The Josh Innes Show - Should CJ Stroud Have Been Benched? Part 2

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

A chatter on YouTube brings up TJ Yates as an example of why Davis Mills could have won the game for the Texans. Are we really doing this? I'm pretty baffled by the number of people who are now acting as if Davis Mills is something special. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

But when you start looking at overall big picture and what's going on here, you start looking at situations that are kind of comparable, right? Like you can think of something sort of similar was, I guess it would have been the 97 or 98 chiefs. And the starting quarterback was Elvis Gerbach. And Elvis Gerbach got hurt in the middle of that year, late in that year. and Rich Gannon came in and played his dick off, like played his balls off, and they were better offensively with Rich Gannon. And playoff time comes around,

and Marty Schottenheimer decides to go back to his dude, right? He decides to make the move and sticks with the guy who started the season. Elvis Gerbach, and he put Gannon on the bench, and they end up losing in the first round of the playoffs. I think they'd a buy that year maybe, because the Chiefs, that's what they did in the 90s. For the kids who don't know,

the Chiefs weren't always a team that just went to every AFC championship game in Super Bowl. There was a time that they were famous for having great regular seasons and not winning playoff games. It took them forever to win another playoff game after 1993. I think their last playoff win before the Mahomes era was against the Oilers. I think that was their last playoff win. I think they beat the Oilers in the Montana year that they lost in the AFC championship game,

which I think would have been 93. At Medcan, we know that life's greatest moment. moments are built on a foundation of good health, from the big milestones to the quiet wins. That's why our annual health assessment offers a physician-led, full-body checkup that provides a clear picture of your health today and may uncover early signs of conditions like heart disease and cancer. A healthier you means more moments to cherish. Take control of your well-being and book an assessment today. Medcan. Live well for life. Visit medcan.com slash moments to get started. So the Chiefs hadn't won a playoff game before Mahomes for like a decade and

half, even longer than that actually, because Mahomes didn't get there until like 13, 14, 15, whenever that was, maybe a little bit later. So they didn't win a playoff game for nearly two decades. So back in the day, that's what they did. They were just known for that. And the Chiefs had the opportunity to ride the hot hand in Elvis Gerbach. They decided to bolt on the hot hand. And they lose in the first one. Rich Gannon goes to the Raiders and goes to the Super Bowl and wins an MVP. But that's not what this situation is. This situation is not that. This situation is fucking Davis Mills. It's fucking Davis Mills. Like think about yourself. Think about yourself and think about what you're saying when you say it aloud. That Davis Mills, you think Davis Mills is going to win you a

playoff game. Think about that and then think about how ridiculous you sound when you say that. Why? Because Davis Mills beat the Jaguars during the regular season? Cool. Who gives a shit? because Davis Mills did enough to beat the bills during the regular season. Congrats. As it turns out, the bills kind of fucking sucked. So who cares? Like, you don't and none of us believe. You don't believe it and none of us believe that Davis Mills is going to win that.

Now, B. Hannan says T.J. Yates did. Yeah, T.J. Yates did. They also had no other choice. It's not like it was play your guy that you think you might end up paying $250 million to and giving a huge deal to, right? correct, okay? Or ride with T.J. Yates. That wasn't the option. Like, it's easy to go back and look at it and say T.J. Yates won a playoff game.

He did. He beat the Bengals. So did eventually Matt Shaw beat the Bengals. Everybody beat the Bengals. It was Marvin Lewis, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. That's what the Bengals did. They lost to everybody in the playoffs, right? I can then flip the script on you and tell you that Ryan Lindley started a playoff game for the Arizona Cardinals a couple years later and got bludgeoned.

because I think it was the year that Carson Palmer got hurt. They were on their third string emergency quarterback. The dude was like teaching elementary school somewhere. And he starts a playoff game for the Cardinals who were great during the regular season. And then he gets in and they were disaster offensively. So for every one of your, hey, T.J. Yates won a playoff game. Also, again, T.J. Yates played a couple of regular season games as well. Right? Let's not forget that shit either.

