if they extend Stroud for anything more than a ham sandwich and a roadmap they will have overpaid. I am a lifelong Raiders fan and if given the choice between keeping Geno Smith or bringing Stroud in I am keeping Geno

CJ's 5th year option is $40 million or so. Do they exercise that in April?

James Harden was embarrassed for CJ for those two playoff performances, and he's a man that knows a thing or two about postseason turnovers and being wildly inaccurate with the ball.

JT05 said:

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CJ's 5th year option is $40 million or so. Do they exercise that in April?

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40 million? yikes was thinking it would be closer to 20

that is a brutal number

MookieBlaylock said:

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JT05 said:

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CJ's 5th year option is $40 million or so. Do they exercise that in April?

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40 million? yikes was thinking it would be closer to 20

that is a brutal number

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Chrome AI says the Texans have until after the 2026 season to decide whether to exercise their fifth-year option for 2027, which is expected to be a pivotal decision for the team.

If true, surely they wait …?

I thought it was $25M and, if so, you do it. That will be very cheap for a QB in two years.

Here is the link to the $40 million figure I referenced. I would assume it's in this neighborhood. May 1st, 2026 is the deadline for CJs 5th year option.

https://www.spotrac.com/news/_/id/3228/2026-financials-houston-texans

CharleyKerfeld said:

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Comparing CJ to David Carr is like people who think Christian Walker is as bad 1B for the Astros as Jose Abreu.

David Carr is the worst player we've ever had and one of the worst players ever. Stroud has talent, he just is broken somewhere inside. Carr's single season high in touchdowns was 16 1 a game. His rookie year he got sacked 76 times and fumbled 21 times. He probably took away 20-30 touchdowns from Andre Johnson's career

Just to clear, CJ needs to go regardless. The team had nothing to lose his first year and they had a nice stretch of fun comebacks and he looked great. But he's definitely regressing. 23-5 (TD/INT) to 20-12 to 19-8. Injuries to your WRs suck, but the other guys can catch if you throw it to them. If you're not going to get rid of him, bring in a vet and/or draft a rookie and make it an closed-door open competition for the job.

The sticking with our guy line is BS. If our left tackle had given up 4 sacks in a half, he'd have been pulled. if a DB got called for 4 red zone pass intereference calls he would have been pulled. Davis Mills should have been given a couple of series to see what he could have done.

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i think, and anyone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, what drives the david carr comparison is less about the players in a 1:1 than it is about the issues that they each had that ultimately curbed their potential to the extent they're unable to do their job. two high draft picks with expectations of being franchise players, both with some fair questions but with bodies of work in college that proved at least at some level, they could at some point be effective qbs. carr was clearly the better athlete of the two but neither were going to be held back by physical tools.

both guys got the job day 1 despite the rosters around them having issues. stroud obviously had much more early success but carr wasn't terrible out the gate all things considered. he at least played well enough that there was a feeling that he might just be the guy. the main thing here is that initially, neither showed significant signs of the issues that would be their undoing until they had some time in the league.

there's obviously no way to prove the why, but i don't think you'll get many people arguing that the early beatings each player took from nfl defenses didn't take their toll. such is the gamble putting your guy out there before you get him adequate blocking. so next thing you know, both qbs became skittish in the pocket, began focusing on the pass rush and feeling it whether it was actually there or not. with so much attention being paid to the rush, it's going to take that much more time to process and execute the play. at this point they sort of guaranteed that even fixing the o lines wouldn't help to the extent it should because they're holding the ball for an amount of time that's unreasonable to expect blocking to hold up (to an extent i think that's where we are now with most of the o line, other than at center, they're better than numbers might suggest). and even though each qb would spend more time processing things in live action, the decision making got worse presumably due to their attention to the pass rush becoming a nagging, inescapable habit they each developed. i imagine it's hard enough to go through your reads against sophisticated coverages, but i would think its almost impossible when you're so shell shocked that your eyes are constantly back and forth from the reads to frantically looking for the defensive end in fear. so pocket presence became non existent, in fact you could almost feel the chaos in their heads by just watching them navigate the pocket, which lead to regular things like running out bounds behind the line of scrimmage (carr) and spinning and rolling unnecessarily right into the path of a defender (stroud). i'm sure there's tons more examples of other bad habits they developed from all this but you get the idea. it becomes sort of a feedback loop of bad habits

