HOUSTON — It was just one week ago when some of the Houston Texans fan base and local media were in an uproar about rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud taking second-team reps behind Davis Mills.
Most of those individuals thought it was a great move by the coaching staff to bring him along slowly, even though it was the first week of organized team activities, while others believed that it was crazy not to have him taking first-team reps since he was drafted with the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft.
Welcome to the next three months of Texans’ conversations on social media, airwaves, podcasts, etc.
The conversation will be enhanced this week and should have the entire fan base on one accord after the media was allowed to watch Wednesday’s OTAs and Stroud taking first-team snaps.
“C.J. is progressing well,” said Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans. “Each day, he continues to get better, continues to get more comfortable with the verbiage of the offense and his command of the huddle. I thought this week he has been really good; coming off of a long weekend, it was very eye-opening how on it he was. From the first day, we got back until today, he did an awesome job in our situational periods, So, he is definitely progressing in the right direction, and the sky is the limit for him.”
That progression may have been helped by a particular person that is responsible for making Stroud’s life as hard as possible in practice as he helps him prepare for his upcoming rookie season. Texans’ defensive coordinator Matt Burke smiled during his press conference when asked about his observations of Stroud so far.
Listen to Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke tell me a story about rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud from the first week of OTAs and his willingness to want to get better. #Texans #Sarge @TheTexansWire pic.twitter.com/ihiXvA5dZx
— #SARGE (@BigSargeSportz) May 31, 2023
Burke, who is in his first year of defensive play calling for Houston, spoke about a conversation with the former Ohio State quarterback after a practice last week that may have helped him be more prepared coming into week two.
“We did a two-minute drive at the end of practice sometime last week, and he threw into kind of a coverage we hadn’t shown,” Burke said. “It was the first day we put the coverage in, and he threw in, and kind of probably was a throw he probably wanted back, I’ll just say it that way. The first thing he did when I was walking off the field was he grabbed me and said literally, ‘Coach Burke.’ And he spent about 10 minutes walking in off the field asking me about the coverage and just sort of what he saw and how we kind of set it up and talked through that.
“I think, just again, his deliberateness and intent to try to get better, and he’s literally grabbing everybody he can on the field. So, he’s been very sort of intentional about learning and just learning defense, too, like what did you call there, what was that coverage, or what did you do here. I respect that from him.
That hunger and thirst for knowledge to improve yourself while helping improve the team goes a long way when developing comradery amongst your coaches and teammates. Starting safety Jalen Pitre has also seen Stroud from a competitor’s viewpoint going up against him during practice and as a rookie learning his position and an NFL playbook simultaneously.
“Every day, he’s looking for something to get better at,” Pitre said about Stroud after week one of Texans’ voluntary workouts. “Today, after OTAs, he came up to the DBs asking different things we’re seeing and different ways he can get better. It’s a real professional in C.J., and you could see why he was drafted so high because he really cares about the game of football.”
Stroud still has a long way to go to get acclimated to the offensive system that coordinator Bobby Slowik wants to run this season which will be familiar to older Texans fans who remember the West Coast style run by former Texans head coach Gary Kubiak from 2006-13.
“It’s required that he reaches out to learn more for me,” Slowik responded when asked about Stroud learning the playbook. “That’s happened a lot. But he wants to have command of what’s going on, as anyone who’s in that position should.”
The Texans will have one more week of voluntary OTAs before two days of mandatory minicamp during the second week of June.
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