National Football League

Texans QB C.J. Stroud showed football IQ from the start: 'He likes the chess match'

Updated May. 23, 2023 9:40 a.m. ET

Even as a high school freshman, C.J. Stroud, then a backup quarterback on the varsity team, had a suggestion for his offensive coordinator.

The stakes were high for Rancho Cucamonga (California) High School. The Cougars were facing Mission Viejo in a playoff game. From the sidelines, Stroud kept noticing the movements of one of the opponent's defenders.

He shared his observations with playcaller Mark Verti at halftime.

"Coach, this corner is jumping on the out [route]," Stroud explained. "We should do an out and up on him."

Verti trusted the 15-year-old's insight. On the first drive of the second half, Verti called the play. The cornerback bit, leaving the receiver wide open on the double move.

Touchdown.

"He likes the aspect of outsmarting the opponent, how football allows you to outsmart people," Verti, who later became Stroud's head coach, told FOX Sports. "He likes that part of football and how to game plan people and how it's not just the physical enjoyment of it, but being able to use your mind and game plan the whole chess match portion of it."

Draft pundits poked holes in the No. 2 overall pick's stellar Ohio State résumé in the spring, largely based on reports he tested poorly on the S2 Cognition Test, which measures how quickly and accurately athletes process information. But several people who coached and played with Stroud raved about his football IQ in interviews with FOX Sports.

Their words provide insight into what the Texans could be getting in Stroud, their potential franchise quarterback, something Houston hasn't had since Deshaun Watson.

"I'm viewing this opportunity like it's one of a kind, because it is," Stroud told reporters last month. "I know the city of Houston hasn't seen a franchise quarterback in a long time and that's something I hope I become."

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At Ohio State, star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba would often sit next to Stroud in team meetings and watch the QB spit back massive loads of information with ease. If a player didn't know his job or responsibility on a particular play, Stroud could tell him his assignment "every single time," Smith-Njigba said.

"If [Stroud] doesn't know, then the coach didn't communicate it well and didn't tell us because that's the only way [he wouldn't know]," the Seattle Seahawks rookie first-round pick told FOX Sports. "You may think he's going to forget, but he never forgets — and that's with everything. That's with plays. That's with life. That's when somebody said something three years ago."

At Rancho Cucamonga, where Stroud didn't become a full-time starter until his junior year, it was normal for him to adjust playcalls.

If the Cougars had a three-by-three protection set and the defense had four guys to a side, he'd recognize it pre-snap, telling the running back to pick up the extra defender. If there was a run play to the overloaded side, he'd audible to the other. He didn't just see openings, he knew what plays would best take advantage of them.

Between drives, he focused on the iPad, studying the defense's constant adjustments and suggesting plays to his coach. His plays worked most of the time.

"By his senior year, his whole knowledge of football — from the protections to the coverages to what plays we have that would fit the openings that we see on the field — it was just unmatched by any QB I've ever coached before," Verti said. "His spatial awareness was off the charts."

Stroud's former coaches point to basketball, his first love, helping his game as a quarterback. He played two years in high school, mainly as a small and power forward in Rancho Cucamonga's small-ball lineup. He was a good shooter. He handled the rock. He loved having the ball in his hands.

His basketball coach, Bill Burke, believes Stroud could have played Division I had he stuck with hoops.

"One of our better players, he crossed him over and [the player] fell down," recalled Burke. "He said, ‘That's the only reason you put me on the team.' I said, ‘No, you're just a freak of an athlete.'"

As a junior, Stroud hit a fadeaway, buzzer-beating, game-winning three-pointer in a CIF state playoff game against Camarillo, which featured future UCLA star and projected 2023 NBA Draft pick Jaime Jaquez Jr.

"He thought he was KD [Kevin Durant] in high school," laughed Tony Wilson, an offensive assistant for the Rancho Cucamonga football team.

The fastbreaks and cutting in basketball, Stroud's high school football coaches said, helped him see passing windows as a quarterback. But there was a time when Stroud, known as an elite pocket passer, just wanted to run. His father, Coleridge, encouraged it. But Tojo Munford, Stroud's youth coach, taught him to stay in the pocket and hammered it into him with drills. For years, he told Stroud to throw to where the receivers were going, not where they were. It formed the foundation of the anticipatory throws for which he's lauded.

Munford saw the ease with which Stroud could throw the ball, even at age 7, when the coach first met him.

"I've been lucky to have about six or seven kids that have been in the NFL, but you don't know [that] when they're 8," Munford told FOX Sports. "But I said, ‘He might make millions of dollars one day throwing that ball.'"

Stroud has always been the type to lead by example. According to former coaches, he wouldn't hesitate to call out teammates, even a star receiver, if they showed up late to practices or workouts. He held them to the same standard he held himself.

After losing in a playoff game in basketball, he apologized to the coaches for how he played.

In football, Stroud got hurt the first game of his junior season. The team fell to 0-4 without him. But he became a player-coach, encouraging teammates to watch film and stick together. Rancho Cucamonga rallied to win seven straight games.

In passing drills at Rancho Cucamonga football practices, Stroud made sure to throw to every receiver, not just the starters.

"In games, it felt like he'd make sure certain people got touchdowns," Verti said. "Like, ‘Oh, they haven't got one yet? We're up by three or four touchdowns. Let's get this guy the ball and let's score a touchdown.'"

As Stroud arrives in Houston, expectations are sky-high. He says he doesn't believe in pressure. He doesn't believe there are limits to how good he can be. And he knows he can lead. He did so at one of college football's biggest powers.

"That's something I think I bring to the table very well, coming from a place like Ohio State where [as the] quarterback … you're right under LeBron," Stroud joked at his introductory press conference. "You're the leader of the whole state."

After succeeding in the home state of King James, Stroud oozes confidence.

"When there's any doubt from anyone else, it's going to sharpen his tools," Wilson said. "He's going to be in the lab, on the field, in the film room, in the weight room, in the playbook even harder. Not only for his team, but for himself to make sure he's doing his part for his team.

"He knows that if he does his part," Wilson added, "that's going to close out all the doubters by itself."

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.

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