C.J. Stroud is Not Normal.

folks I apologize in advance for the curse that I'm about to put on CJ Stroud but I can't wait any longer okay it's been three weeks I've held it in for as long as I could but I cannot go another day without talking about how good CJ Stroud is he is playing out of his mind right now the offensive line was missing four starters not one or two four because top two receivers are Nico Collins and tank Dell who himself is a rookie he is a first time head coach a first-time play caller at OC the injury report looked like a CVS receipt like 10 days into the season and yet CJ Stroud somehow is the best quarterback in the entire NFL on third down so far this year what the [ __ ] is this kid made of if we're looking at just third Downs the money Downs as coaches call them Stroud is number one in the NFL in passer rating at a staggering 126.7 he is number one in first downs converted at 22. he is number one in adjusted completion percentage which factors in drops at a ridiculous 88.9 percent he's first in yards at 456 and third in yards per attempt at 9.5 only behind Jalen hurts and Patrick Mahomes he's first in touchdowns on third down again with three and has no picks at all on the season those are all crazy numbers for anybody let alone a rookie who's only started in three games and to do all that with such a banged up offensive line and a brand new Young coaching staff I just don't really have words for it he's been incredible and watching him on tape you really only need to get through a couple quarters before you can easily see the traits that allowed him to put up those stats in the first place Poise anticipation and accuracy let's start first with poi this is a third and seven against the Colts back in week two India is showing possible man coverage here so Stroud sends Robert Woods on a motion check to try to get a better idea of what he's seeing and if there might be any sort of rotations and then suddenly all hell breaks loose the ball is snapped Low by backup center Jared Patterson so Stroud has to take his eyes off the defense to pick up the ball and that same defense is now hauling ass to get into a cover 2 look out of nowhere with his boundary side safety running to play a deep half Zone while the corner steps down to play the flat again Stroud cannot see this coverage that they're getting into post Snap so he has to have incredible reaction time and processing ability to pick this ball up peek at the defense and see how everything's changed recognize the space that he knows Woods is about to run into and then he has to have the presence of mind to throw a dart extremely low into that throwing window so that he can protect Woods into the contact that he was about to receive if you look at the end zone angle and if you can imagine Stroud throwing this ball High and late where Woods would have to go up and extend for it that's a rib shot waiting to happen or maybe even worse it would be the definition of a hospital ball and Stroud knows that so he's intentionally putting this one just inches off the deck so that Woods can go low protect his ribs and his head by rolling into the catch away from that hook Zone Defender and avoiding a serious Collision the Poise that he had to read out that defense find that space and make a consciously safe throw after a bad snap all to move the chains you just don't see a lot of Veteran quarterbacks do this let alone guys in their first year this is a rare rare play for a rookie quarterback to make here's another great example of his anticipation and accuracy to convert on another third and eight from the same game Houston is in a Four Strong look and the Colts are responding with a really interesting coverage that I didn't recognize at first myself so I asked coach Bass about it and this is what Nick Saban calls Seahawk to my knowledge it's a variation of quarters where you've got the boundary side safety coming down to essentially bracket the iso receiver to the boundary and meanwhile the field side safety is supposed to be bracketing whoever goes vertical between number two and number three the outside corner is in man the slot corner is also in man and he's running with this shallow route from Brevin Jordan and then on this motion from the running back you get both linebackers bumping out so Zaire Franklin is handling the back end space as a potential fast threat to the flat which of course then leaves EJ's speed their other inside linebacker matched up on Robert Woods and he's carrying him down the field while fully expecting help from that safety now that same safety seems to be playing head up here on woods and not bracketing this route from a wider leverage which to me means that the safety believes there is no Universe where Stroud is going to uncork a throw to an outbreaking route from the far hash to the number three no less because that would just be a ludicrous throw and yet that's exactly what Stroud is about to do by the time he hit the back of his drop he saw this matchup he knows that Woods has leverage and he has a speed advantage over well EJ speed and so Stroud knew that he was going to rip this throw and rip it he did by the way if you have a quarterback that has this kind of arm talent and this kind of accuracy and anticipation you can get away with this kind of play call is it extremely arrogant yeah of course it is but that's the point if your quarterback can do it go ahead and be arrogant let him rip that throw from the far hash and convert a third and long let him prove to the defense that he can do it I mean why even get a Ferrari if you're not going to take it to the track I've got another rocket here from the far hash to show you by the way speaking of big boy throws and this one might be even better because Stroud not only showed