The Josh Innes Show - Is CJ Stroud Elite?

Episode Date: September 16, 2025

How many teams would take CJ Stroud over their starting QB? The number of teams that wouldn't is pretty remarkable. Are the Texans elite anywhere? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You're good. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. And also, sorry, I've had other things that I need to add to the conversation here. Somebody was knocking on my door here. here, my studio door when I was finishing up that other episode, and I forgot to get into this stuff. But just look at the talent difference in the skill position guys compared between

Houston and Tampa, right? So you look over and Baker and CJ, okay, say it's a wash, whatever, at least for who they are right now. I think Baker is one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the league right now. CJ's probably one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the league right now, right? like, I mean, look, but you watch last night and you watch a guy like Justin Herbert and Justin Herbert starts to figure it out and Justin Herbert can just like whatever he wants to do with the football, he can do it. Layton games, they ain't running the ball. They're letting Herbert throw the ball.

They trust him to do it. I mean, it is, I get that Herbert gets some criticisms and his coach used to make shitty decisions that cost them games and I get it. Herbert is easily one of the top, you could argue top two or three talents in the NFL. I don't know that I'd say C.J. Stroud is that right now. or Baker Mayfield isn't, but you look around the league and you say, hey, C.J. Stroud is a guy that, you know, a lot of guys would take. A lot of teams would take C.J. Stroud, right? If you go around the league and you look at the quarterbacks and you say, would they rather have C.J. Stroud or their guy. I mean, I'd say that there's probably a decent number of teams in the league. Although I think that number is a lot smaller than it may have been two years ago. And it's not just because his, you know, play has regressed, but it's also because other quarterbacks are playing. better. Like right now would you rather have Russ Wilson or C.J. Stroud?

Well, you'd rather have C.J. Stroud in New York probably. Like, to start a team with if age weren't a factor and all that. Eliminate those factors. Just who is better? You'd probably take C.J. Stroud over Russ Wilson. And you would take C.J. Stroud over Justin Fields. And you would take C.J.

Stroud over I maybe, I guess you'd take him over Daniel Jones, although maybe Daniel Jones has fucking figured it out. It's just a two-game sample. So I'm not going to say that Daniel Jones is better than C.J. out, but Daniel Jones is pretty good now for two weeks. Now, he may fall off a cliff. That's very possible.

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I think the Raiders, if you gave Pete Carroll's choice, he'd take C.J. Stroud over Gino Smith. Although Gino Smith is fine, he wasn't good last night. But Gino Smith is fine. You'd take C.J. Stroud over G.O. Smith. I think talent-wise, you'd probably consider C.J. Stroud over Sam Darnold. Like, there are guys that you would take over J.J. McCarthy or whoever's going to play for J.J. McCarthy now that he's heard. I guess that's Carson Wentz. So you'd take him over Carson Wentz. Like, there are some, but, bottom 10, 11 guys that you would no doubt take C.J. Stroud over. But, I mean, you look around the league and you say, all right, let's just, okay, let's do a little exercise here. Like, I know that I meant to talk about the overall talent of the two teams and the lack of talent the Texans have. But if you go down the list of teams in the NFL and look at who the starting quarterback is, how many teams would take C.J. Stroud over their guy. The bills wouldn't, okay? The Patriots, I don't know that they would. Like, I think they believe in Drake May. I think a lot of people believe in Drake May. Like, I don't think, and again, if age

isn't a factor, whatever, money isn't a factor, but I think the Patriots, and I think a lot of teams may take Drake May over C.J. Strout. So I can't for sure say the Patriots would. The Jets would, because they ain't got a quarterback. They got Homeboy, and he sucks. So there's one. All right, let's write that down. So the Jets would be one of those. There's number one, the Jets. The dolphins. Look, I think Tua's still got something. I think his brain is completely scrambled and maybe that's why he ain't playing well. Maybe he's just dunzo. But I'm not saying it's a no doubt, no brainer. You take C.J. Stroud over Tua. So I'm going to, I can't say yes. So out of the AFC East, the Jets are the only one that I would definitively say would take

C.J. Stroud over their guy. Chargers wouldn't. Broncos wouldn't. Raiders, I think, would. So there's two. The Chiefs wouldn't. The Bengals wouldn't over Joe, but who knows if Joe's ever going to be the same dude again. He's out for three months. And you wonder if he's like a Kerry Wood Mark Pryor type, who you're going to look back on and go, dude was just too injured. It's wild to think he only, he's only missed, I want to say like 14 games due to injury in his career. But it feels like a lot more. And part of that's because it's recently. But the Bengals wouldn't. The Ravens wouldn't. I'd say the Steelers probably would if you said you got to have Aaron Rogers today, today, or C.J. Stroud, they'd probably

take him. So I'd say Steelers, and the Browns would over Joe Flacko and whatever other loser they have over there, like Shador or Dylan Gabriel or whatever. So there's four, who today definitely would in the AFC. I don't know, but based on today, I don't think the Colts would. The Jaguars wouldn't. And you know what? Because of the fact that the dudes are rookies, I don't think they've given up on Cam Ward either. I don't think anybody else in the division, They could just have C.J. Straub would take him over the guy they have. So there's four. Then you look at the NFC.