Like, T.J. Yates won the game on the road against, again, the Bengals, beat the bangles in 2011 to get to the playoffs. He was their only option. There was no other guy. If you'll remember, they had the Liz Frank injury that year from Shob. They go with Matt Liner. Matt Liner gets hurt almost immediately. And then it's just T.J. Yates or Buss. There was no other option. I couldn't even tell you who they signed to back up T.J. Yates. I'm trying to remember. Am I tripping? Did they actually sign? Did they have Jake Dallone? Am I, like, let me know, am I tripping on that? I want to say the Texans. may have signed Jake Delome at one point.

That can't be right. But I think they did. I think Delon, who backed up T.J. Yates? When they played the playoff games against the Bengals at home, and then Yates, I guess, would have played the Ravens game, right? Was it Yates that played in 2011? So that's when they went to the Ravens.

Who was the backup quarterback for T.J. Yates in 2011? Because, I mean, Schaub didn't play that game, right? Schaub was out. He had a Liz Frankentery. He was out for the year. So, who is the, so that's what I want to know is who's the guy. Who backed up T.J. Yates? That is a wonderful question.

Who backed up T.J. Yates? 2011 Houston Texans. I swear that Jake Dallone played for the Texans that year. And if I'm wrong, I'm like, I don't know why I feel this way. Was Dallone ever on the, he was? There he was. Jake Dallon. Boy, who says I don't know fucking sports?

Everybody bend over and take it. A Jake Dallone pull, by the way. And by the way, Jake Delome attempted 28 passes for the Texans that year. How about that shit? So would that mean then that Jake Delon was the backup quarterback for T.J. Yates in the playoff game? Because that was the year that Jacoby Jones dropped the punt. They were in the game against Baltimore. Jacobi Jones dropped a punt.

And that was that. Because, again, that was the year that Liner was the backup quarterback to Shob. Shob got hurt. Liner got hurt like in the first quarter of the. next game, I think, or something like that. And then it was Yates for, I want to say, like the last five games of the year. So like that? And Jake D'Lone was his backup.

Boy, what a world that was. Yeah, because that's right. So Yates started five games. He went two and three. That's another thing you need to remember. T.J. Yates went two and three as the starting quarterback for the Texans. So again, if you're trying to use a T.J. Yates reference. And look, there are examples of backup quarterbacks going on runs.

Philadelphia Eagles know about it when you had, um, When you had Homeboy win him the Super Bowl, right? Nick Foles. Nick Foles, by the way, when he won the Super Bowl in 2017, had also taken the team to the playoffs back in 2013. So he went to total nothing. Like, dude, Davis Mills is a fucking nothing burger, bro. Davis Mills is a nothing burger. How many years has Davis Mills played in the league?

Anyone? Has he been in there since Bill O'Brien? How many years has Davis Mills been in the NFL? He's 27. He's been in the league since 2021. So he's been in the league five years. Bless his heart, Davis Mills ain't going to do shit. I get the Davis Mills started some games.

And I get that Davis Mills had to play during the what's his name era. Who was the Cully era? I get all that shit. I mean, look, it was a shitty spot to be in. But Davis Mills sucks. Davis Mills ain't going nowhere. Davis Mills is a fine backup quarterback. And if he has to play two or three games for you, as you saw this year,

you can survive with Davis Mills. if you've got a great defense behind him, you can survive with Davis Mills. But these idiots that are just like, oh my God, Davis Mills should have played. Oh my God. Davis Mills should have played. Fuck off. Like, it's such a dumb take. Like, how dare they?

You ain't going to bench a guy that you think you might still be paying $250, $300 million to. That ain't going to happen. If you think that there's any chance that C.J. Stroud is still your franchise quarterback and the guy that you're going to pay big bucks to, that guy ain't getting fucking benched in that game. And if you notice, like, Josh Allen played like shit. Now, again, I'm not, Josh Allen is a far more accomplished NFL quarterback in terms of years in the league, MVP's all that shit. He is a more accomplished quarterback than C.J. Stroud.

But do you think when Josh Allen was playing like dog shit in the first half? They're like, you know what we need to do. We need to bench Josh Allen and bring in whoever the fucking backup is. You want to know why? No. You want to know why? Because nobody even fucking knows who the backup quarterback for the bills is. For a hundred bucks, who is the backup quarterback for the Buffalo Bills?