to be fair you could argue neither of these guys would have worked out anyway, as they each had at least one notable potential red flag pre draft- carr being a jeff tedford system qb from a smaller program, cj with his supposed failure of that test that predicts potential for quick decision making. i don't necessarily agree that either was doomed by those things, but i at least understand the argument on that basis. as far as i can tell though, their big issues happened to them after being in the league, which means its a psychological/mental problem in all likelihood, and you just don't see psychological stuff like this resolved at this level very often, that generally requires time and patience and all that other stuff that nobody has for you in the nfl. maybe it's not fair comparing cj to carr, but just like was the case when carr showed these issues, im afraid cj's career as an effective starting qb is over with

it is funny to google the Ohio State QB malaise in the NFL

there are so many articles that said Stroud would reverse the trend...whoops

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and as another poster mentioned...football I.Q. appears to be an issue

there are also articles that dismissed Stroud's low S2 score

So stroud had a really good pr team?

Charlie Becker is going to end up a patriot and wreck havoc for 10 years

Mr.Bond said:

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Charlie Becker is going to end up a patriot and wreck havoc for 10 years

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*wreak

ruxin98 said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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Charlie Becker is going to end up a patriot and wreck havoc for 10 years

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*wreak

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thank you professor

saleh to Tennessee

Him v Coen twice a year will be great.

yep, looking for a defensive-minded coach to develop a young QB

usually not a good combination

The Jets have been overcorrecting with their head coach hires since Rex Ryan left in 2014.

Their last 5 coaches are a combined 59-122. The "best" of them is Todd Bowles, who went 24-40.

Since the game I haven't seen, heard, or read anyone in the media coming to CJ's defense, which is justifiable given what he did in two games. Like most here I'm off the CJ bandwagon but I doubt Houston does anything this offseason but pick up his 5th year option. They're going to have to throw money at every decent offensive linemen available in free agency to protect him and bring in a starting RB I'd guess as well.

One theory about Stroud that makes sense is the concussions he's taken over the last couple of seasons have done a number on him. He missed several games each of the last two seasons so they weren't minor, they were significant. He might be so scared of getting hit that he just can't function under pressure.

I was listening to Lance yesterday on 610. He made a point that the more I think about is right. CJ did this in college and in the pros so far. When it's going good, he plays unbelievable. But when there's adversity and things don't go well at the beginning of the game, it snowballs. He plays unbelievable in a negative sort of way.

Which shows he's a mentally weak football player. And I doubt this is something that will ever change because he hasn't shown it will at any time in college or the pros.

Does anyone know of a time CJ played bad in the first half of a game and came back and played great in the second half?

I can't think of one, but maybe there's one out there.

Max Power said:

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Since the game I haven't seen, heard, or read anyone in the media coming to CJ's defense, which is justifiable given what he did in two games. Like most here I'm off the CJ bandwagon but I doubt Houston does anything this offseason but pick up his 5th year option. They're going to have to throw money at every decent offensive linemen available in free agency to protect him and bring in a starting RB I'd guess as well.

One theory about Stroud that makes sense is the concussions he's taken over the last couple of seasons have done a number on him. He missed several games each of the last two seasons so they weren't minor, they were significant. He might be so scared of getting hit that he just can't function under pressure.

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Picking up his 5th year option only locks us into $27 million. So I could see us doing that, and then if he doesn't improve next year bring in a vet to push him during that 5th year. My biggest concern is that the Texans front office gets tricky and out thinks themselves by deciding to extend CJ now because he'll come at a discount compared to if we wait and he recovers his rookie year level of play.

W said:

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yep, looking for a defensive-minded coach to develop a young QB

usually not a good combination

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Ask us how we know

This was a pretty good overall rant on the end of the season. Worth a listen if you have the time.

gougler08 said:

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Mr.Bond said:

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saleh to Tennessee

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I don't get the love for Saleh, was bad with the Jets and his defense got shredded in games that mattered this year

So I'll take that as a positive for us

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In fairness, the Jets job has been a black hole for coaches for some time, and SF had massive injuries all season, especially on the defensive side.

I think this can be an OK hire for them, but the Titans seem somewhat dysfunctional as an organization at this point anyway so not too worried about them for a while.

ruxin98 said:

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In fairness, the Jets job has been a black hole for coaches for some time, and SF had massive injuries all season, especially on the defensive side.

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Yep, I feel bad for Aaron Glenn that that had to be his first HC job.