The Eagles wouldn't. The commanders wouldn't. The Cowboys wouldn't. And I think the Giants would take him over Russ Wilson, but they wouldn't take them over Jackson Dart. So there's five. 49ers, I mean, I don't think they would over Brock Purdy. I don't think the Cardinals would over Kyler. Rams wouldn't over Stafford.

I think the Seahawks would over Darnold. Packers wouldn't. Vikings today, I think, would. But that doesn't mean long term they would, but I think Vikings. Lions wouldn't. Bears, I don't know. I'm not going to say yes to the bears, so I'll leave the bears off of there. Buccaneers wouldn't.

I don't think the Falcons would. The Panthers probably would. And the Saints would because the Saints have Spencer Rattler and Homeboy that they drafted. So, by my count, there's like nine teams in the league that's right around where I thought it would be, around nine teams in the league that you would say, oh, no doubt. If they could take their guy or take CJ Stroud, they would take CJ Stroud. That means you're talking about over 20 teams in the NFL who, who based on their quarterback is, they'd go, I'm fine with what I got. Now, some of that is based on the fact that they have a really good quarterback. like Jordan Love might be just really good.

You know, Jared Goff is really good right now with that team. They just scored 52 points. Baker Mayfield has done extremely well with the box. Pinnock's is a young dude who I believe is going to throw for 4,000 yards this year. You know, there are examples of teams that just have stars. I mean, you look at the Eagles. Although Jalen Hertz is not a guy who most GMs would circle and say, hey, I'm starting my team with this guy based on raw ability.

He wins with what they do. But I'd say there's about 20 plus teams in the league that are content with who they have at quarterback over C.J. Stroud. And the ones that would take C.J. Stroud over their guy pretty much have bums. And then you say, well, where's C.J. Stroud among NFL quarterbacks? Well, who are the best? All right? AFC East, Josh Allen. There's one. Pat Mahomes is two. You take, even though the playoff success isn't there, you take Herbert 3, Joe Burrow and Healthy 4, Lamar 5. These are in no particular order, just guys who would be, you know, top 10 guys off the top of my head. Nobody in the AFC South is a top 10 guy. So there's five. You would say, I mean, I guess, I mean, Matt Stafford would probably be currently in the top 10. Jordan Love would be in the top 10. Jared Gough would be in the top 10.

Nobody in the South would be in the top 10. But I need to find two more spots for this top 10. Dak, I guess, like, I don't know that you could, based on what they've done. so far in their careers. Can you say that Jane Daniels is a top 10 quarterback? Well, I've got two spots I need to fill and somebody needs to be in there. In the last two years, it ain't been CJ Stroud. Would it be Baker? I guess I would. I'd put Baker in the top 10. And I guess Dak, Tua? Actually, Bo Nix. Real talk? I'm putting Bo Nix in there. Bo Nix would be in my top 10 quarterbacks in the league right now.

If it came down to Bo Nix or C.J. Stroud, you might go, Josh, that's ridiculous. Is it? Bo Nix went to the playoffs last year. C.J. Stroud's been to the playoffs. Knicks is in his second year. Stroud's in his third, but based on how you've seen them look, who would you take? Bo Nix or C.J. Stroud. So that's the thing.

Like going into last year, we talked about it ad nauseum that, hey, it looks like the Texans have the dude. And he needs to be the dude. he has to be the dude. What other choice did they have? He is the dude. But then you look at him and you look at the productivity and you go, is he the dude? Well, Josh, where are the playmakers? Well, elite quarterbacks make the playmakers. I know that, like, you can't say that everybody's Tom Brady, Drew Breeze or whatever, but Drew Breeze, one of the most prolific receivers in the history of the Saints was a seventh round draft pick out of Hofstra. And I don't believe if Spencer Rattler was his quarterback, he would have been one of the most prolific receivers in the history of the Saints.

Drew Brees and Sean Payton helped make that. And look, to bail C.J. Stroud out a little bit, you keep the revolving door play callers in there. That was one of the big knocks for Baker. Not really a knock, but one of the criticisms of, or one of the reasons why you'd look at Baker and go, does he actually suck or not,

is you'd look at Baker and go, the dude had a different offensive coordinator every year. That's not an easy thing to do. And then you get stability there. That helps. You know, Jared Goff had the same offensive coordinator. coordinator for how many years in Detroit? Four with Ben Johnson?

Dude was a legend with Ben Johnson. I mean, last year, I mean, in this year's top 100 players has voted on by NFL players by the NFL network. He was number 14. Jared Gough. So, Jared Gough, a guy that before he got to Detroit, no one would say, oh,

Jared Gough, elite player. It's one of the top 14 players in the league, according to other players. And Ben Johnson had a big part of that. But I will defend C.J. here. Outside of Nico Collins, which is Nico Collins an elite receiver? I don't fucking know. I mean, look at him. Mike Evans.