Now, Jacob says C.J. sucks too. I'm not dismissing that. But C.J. Stroud is a first round picket quarterback and they need to know what they have. So if the argument is that C.J. Stroud sucks. He very well may fucking suck. And look, he's, real talk. C.J. Stroud has been bad for a year and a half. Had a great first year and started out very slow in year two and was not good at all in year three to the point that I'm making videos about whether or not this guy actually sucks. And he may. I'm not disagreeing with you. But what I am saying is that you need to know that for sure. You need to know that he's not the guy that's going to get you there. And maybe D'Amico costs him their one best shot. Maybe next year Mahomes is back and Burrough stays healthy, which he won't because he doesn't.

But maybe Mahomes is back and Burrow and Josh Allen gets a coach that knows how to win in the playoffs. And then who knows? Maybe this was the one opportunity. And if we look back on this in 20 years ago, holy shit. Look, the Texans had a legitimate shot of winning the Super Bowl. Because ain't nobody in there that's worth a shit. But I think you still ride with your guy. I think you have no other choice. You've got to ride with the guy that's there.

Tribusky, by the way, is the backup quarterback for the bills. Great. Last time I checked, nobody was like, holy shit. We got to get Tribisky in the fucking game. Hurry, hurry, hurry. And again, different situation. I'm well aware of that. Josh Allen far more accomplished than C.J. Stroud. Cool.

How many more playoff wins does Josh Allen have than Stroud's got three, right? How many playoff wins does Josh Allen have? Again, just if you want a basis. Because if I had to guess, Alan probably has five? Does that sound right? Because he lost to the masturbator, right? That was that overtime game against Deshaun. I would say he's got five or six. Let's see. Josh Allen total playoff wins. Let's see how many he's got.

He has eight. Cool. How many years have he been in the league, right? He's got eight playoff wins and seven loss. And C.J. Stroud's been in the league for three years. He's got three playoff wins. Again, that's not the end-all be-all.

I'm not trying to tell you that C.J. Stroud is some sort of God and that he's infallible and that C.J. Stroud could never be benched. Or I'm not telling you that they can't move on from C.J. Strout. but you're going to do everything you can to make sure that you didn't fuck up a top overall pick, a top five whatever pick in the NFL. You can't.

And if you would have yanked him there, you're basically telling the world that you think this guy sucks and he's done. So you can't do that. And at the end of the day, do you think that C.J. Stroud, when he figures it out, gives you a better shot of winning the game than Davis Mills. Here's the argument that I've seen people make for Davis Mills. The Davis Mills argument is, well, he's a good game manager. cool, you're down by 11 points. Hate to break it to you.

You don't need a game manager when you're down 11 points. 11 points ain't going to get you shit. If you're down 11 points at halftime, game manager like pass, pass, punt, and let the defense went. It ain't going to work that way. So, let's see, B. Hanan, Aswiler got the Broncos in the playoffs, went 5 and 2 and then got signed by the Texas. That is true. I feel bad for our defense. Anderson is who we thought C.J.

Dude, Jacob, I'm with you, brother. I mean, the Texas defense is nasty. We know they're nasty. They couldn't do anything on offense. Pat's all defense's good, too. They're a well-coached team, too. Like, think about this. You want to point a finger and laugh at somebody?

laugh at the Titans. The Titans had the dude. They had Vrable, and they basically told him to go fuck himself. Because they're owner's an idiot. Anytime you think that the McNairs have issues, remember that Amy Adams-strunk is the owner of the Titans, and she just got sick of going to the AFC championship game with Mike Vrable. and decided to team up with whatever dipshit she decided to hire after Vrable.

Vrable's one win away from the Super Bowl, he's going to win. If you want me to believe that Jared Stidim is going to beat Mike Vrable's defense, go fuck yourself. It ain't going to happen. So, and Amy Adams Strunk over here is like, hey, maybe we're going to hire Matt fucking Nagy. So anytime you think that your team is stupid and many teams are, there are a lot of bad owners, do not forget that Amy Adams Strunk fired Mike Vrable and teamed up with

whoever the fuck she teamed up with, whatever those Jemokes were, whoever we're talking, Ran Carthon and all these other dipshits that she hired, and got rid of Mike Vrable, who is now about to go to the Super Bowl for a franchise that with Gerod Mayo was a total fucking waste.