off his arm but he did so from a really tight pocket this concept is called Z strike bench off of Max protection which is a staple of the Shanahan coaching tree when it comes to deep play action Concepts and the progression here is first of the strike route from Nico Collins and then to the bench route from again Robert Woods Stroud quickly identified this Jags linebacker undercutting Collins as a hook Zone dropper and immediately shifted his eyes to woods and that bench route as he should but again this route takes a long time to develop he has to hold on to this ball just a few more ticks until he can let it go with proper timing but that pocket in front of him is collapsing a lot sooner than that to fix that problem watch him just subtly shift and weave his way around that interior pressure never taking his eyes off the field never feeling bothered whatsoever and then with very little space around him he lets this ball go with great timing and what a ball it was by the way I mean this is perfect placement tons of gas on it so it gets there in a hurry you just could not ask for more from any quarterback here to throw this kind of ball that well while the pocket is tightening all around him it's just perfection and honestly that's what CJ Stroud has been on crucial downs and distances all season long so far Perfection one thing really quick by the way before I show the last couple plays that absolutely had my jaw on the floor these production days where I'm shooting episodes like this one can be tiresome to say the least I'm recording this episode I recorded a Chargers episode today um I'm still working on a whole bunch of stuff for the NFL because they just gifted me all this all 22 from like 2002 to 2008 and they're like here make something with this so I'm working on stuff for that I've got podcasts I've got live streams to prep for there's a lot going on today and so I didn't have time to make myself lunch I didn't have time to go to the grocery store I barely have time to just feed myself and so honestly it's production days like this one that I am thankful that I work with Factor because they kind of make my job possible in a way every single Monday and Tuesday which are my heaviest recording days that's when I have to do most of my stuff I might get like 15 minutes max for lunch and then I have to get back to working and I'll probably go until like 10 o'clock on both these nights so I have to eat something quickly and I have to eat something that will actually satiate me and so all these Factory meals in my fridge that heat up in two minutes and are real honest to God food are probably the most clutch things that I have in my kitchen like I'm not just shoveling processed TV dinners down my throat here this is real food made with real ingredients so it actually fills me up and obviously it tastes great too I mean you could just look at the website these recipes speak for themselves like I don't really have to to sell these super hard because you can just look at them and know that they taste good and they do I've I've eaten most of them at this point so if you're looking for quick food options to get you through a busy day or just an apocalyptic production day like I tend to have early in the week but you also want to eat something that you're actually going to like I do think that factor is definitely worth giving a try and if you do want to try it out by the way just to see if it's going to be useful for you like it is for me you can use my promo code by heading to factor75.com or click the link below and use promo code filmroom 50 to get 50 off your first Factor box again that is a 50 discount on your first box at factor75.com with promo code filmroom thank you to factor for sponsoring this week's show and with that let's get back to watching CJ Stroud do ridiculous things I have one more play here from week two that I just could not do this episode without including because it's just so awesome we've talked about Poise and timing and accuracy and arm strength but what about eye discipline that's something that a lot of young quarterbacks don't have but Stroud does the play call here is your standard boilerplate dagger concept against quarters coverage from the Colts so you've got the seam route running up the middle as a clear out to draw both safeties with the Dig route coming underneath it to the middle of the field the difficult part of this throw in particular against quarters coverage is fitting it around the hook Zone dropper underneath you either need to hit it in this first window literally right as the receiver is rolling into the cut or you have to wait longer for the second window to open up between the linebackers which can be a challenge if the linebacker is somebody like Zaire Franklin who's really disciplined and knows where to be and how to undercut that dig looking at the end zone angle I want you to pay close attention to how Stroud uses his eyes here to move Franklin and force that throwing window open after completing the play fake he gets his eyes on the safeties to confirm the coverage and make sure that they're both running with that seam route and then he goes to work on Franklin who himself has already gotten his eyes onto Nico Collins and identified that the Dig route was coming Stroud is really exaggerating his eyes and pointing his shoulders here at that first throwing window outside of Franklin who naturally responds of course by widening out to challenge that window which is what Stroud wants once he's moved Stroud comes back and throws a dart right between the hashes to hit Collins in stride for a big first down I know that this comp is wholly irresponsible for a kid who's played like three games but you know what honestly I don't care this is Drew Brees type stuff here okay but I'm