I know that Mike Evans only had 56 yards yesterday. But Mike Evans is one of those guys that you feel like, hey, I need a play. Mike Evans can get open and make me a play. Emeka Egbuka is looking like that guy already two games into his career, guy that, hey, you need a play, he'll make a play. And they'll find a play for him, whether it's in a screen game, whatever. I don't know that Nico Collins is one of those guys. If you wanted to go down the list and look at the elite receivers in the NFL, where does Nico Collins stack up with those guys?

And would you take Nico Collins over those guys? Again, you want to go down a list? I can bore you with it. But are you taking Nico Collins over C.D. Lamb? Are you taking Nico Collins over D.K. Metcalf? Are you taking him over Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase? Are you taking Nico Collins over those guys? So you start to look at the talent around C.J. Strat.

and you start to question the roster they've built. Nick Chub's fine, but Nick Chub ain't change in the world. Ain't some young superstar. Bucky Irving, it's probably a young superstar. You know what Bucky Irving did last night? 71 carries or 71 yards on 17 carries. Oh, by the way, 50 receiving yards had three catches on the final drive of the game. Is Woody Marks a future star?

Maybe. Xavier Hutchinson, he's fine. Justin Watson, who was like a cast off from the chiefs, cool. Dalton Schultz is fine. But that's the other factor you run into with the Texans is who are the stars? Who are the guys that are going to make C.J. Stroud better? Who are the guys that you say, hey, let's go get a play. Someone go up and make a play for me.

Who are those guys? Now, C.J. Stroud ain't making those plays either. But who are the guys that you're going to and you say, this guy's going to make a play for me? Who is the C.D. Lamb? Who is the Jamar Chase? Who is the Justin Jefferson? And I know I'm talking about elite level dudes, but like, that's what you've got to be. If you look at the receiving leaders in the NFL, how many of these guys do you look at and go,

I think I'd take Nico Collins over those guys. I guarantee it ain't many. You take, like right now, are you saying, hey, give me, give me Nico Collins over Malik neighbors? No. C.D. Lamb, no. Pooka, no. Jamar Chase, no. Ammon Rae St. Brown, no. Well, you need a play. Aminrah's going to get open. Now, part of that is they're a well-coached, well-schemed team. But Amin'Raw's going to make a play for you.

Even tight-in guy, Trey McBride's going to make a play for you. Brock Bowers is going to make a play for you. My man, Ladd McConkey is going to make a play for you. Tyree Kill eventually will make a play for you. Devon Tate. Adams will make a play for you? Do you have that same feeling for Nico Collins? Or is it just, hey, Nico may make a long catch once in the game, but I need something to move the sticks right now. I need a big play right now. Is Nico Collins going to do that? And if not, who is? You don't have that guy. And in a league that's loaded with great young tight-in play, there's Dalton Schultz. No knock on Dalton Schultz, but that's what you got, Dalton Schultz. And you look around the league and look at some of the

tight-ins like Tyler Warren, who's already making a giant impact in the league as a rookie after two games. Trey McBride. Brock Bowers. These are the guys that are making the plays. Tucker Craft. I don't know that I'd call Tucker Craft an elite tight-in, but he has a lot of yards this year.

Sam Laporte is a solid player at tight-end. Joanne Johnson's a solid player at tight-end. Do you look at Dalton Schultz and go, he's one of those guys. No, me neither. So part of it is that C.J. Stroud has regressed, and part of his job is to make no-name guys better players. That is part of his gig as the starting quarterback of an NFL team.

But also part of it is, where are the players? Jared Gough. We talked about Jared Gough. Yeah, Jared Gough's become a better player. But Jared Gough also has Amunrae St. Brown. He's got Jameson Williams, who just signed a big deal. he's got Jamar Gibbs or Jamir Gibbs who's fantastic he's got toys all over the yard what are the toys that CJ Stroud has oh no by the way

has a shitty offensive line so he's got bad offensive line play and not much else and okay and Nico look I'm not saying Nico Collins sucks I'm saying that Nico Collins is fine but I don't put Nico in that same category as those other dudes we talked about, dudes who you're like, look, Ladd-McConkey, last night I made a bet on Ladd-McConkey, and the fact that it was plus money is stupid. Ladd-McConkey to have a catch in every quarter. It's the easiest money on the planet. Because when the Chargers needs something, Ladd-McConkey is there. He will make a play. You can count on Ladd-McConkey.

When the Texans needed to move the ball, where was Nico Collins? He had two catches. And after the first drive of the game, he had two catches. where was he that's not an elite receiver an elite receiver to me is not someone who disappears after one possession an elite receiver to me is not a guy that has six catches on 14 targets to start the season and a whopping 77 yards and most of which came on a 29 yard catch damn near half of the dudes yards came on one blay for the season. Anyway, more to come.