he scrambled and threw what would have been
08:39or should have been a pick to Kalen Bullock.
08:42I think that was probably the most torque that I saw put on his arm.
08:46But we haven't seen him throw the ball down the field much at all,
08:49if any, at this point in time.
08:51I don't know if that's by design.
08:52I have no idea.
08:54But, again, I can't put my finger on it.
08:57All I can tell you is what we're watching
08:59and what we've now watched for six practices is not normal.
09:07I would agree with that.
09:09I would be willing to bet you right now a house note
09:12that C.J. Stroud has taken fewer reps than any quarterback in the NFL,
09:22starting quarterback.
09:23Any starting quarterback in the NFL that's healthy in camp,
09:25I'd be willing to bet you that C.J. Stroud has taken fewer snaps.
09:29When it comes to team periods, when it comes to seven-on-sevens,
09:33when it comes, it's heavy run to begin with,
09:35which I get the emphasis on the run.
09:38But the number of overall reps and the number of balls that are thrown
09:42is extremely, extremely low.
09:46And I just can't believe at this point in camp that Keaton Slovic getting reps
09:53is anywhere remotely close to as important as C.J. Stroud getting reps in his new offense.
09:58So, I'm telling you, I don't know what it is.
10:02I'm not trying to start an uproar.
10:03I can't put my finger on it.
10:05There's nothing.
10:06C.J.'s ball is coming off his hand.
10:08I can't find something not right about seven right now.
10:12One thing that I'm seeing across the text line,
10:15could this be a thought of this is maybe the way that Nick Kaley wants to get everybody similar reps,
10:24how he wants to install the offense with these quarterbacks?
10:27Would that be something that could be explainable,
10:31this is just the way he does things?
10:32No, I mean, no, not at all.
10:33I mean, I wouldn't think so.
10:35I mean, anything's possible.
10:36Anything is possible.
10:37But, no, I would not think so.
10:40Look, there is – the only thing that would make sense to me right now
10:46is if they came out and said, hey, we're load managing, there's some soreness,
10:50and we're just trying to manage it through camp as much as we can early on and not overdo it.
10:55That's the only thing.
10:56There's no advantage to, again, a four-string quarterback getting as many reps
11:02as your starting quarterback a week into training camp.
11:05There's no – I mean, I can tell you, I don't know a lot about a lot,
11:08but I know a lot about being a third and four-string quarterback in the league.
11:11There were camps where I'd go a week and throw five balls.
11:15I mean, these guys are whipping this thing around the park left and right
11:19just as much as CJ and just as much as Davis Mills.
11:22So, it's – I don't think there's any justifying it by Nick Kaley wants to install this way.
11:30I'm telling you, it's unorthodox.
11:33I'm telling you, it's not normal.
11:37And a starting quarterback getting this few reps in team activities, seven-on-seven activities,
11:43you're not going to be able to convince me that there's not something going on there.
11:51In a brand-new offense.
11:53Yes, yes, and that's the biggest part.
11:55In a brand-new offense against a defense that's causing you fit
11:58so it screws up your look half the time.
11:59It's not like you're going out there and getting great looks when you do go team.
12:03Hell, half of the reps are – you're running for your life
12:05because Will Anderson and Daniil Hunter are so damn good.
12:07So, yeah, man, I would – I just encourage to keep your eye on it
12:14and see what – kind of how this thing unfolds as they get into the media camp
12:19because you're fixing to get into the media camp where, I mean, hell,
12:23he should be getting 80% of the reps.
12:25I mean, your third- and fourth-string quarterback don't see the field
12:28unless it's scout team, right?
12:30I mean, that's what you're getting into.
12:32And so – and I'll be honest with you, Ron, the – I've noticed it multiple times,
12:41but the CJ – his actions during special teams periods have been different as well.
12:48Like, we talked about this earlier.
12:50I've watched a lot of CJ Stroud since he's been a pro.
12:53CJ Stroud is – if a ball is in the air anywhere,
12:57CJ Stroud is in the middle of it throwing that sucker, right?
13:00CJ's letting it rip.
13:01CJ's staying after getting extra work.
13:03CJ is getting the throws in.
13:05That's a different approach right now with CJ Stroud.
13:08And I can't help – but that's not something a quarterback just decides,
13:10well, if it's year three, let me save my arm.
13:14That is – that's a – there's a reason behind that.
13:17I don't know what it is, but there's a reason behind that.
13:19We'll see.
13:20We'll see down the road.
13:21Hopefully it's nothing.
13:22I got – I'm hearing from a lot of people that listen talking about,
13:24damn, I hope you're wrong.
13:25Hey, I do too.
13:26I hope I'm dead-ass wrong.
13:29It seems like there's a little something going on there.
13:31We'll see.
13:32Yeah.
13:32I do think if it was very – if it was anything threatening,
13:37I don't think he'd be out there or he'd be doing handoffs like he was doing in OTA.
13:43Yeah.
13:43No way, shape, or form do I think D'Amico, Nick,
13:46and the training staff is pushing him out there knowing that he's pushing the limit.
13:51I just think there's something – I think there's something –
13:55something not right, something off.
13:56I don't know what it is, but I think there's something there.
13:59Yeah.
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