00:01what's been the biggest difference for cj stroud and what needs to chime in this offense in 2026
00:07get to that here in just a moment on the drive i'm luke morrow in for ron today alongside clint
00:12team mill and the seal wheels you as well 713-572-4610 to text the show also can always
00:19join the conversation at any time in the youtube and twitch chats as well appreciate you starting
00:24the week with us happy monday uh hey our uh our buddy there at houston stressons uh had ben's
00:31whole ben solak on with him on the live stream over the weekend and i'm sure you're familiar
00:36heard ben's work by now if you're an nfl fan he's with espn he's very analytical um i like the
00:44way
00:44he breaks down the game and he was talking about cj stroud and the texans offense of course and we
00:49have a couple pieces of audio including this one with uh solak talking about cj stroud and the
00:54difference from year one to now this past year in year three for the texans quarterback
01:00shroud and his rookie season had 0.14 epa per drop back and at 47 success rate these are the
01:05two
01:05easiest metrics we use to define how often you're creating positive plays and how positive are the
01:09positive plays 0.14 paper drop by 47 success rate last year regular season you know 46 success rate
01:15and he paper drop back a 0.12 it was in terms of down down that basis about as good
01:19as it was to the
01:20rookie the big difference between 2023 to 2025 is stroud's explosive play rate was much higher
01:25in 23 to 25 he was throwing the ball less frequently and accordingly just hit when he hit big shots
01:32they
01:32were a larger percentage of his bucket versus in this nick caley offense where they were doing more
01:35like okay like four out wide three step you know quick drop a quick game like you you're going to
01:40be
01:40more of a point guard for us because we cannot run the football uh for quarterback yourself how does that
01:47hit you when you think of what you've seen from stroud in this offense here in recent years look i
01:51love it
01:51i think there's a couple of things well done houston stressors well done ben solak i i thought the i'm
01:57not i'm not i know you guys you and reg a couple of guys are advanced stat type of guys
02:01i'm not i mean
02:02typically when that when i'll be honest when that stuff gets to gets to be part of the conversation it's
02:06so overwhelming for my my hayseed ass that i check out um but but what a great job by him
02:12of just using using some advanced analysts advanced stats and then quickly explaining without
02:18interrupting the conversation quickly explaining what it means how often are you having positive
02:23plays and just how positive are those positive plays that is that is a pretty powerful statement
02:28pretty powerful usage of advanced stats for me if you're asking me so well done there um the
02:34interesting thing with with this is the comparison of cj stroud's rookie year to his third year um
02:41you know one one double digit games both years went to the second round of the playoffs obviously
02:46both years but but really two totally separate i think um um perceptions if you will of cj stroud's
02:58year right because you look at those two stats and and i think when you hear it you just go
03:03well
03:03he had two pretty similar years and in reality i think they are they are night and day different i
03:09think
03:09they are a 180 degree different uh different situation when you're looking at it obviously
03:16he pointed out the explosive plays which which i will agree i think there was probably a little bit
03:22more of a a an effort uh bobby slowick to to to to drive the ball down the field we
03:29saw that come to
03:30fruition um or heard it let's say that we heard that come into fruition bobby slowick and cj stroud's
03:37second year we're going to stretch the field we're going to do things that we did well in year one
03:40so it should be no surprise to to everybody out there that the statistics show that the explosive
03:46play rate was obviously bit better in year one with cj and bobby slowick than it was in year one
03:52with with um nick cayley and bobby slowick but it's just it's interesting to me how how similar they
04:01actually were and it's interesting to to me when you look at what they are asking cj to do he
04:08was
04:08really efficient in doing so in year one with nick cayley but what gives right what what gives what's
04:16the difference between year one and year two if the efficiency was there but the explosive plays
04:22weren't the results were still winning football games what what's not there what's different what is
04:29what's why is that why why is the perception of cj stroud so different today than it was
04:34after year one why if that is the case even given that the explosive plays weren't there
04:40if that is the case why did cj stroud not receive the extension that most quarterbacks that have his
04:48resume have has received and i i think i think that's just a fascinating conversation luke i think it's a
04:54great jump off point for that conversation there is a there is a a i mean it is wildly different
05:02to have a good year as a rookie who hey i'm bright lights big eyes you know i'm starting quarterback
05:10earned the starting job i'm out here i'm playing well coach what do you want me to do i do
