HOUSTON—Two big stories here when I landed from Vegas:
- Drafting a franchise quarterback.
- Paying franchise-quarterback draft capital to draft a defensive end.
There’s no other way to put it: After picking C.J. Stroud second overall, the Texans traded up nine slots, from 12 to three in the first round, to take Alabama defensive end Will Anderson. Houston GM Nick Caserio traded 12 and 34 this year and first- and third-round picks next year to just barely squeeze the trade into the NFL’s 10-minute window for the third pick. As I explain in the next item about Arizona’s draft, Houston could be picking very early next year—which will put a white hot spotlight of pressure on Anderson.
Caserio told me at NRG Stadium that Stroud was clearly the team’s target at two. He’d had some discussions with Cards GM Monti Ossenfort about possibly moving from 12 to three. “Then,” Caserio said, “it happened pretty quickly when they were on the clock.”
The deal got done and all parties notified, he said, with “close to a minute” left. So the Texans got a player they hope will be their franchise QB, and they got the best defensive player on their board. That is one heck of a night’s work. The price, of course, is denuding the 2024 draft when the Texans might wish they had two first-round picks and four in the first three rounds—instead of now just one first-round pick, one second- and no thirds.
But – and there is a big but – you should have been at the Texans’ facility in the basement of NRG Stadium late Friday afternoon, when Stroud and Anderson put on a show of humility and team-firstness that had to make Texans fans so weary of losing (a league-worst 11-38-1 in the last three years) happy for the first time since the Wild Card win over Buffalo three years ago.
Stroud and Anderson came with their families and made it clear they were all-in on going to a losing team after years of nothing but winning in college. Afterward, Stroud told me: “That’s what life is about, working to build something good. That’s what I’m here to help this team do. I’m ready for it.”
The Texans have asked Stroud to let the S-2 Test controversy go, but he got a couple last licks in on it. A player who played the way Stroud did—particularly in putting up 41 points in his superb final college game in the playoff against Georgia—is not a player who can’t process, or can’t ID a defense. I understand using every tool in the bag to analyze players before the draft, and I’d check out why Stroud scored low on the test. But to think it’s a good indicator of future failure—I mean, watch the games he’s played.
We stood in a hallway just off the Texans’ locker room for 12 minutes and I asked him about what he’s learned from the last three months.
“Humility is something I’m not afraid of,” Stroud said. “It’s something I’m accustomed to. This was all probably just a humble moment God wanted me to go through.
“A lot of people haven’t played the sport, and I mean critics are gonna critique. For me I know the film speaks for itself. Everything that I’ve done in college, I’ve been very consistent. I think I’ve been one of the most consistent players in college football for the last two years. If you turn on the tape, you can see, you can answer the questions. But those who don’t understand tape might want to go to other things and analyze other things. They’re more than welcome to do such. But the people who are making the choices and the picks, they knew what I can do. They understood the IQ that I do have.
“I have a great memory when it comes to football,” Stroud added. “I feel like there’s different ways to be geniuses. You don’t just have to be book smart. You can be analytics smart. You can be numbers smart. You can be football smart. I really think that there’s different types of ways to be smart. That’s something that I pride myself on. And I am book smart. I did have over a 3.0 in college. I had over a 3.0 in high school. I know that I can think. I can process very, very fast. The film, you can see me going from first option to second and then back to one and then to three to four if I have to. I can check down. I can use my feet.
“But, you know, everything happens for a reason. I’m not upset. I’m actually blessed, I’m super blessed to be a Texan. Number two overall pick in the NFL draft, man. A little kid from the [California] Inland Empire. All smiles, man. I ain’t tripping about this.”
Good attitude to have. But at the same time, I could feel it: C.J. Stroud will remember this pre-draft process. And for the Texans, that bit of motivation will be a very good thing.
Read more in Peter King’s full Football Morning in America column
