The Josh Innes Show - Should The Texans Pay CJ Stroud?

Episode Date: September 23, 2025

My comments about CJ Stroud got some reaction on the socials yesterday. It's hard to not see that he doesn't look like the same guy. Now, you can blame him or you can blame the offensive line or you can blame the coaches. But, reality is the numbers are down and were down last year. The Texans will have a huge decision to make on Stroud. Is he worth big bucks? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So I've been posting quick videos and stuff. I'm way behind the times on that. But I've been trying to just do more of that to try to get interaction and get some people to listen. And it's interesting, though, because the comments I've gotten from people on those are very mixed, but mostly leaning towards agreeing that maybe C.J. Stroud ain't the dude. because at some point they got to pay him and right now there ain't no way you're paying him as it stands today at 508 in the morning on the 23rd of September 2025

there is no way now you don't have to pay him this year anyway but usually if you have a guy that you're in love with and you really want to get him locked in you might do it right now you might do it this offseason you don't have to do that and I don't think they want to do that right now because CJ's a mess he carries himself as a mess

not like a Deshawn Watson getting jerked off while getting massage his mess. I don't think he's a bad person or a shit human, but you watch him and he just seems lost and uninterested, and I don't know if that reason is because the offensive line sucks. If he doesn't like the offense, they're running. I don't know what it is, but that ain't the same dude. That ain't the dude that came into the league and finished top eight in the MVP voting as a rookie. That's not the dude that was the rookie of the year. That's not a dude that want a playoff game in his first.

ever playoff start. That ain't that guy. And we're getting further and further away from that. We're talking now 19 regular season games since he wrapped up that first season. 19 regular season games. And we'll get into some more of this. Let's play a couple of commercials. When your investors, customers, and workers demand more from your business, make it happen with SAP. The AI powered capabilities of SAP can help you streamline costs, connect with new suppliers, and manage payroll, even when your business is being pulled in different directions. To deliver a quality product at a fair price, while paying your people what they're worth, too. So your business can stay unfazed.

Learn more at SAP.com slash uncertainty. Long-bendy Twizzler's candy keeps the fun going. Keep the fun going. Twizzlers, keep the fun going. 19 regular season games you've gotten from C.J. Stroud. I mean, you go back and look at the 20-24 season. So you had, actually, it'd be 20. I take that back because I forgot it's not 16 games.

Now it's 17 regular season games, right? So you get 17 games. So he's played 20 regular season games since then. Since that rookie of the year season in which, like, I remember coming on this podcast in the first week of the 2024 season. So I guess that is when I had gotten fired about a month into it. I brought the podcast back. And I was telling you that it was wild.

If you go back and listen to it, it's almost embarrassing about how great C.J. Stroud was. And it's amazing that the Texans have a quarterback that you feel like you could win every game. It could maybe even win a Super Bowl. And look, they started the season 2 and 0 last year. They started the season 5 and 1 last year. So they were a 5 and 1 football team. and I don't know what happened, I don't know what changed, but they got to five and one after beating New England.

They throttled New England. That was coming off a three-point win over Buffalo, coming off a four-point win over Jacksonville. They got crushed by Minnesota at Minnesota, but they beat Chicago and they had a two-point win at Indianapolis. That was a fun game. That was one that Jillie and I went to. But they started five-and-one. An old buddy in that five-and-one stretch had, let's see, six, eight-eight. had 10 touchdowns, four interceptions in that stretch,

was slinging the ball around, putting up big numbers. Then something happened. They went to Green Bay and that game was terrible, if you recall. Although they only lost by two, but they were awful offensively in that game. That was kind of the hyped up game. Like, what are they going to do when they go to Green Bay? And the offense was dreadful. But it was a two-point game, whatever.

They played a lot of close games last year. I mean, that's just how that season went. Some years you win those three, four-point games, some years you lose them. They lost a lot of those last years. Well, they won and lost. It was a weird year. But after they won that New England game and got to 5 and 1, they went 5 and 6 the rest of the year.

And now they're 0 and 3. So they are 5 and 9 in their last 14 regular season games with C.J. Stroud. And if you look at the numbers, you can just see the drop off in numbers. Now, numbers don't always tell the whole story. But if you look at his three seasons in the NFL, each year. And again, we're only three games into this one, so take it for what it is. But the interception rate up. He led the league, did not turn the ball over barely any in his first year. Five interceptions. 12 interceptions last year, three this year. His interception

percentage has gone up each year. His touchdown passes went down each year. His interceptions have gone up each year. Now, again, it's hard to say it this year, but he's on pace, obviously, to throw a lot of interceptions. He's got three so far this year through three games. So he's on pace for 17 interceptions if you are on-paced guy and care about such things. He ain't the same dude. And then you ask, is it because of the offensive

coordinators? It's because of the offensive personnel. Dude, like, if you're going to be a dude that makes $250 million, if you're a guy that's going to make 50, 40, 50, 60, 70 million dollars a year as a starting quarterback, if you're going to be the face of a franchise, sorry, Chief, not everything is going to be sunshine

and rainbows. It's not always rainbows and butterflies. It's compromise that moves us along. friend, Maroon, five. Okay? Sometimes you have to be the guy that lifts everybody else up. Sometimes the offensive lines fucking terrible. Peyton Manning didn't always play behind great offensive lines and Tom Brady didn't always have incredible receivers. Tom Brady had one great receiver ever, Randy Moss. Tom Brady spent most of his time throwing to West Welker. No offense. Wes Welker ain't Randy Maus. Julian Edelman ain't Randy Maus. And I understand that comparing the goat to C.J. Stroud, third-year guy isn't fair. But not everybody plays in

perfect scenarios. Because if you have to have it perfect for you to be great, then you're like Derek Carr at that point. And Derek Carr is fine. And you saw what Derek Carr could be if every single thing were perfect. Because through the first two weeks of last year with the Saints, everything was perfect. Offensive line was perfect. Wide receivers were perfect. Running game was perfect, and they were hanging like 50 a game through the first two weeks. Now, granted, they were playing dipshits. I think they played Carolina and the Cowboys. So they were beating up on dipshits.