05:13it man
05:14i'm hey i'm i'm dumb i'm i'm i'm i'm ignorant to the top i don't know anything hey man just
05:18just
05:18point call the play man let me go out there and execute it for you i got this what you
05:22think i should
05:22check that one down cool i'll check it down you think i'll stretch the field sure that whatever
05:26the answer is yes to anything and everything that was was placed in front of cj stroud to year three
05:34now it becomes more of of cj stroud's got more command cj stroud's got more expectations placed
05:41upon him cj stroud needs to own the offense cj stroud you know is is um is in his own
05:49mind wants to do
05:50certain things that he's already had success doing at the nfl level and there's probably some
05:57pushback between cj stroud and nick cayley that is that's present that wasn't there as as a rookie
06:04so i think that it's just a fascinating conversation overall uh luke that just is is um ultimately the
06:12the conversation that ultimately is going to decide whether cj stroud is here beyond this season or not
06:17yeah which is interesting because stroud kind of alluded to that in the uh in his first press
06:21conference at the at ota's where he was talking about you know starting to try to do some things
06:26that they're good at to paraphrase this year in the offense which i felt like alluding to some of the
06:31things he had done as a rookie or in the past with some of those explosive plays but i do
06:35want to get
06:36your thoughts quincy avery is a well-known quarterback coach working with uh these nfl quarterbacks yep and
06:42he he's actually still tweeting you could go to still tweeting about this and tweeting about these
06:47sound bites and the texans offense but he said this that the passing game took massive steps back last
06:53year with the new offensive coordinator who clearly doesn't see the game like cj does and then quincy
06:58emphasizes that that's his opinion he hasn't talked to cj stroud about this but he continued saying i
07:03honestly don't see how the offense performs better this offensive philosophy later than also stating that
07:09this offense does not they aren't calling plays to create explosives he uh described later on twitter
07:15talking about this offense so in what you sort of just laid out of um this uh almost like a
07:22tug of
07:22war so to speak between the two and with yeah quincy avery's comments there i mean so would would you
07:29be in line with what he uh said on twitter where it's it's a case of the offensive coordinator and
07:35cj not
07:35necessarily seeing things the same yeah i couldn't agree more with with uh with with quincy avery
07:40quincy and i see a lot of uh we see the game through through a very similar lens um you
07:45know so
07:45so to nobody's surprise dude that i agree to him but yeah yeah this is this is part of of
07:50why a lot
07:51of texans fans get really frustrated with me uh on social media or even even that listen right the
07:56more passionate ones because i'm not as high on maybe the offense or overall what the texans are
08:01capable of doing because of the offense this this is precisely why um you know i've talked about the
08:07fit of of nick cayley nick cayley and cj stroud since nick cayley was hired um and it's just it's
08:14just grown and become more of a significant conversation after seeing a year of it so yeah i i completely
08:20agree
08:20with what quincy avery's his point is now i'll add this i will um if if we're going to talk
08:29about
08:29the cj fit kind of in this context i would say that it's more of a nick casario thing than
08:34a than
08:34a nick nick cayley was a plug and play piece for this offense uh i don't i don't think he
08:40is dictating
08:41what they do offensively i think ultimately nick casario the general manager that uh that continues
08:46to build the offensive staff the way he wants to build the offensive staff i think he is more
08:50dictating the scheme that is the bad fit for cj shot or could potentially be the bad fit for cj
08:56so that's the only context that i would add personally i think i think the gm is more
09:00responsible than just the oc that's never called plays before that didn't hire his staff i think
09:05it's more the gm but yes the fit of cj stroud is a is a very interesting look i'm on
09:14record i think
09:15it's going to be we talk about the offensive line a lot of people nationally talk about the offensive
09:19line because you can look at the stats and see where the offensive line has not been good i said
09:23from
09:23that's more of an that's more of a quarterback and an oc problem they got to fix that they got
09:28they got they're the ones that need to respond to the inability to pass protect not ask those guys
09:32to technically and fundamentally be better with a week's practice you know um i i just i think this
09:39is the the one piece that we're going to find out who who who budges who gives does cj cave
09:46and and
09:46and be more of what nick casario nick cayley need him to be or does nick cayley cave and and
09:52tilt his
09:53offense more towards what cj stroud does well i think that is a very real topic for the texans
09:58moving into this this football season in 2026
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