Where C.J. Stroud Really Belongs in the NFL QB Conversation

Monday on The A-Team, Adam Wexler reacts to ESPN's latest rankings, in which NFL executives, coaches and scouts voted on the league's top quarterbacks entering the 2026 season.Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud landed in the "also receiving votes" category, finishing behind the honorable mentions—including Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Wexler argues that's exactly where Stroud belongs at this stage of his career, even if it means ranking behind quarterbacks like Broncos signal-caller Bo Nix and Colts quarterback Daniel Jones. Be sure to listen to the full audio as Wex explains why he believes ESPN's evaluation of Stroud is a fair reflection of where the Texans quarterback currently stacks up among the NFL's best.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nothing is different this year, and we've kind of walked
our way to get to that pretty obvious conclusion. They
have some talent. They have had some games where they
score They're not one of the five worst offenses in
the NFL. They score some points, but they kick a
lot of field goals. You know'll score a lot of touchdowns.
They almost never blow a team out, despite the fact
that their defense was second in the NFL and points allowed,

(00:22):
so a lot of games have decided late and they
ended up winning. They won nine in a roll last year.
He won six of those games in a row last year.
But the numbers are what they are, and I think
he is once again heading into this season really honestly
just like he was last year, even at a much
higher spot. I thought he was viewed accordingly after year one,
when he did all those spectacular things as a rookie.

(00:44):
His yards per game were through the roof, his interception
rate was super low. Everything about what he did was outstanding,
and he was appropriately lauded, and I thought looked at
as he headed into year two with somebody who is
about to become something special. And his two postseason game
that year weren't awesome, but they were far from disastrous
or not even really what you would probably call bad.

(01:06):
First game was fine, they won handily, and the second
game was They had a chance to win at Baltimore,
but he didn't do anything special, nor did the offense,
and they didn't score much and they lost. After year two,
clearly there wasn't a ton of improvement, There wasn't a
ton of additional production, and most of the numbers were down.
Team did exactly the same thing. They won a division again.

(01:28):
They reached the postseason again, They won a home game,
largely dominated that home game because of their defense again,
and then they went on the road in the postseason
and came up short a game they had a chance
to win, a game that was close enough for them
to be in it throughout, but they just didn't do
enough to win. Our defense was good but not unbelievable,
and their offense was average to below average, similar to

(01:49):
his performance last year. They won nine games in a
row to reach the postseason, ended up as a wildcard
team because Jacksonville won thirteen. They won their first game,
which was their first ever win on the road, very
close game until the final fourteen and a half minutes,
and then they blew them out, largely because of their defense.

(02:10):
Second game, their offense was embarrassingly bad. His performance was
quite obviously the worst any of any of his NFL games,
probably any of his games of any kind. Not going
to play worse than that, probably ever again, and it
was a bad stage to have it. And I don't
think it was predicated on how the defense played him.
I just think he played that way and might have
played that way on any day against a reasonably good defense.

(02:32):
Ten turnover worthy plays for CJ. Stroud last year in
the playoff games he only had thirteen and the other
fourteen games he played in total, So you take all
that into account. How do NFC and AFC scouts, AFC
and NFCC personnel people view him as it relates to

(02:52):
the rest of the quarterbacks in the NFL in another
year where the AFC quarterbacks are phenomenal, And that's what
hurts the most about where things are for CJ and
this Texans offense, because they're nowhere near the top. I
don't think there's much wrong with this list. Maybe there's
a couple things you could pick about once you get
past the top six, and usually that's the case. Any

(03:13):
year because most of the players seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,
there's almost no difference, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, eighteen, there's almost
no difference. It's a list of the top ten plus
some honorable mention, plus others receiving votes. Very unsurprising that CJ.
Stroud is only in the others receiving votes categories. It's
basically barely hanging on to the top. Twenty ten guys

(03:36):
are listed. Another six quarterbacks, seven quarterbacks excuse me, got
honorable mention, and there is at number twenty after Bonnicks
and after two quarterbacks in this division Trevor Lawrence honorable mention,
Daniel Jones, others receiving votes. And there's that's where you
find CJ. I know you would probably like to hear differently,

(04:00):
but I think you mostly like to hear reality and
real opinions. And that's why my opinion is this ain't wrong.
That's where he belongs. He has to prove otherwise based
on where he is as a quarterback three years, in
his performance on the field last year even as they
were winning six games in a row, and his performance
of the postseason last year as they split their two games,

(04:22):
and he was bad in both