But everything was perfect. Week three happens. First two plays of that game, center gets hurt. Offensive line is never the same. You lose Chris Olive. And then the wheels fall off of it, and that team becomes dreadful to the point that they fire the coach. And so bad, in fact, that Derek Carr is like, I don't even want to try to battle back from an

injury. I quit. And Derek Carr is a nice player. And maybe Derek Carr, in the perfect scenario, if the Saints would have never gotten hurt last year, if they stayed healthy, if they had the most healthy year ever, maybe Derek Carr wins the Super Bowl last year. It goes deep into the playoffs. I actually wins a playoff game, which I don't believe Derek Carr ever did. And there's nothing wrong, and there's no shame in being Derek Carr. But Derek Carr is not a guy you want to give $50 million a year to, $60 million a year to, $250, $300 million to.

and I know it's unfair, but you play a position that gets more credit than any position, and you're going to get more blame. So you can say, Josh, it's not fair that these other guys aren't doing their job, but the quarterback gets the blame. Yeah, and the quarterback's also going to make $50 million a year that the offensive line ain't going to make and that the wide receiver is probably not going to make. He's going to get that money, and with that comes the responsibility of having to carry it. It's like, you know, there's an, like the morning guy on a radio station

has a different expectation than the afternoon guy, than the afternoon disc jockey, like in a music station, there's just a different expectation. You know, the afternoon guy is not someone you look at and go, ah, he's the reason why the ratings are great or bad or whatever. He's just the guy that talks over the records. The guy that gets the morning job tends to make more money and the guy that has the morning job is responsible for elevating the entire radio station. And if you don't, they find someone who can. Oh, but everything worked against me. Well, you got to figure out a way to make it work for you. And I think that's what we're seeing at a C.J. Stroud that's concerning is that C.J.

Stroud is not a guy that's making it work for him. He's not a guy that's overcoming these issues. I mean, look, and look, you can go back over the course of history and there are guys like, look, if your offensive line is bad, maybe you're just going to suck. And maybe that's just the way the team is.

This offensive line is bad. And maybe it is unfair to throw so much of it on him because of how bad. I mean, the offensive line is bad. But I think that's gotten to him. I think gotten to him to the point that he's not the same dude and he seems to lack joy when he

plays. It's just a different vibe. He has a different vibe than what we saw in that first year obviously and even in parts of the last year. But somewhere along the way in the middle of that, it all kind of changed and felt different. And the numbers kind of bear that out as we talked about. Now, I don't know what this year is going to show, but he's on pace to throw for fewer than 20 touchdowns. He's on pace to throw for 17 interceptions. His interception rate is redonculus at this point. It's three, three and a half. His interception percentage.

He's getting sacked a ton, which I get, like that comes with bad offensive line play. His number is actually a sack percentage is actually down compared to last year. But again, these are early season numbers, so it's not fair to compare them to bigger picture numbers. But everything last year was a down number. Everything regressed, year one to year two. And now year two to year three, it looks worse. So people on my social, I'm getting a lot of comments from people, and I like that. There's interaction.

Some people who have no clue who I am and don't listen to podcasts or anything that I do. I think I'm a really stupid person. There are a lot of people that agree with me. But there's no way you can look at C.J. Stroud right now and go, yep, C.J. Stroud needs to make 60 million a year, 50 million a year, $250, $300 million deal. There's no way you can feel that way. But it's kind of like this. when people talk about an ace in baseball, there are legitimate aces.

Justin Verlander in his prime was an ace, right? Clayton Kershaw, regular season, was an ace for a lot of his career. There are dudes that are just ace. Terrick Scoobal is an ace. There are dudes that just get the ball and they are an ace, which means you put them on any team and they are the dude. You'd be hard-pressed. Otani could be an A, you know, those kind of guys.

Then there are guys who are the ace of that staff, but are probably not a legitimate ace. You know, guys who are good. And if they were on the same, you know, like every team has to have an ace, which is just their best player, their number one starter. But not everyone is an ace. Not everybody is prime Justin Verlander, Prime Max Scher, Greg Maddox. You know, they're not those guys. They're not those guys that when you have to face them, you're like, fuck. but you're just the best guy on a team, you know?

That's the vibe I get from CJ. I think that CJ is a starting quarterback and he is a dude because he is the starting quarterback of an NFL team. But he's not a dude big picture, right? Like since he's your starter and he's your franchise quarterback. Like franchise quarterback would be a good term to use for that. to compare with an ace, right? He might be your franchise quarterback, but from what we watch,

he's not a franchise quarterback. You know, it's like Gino Smith. Gino Smith is currently the franchise quarterback of the Raiders. And before that, he was the franchise quarterback of Seattle. Because they paid him, and granted, he's not paid like he's, you know, Pat Mahomes, but he was their guy. He was their starting quarterback.

But nobody would mistake Gino Smith for a franchise quarterback. It would be top five in the league with Justin Herbert, Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson. He wouldn't be there. But he is their starter, and that's nice. That's how I feel about C.J. Stroud. C.J. Stroud is a starter, and he is the Texans current franchise quarterback, although we don't know that that's going to be the case. But he's not a franchise quarterback.

All right. We'll get into some more stuff.