talking about prime Drew Brees when he still had a lot of gas in his arm the touch the timing the eye eyes the shoulders the poison tight pockets all of his tape just screams Drew Brees this is the last throw that I want to show you and ironically it's a throw that wasn't even complete but I got to include it in here because the anticipation and timing and placement on this ball is just too good the Jags are rotating into a cover three look here with Tyson Campbell also locked in man on Nico Collins to the boundary side and as luck would have it Jacksonville actually busted this coverage they were supposed to have a hook Defender sitting here to provide help on anything Breaking Inside but they actually mistakenly had two Defenders vacate in order to follow Robert Woods out to the flat Stroud immediately recognized this during his drop and knew that Collins was about to break into that space so he got this thing out quick startlingly quick actually look at how early he's releasing this ball he wants to put it on Collins right as he's breaking away from that tight coverage from Tyson Campbell and he does you can look at the end zone angle here to get an even better view of how tight this ball was I mean it's damn near grazing the corner and he puts it right in the breadbasket for Collins who unfortunately just couldn't hang on I almost think that Nico was half surprised to see CJ even try that throw in the first place because I mean who wouldn't be surprised the audacity of this young man is hilarious to me but I love the aggression I really do I don't care that it was incomplete it was a great ball with fantastic anticipation and timing and at the same time I think Nico Collins learned a valuable lesson from it too if there is even a shoebox sized area for Stroud to try to fit a throw into he is going to try to fit it in I just want to note before I get out of here by the way I I couldn't do a Texans episode without talking about this you guys know that me and the Texans have had a very rocky relationship in recent years and my relationship with the Texans goes back a long time like my dad lived in Houston when I was growing up in California he was out there for work he worked in the energy industry and then he moved up to Chicago which is why I also picked up the Bears as my other red-headed stepchild and I've I've followed the team as long as I can remember I've bought jerseys I've bought merch I've gone to games anytime they came to California I went to games in Houston I I did whatever I could to support the team I even blogged about the team for years like my first writing job ever I covered the Texans for Battle Red Block the SB Nation site for the Texans shout out to BRB um and I I've put so much Blood Sweat and Tears into covering and being passionate about this team and I've been through a lot of lows okay if you guys know Texans football you know there have been a lot of lows there have been a lot of losing Seasons a lot of first overall picks a lot of Heartache it was rough out there okay for a long time but nothing actively broke me until you know who took over the franchise I'm not talking about Bill O'Brien by the way I'm talking about somebody else and Texans fans know who I'm talking about nothing actively made me want to not care about the Texans as much as that man running the franchise and I just had to completely cut the emotional court for years I just couldn't do it anymore I couldn't support him like I could support a loser but I couldn't support the way they were being a loser you know and there's a lot of people in Houston that know what I'm talking about when I talk about this I just I couldn't do it I couldn't do it I couldn't invest emotional energy into this franchise as long as he was there and then magically like a gift from the heavens Lovie Smith arrived and got rid of him and that in itself saved the franchise let alone that win at the end of the year which at the time we didn't know was going to end up being great because that's that's what gifted us CJ Stroud but I mean build a statue of Lovie Smith my God he gave us CJ and and he cleaned house in the best way possible again Texans fans know what I mean and now D'Amico's back and we have Stroud and he looks great and he's so easy to root for because he's such a good kid do you have any idea how good it feels to root for a Texans quarterback again oh my God like just the relief that I feel the hope that I feel the excitement that I feel I haven't had a spark of fandom in years and it feels weird but it feels good and I care again I never thought I would care again but I I actively care about the Texans again and I know they're going to lose a lot like I know the roster's not close to being a contender but I don't care about that like I care about the team and I care that they're building the right way again I care that the adults are in charge again I care that they're doing things the right way I care that they care that's all I wanted I wanted them to care and I think they care again so I care again yeah I don't know I feel like I'm rambling at this point but I want to thank you guys for sticking with me this long if you still happen to be here this late in the episode it really does make a difference I appreciate you feeding the algorithm Gods I just had to get all that off my chest so I hope you guys enjoy this Sunday I hope you guys enjoy watching your team if you're a Texans fan yeah TJ Watts probably about to eat us alive but it's okay It's JJ Ring of Honor week and CJ Stroud looks cool and D'Amico's back I don't know Life's good I'll see you guys next week

Channel: Brett Kollmann

Views: 367,138

Keywords: nfl, texans, stroud, tank dell, nico collins

Id: k7dz_a5JMag

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 30 2023