NFL Analyst Reveals the Secret Sauce to Fixing Texans' C.J. Stroud

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to Chris Simms' thoughts on how to improve CJ Stroud's mechanics. Is the fix really this simple? Be sure to listen to the audio as Wex and AC break it all down.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chris Simms has the solution for all of your problems.
Houston Texans quarterback CJ.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Stroud And I do think he has to address his
throwing motion a little. I do think that I'm gonna
grab the football. I didn't even think we're gonna do this,
but I'm gonna do it. I mean, nobody's ball is
closer to their helmet than CJ. Strouded. I mean, it's
right here, just here. It's at times I go gosh,
I mean, is the ball gonna hit his helmet as

(00:27):
he throws the football? Nobody's like that. I mean, it's
really hard to be accurate all the time. Just having
the ball right here, he doesn't get his body involved.
And if you look at any great arm quarterback, right,
usually when the release is the arms way away from
the body that the levers are going to create all
the force and the power. Right. So that's where there's
definitely some things I think he could look at to

(00:47):
kind of tweak his football game along with you know,
like we said, taking care of the ball, understanding the
team that you have around you anyways, a great defensive
football team that you don't need to force things or
hold the ball too long in the pocket.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Let's start at the back and go to the front,
because the gist of this was some sort of mechanical issue.
But in the back he acted like the game against
the Patriots is the only game he's ever watched. Everything
he did to get the Texans where they were helped
the Texans get to where they arrived this year, and
really all of his years were exactly because he did
understand exactly what you just said. He needs to start understanding.

(01:24):
The Texans never turned the ball over this year. They
were one of the least They had one of the
lowest number of giveaways all season. He only threw eight
interceptions this year. I know he missed three games, but
his interception percentage was also very low. Did not fumble
the ball even one time the entire season and lost
it like all of the things you're suggesting. Hey man,
your defense is good, man, Just get rid of the football,
don't turn it over, and you'll probably win. He knows it.

(01:47):
It was in practice for his fourteen regular season games
thirteen that he finished. He knows it's exactly what the
team has stressed to him. That's exactly how Demiko Ryans
tried to play and It's exactly why they would have
probably reached the Super Bowl this year if he had
done those things. Nothing he didn't know. But now let's
get to the other part of it. This is CJ. Stroud,

(02:10):
who spent multiple years as starting quarterback in college football
and played plenty of Markeee games that everybody that evaluates
quarterbacks has eyes on, whether they're inside the game as
a coach, personnel evaluator, or they're like us, outside the
game and talking about it all the time. Now, he's
got three years of NFL starting experience and fifty games
plus worth of on field activity, so I wanted to

(02:31):
give him the benefit of that doubt. Immediately you've seen
CJ throw, There's plenty of in your memory bank. It
just you close your eyes and you imagine this pass
and that pass, and you know going downfield, to Tank
Dell going downfield, and Eco Collins going underneath the Dalton
Schultz firing a ball in this tight window, throwing interceptions,
all the things that have happened during his fifty plus starts.
I do too, but I also wanted to get some

(02:51):
more visual reminders. And I didn't even get to watching
highlights to see what I thought of how he threw
because I couldn't do it to myself. When the very
first thing up CJ stroud Highlights, fired that up into
the Google machine, and the first YouTube video that pops
up is thirty two minutes plus of CJ. Stroud's twenty

(03:11):
twenty five season highlights. I never clicked on it, I
never played it. I never watched them back because the
generated photo that goes with the post shows him throwing
the football and his arm is way out to the side,
just like Chris Simm's arm was in this video. Obviously
you only heard the audio. Normally your arm is way

(03:34):
outside your body. You're using all the mechanics for the leverage. Yeah,
you mean how CJ is shown throwing the football right here,
Like he's gone through all these quarterback coaches, personal and
in team at Ohio State with the Texans, and he's
been through quite a few here with the Texans, and
nobody else thought this, probably because they don't think it's

(03:55):
a problem. I'm not saying he has perfect mechanics because
he doesn't. Footwork can be improved. There probably are some
tweaks to the mechanics in which he throws the football.
But you got to also recognize the success first. If
you're that successful, you always want to be better and
you always want to make your quarterback better if he's
on your team and you're a coach. But do you
overhaul something, do you really dig deep in there and

(04:17):
saying you're doing it wrong, Wait till you see this.
Look how good you're going to be. Now. I'm not
saying he's wrong or right, but that doesn't seem right.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
On the list of things you might want to improve
for CJ individually this upcoming season, his mechanics are so
far down the list for me.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
His throwing mechanics. I think his footwork can absolutely be improved,
and I'm surprised more people like I haven't said that.