The odds board for the NFL Draft was wild this past week. Everyone knew that Alabama quarterback Bryce Young was going to go first overall to Carolina, and that was reflected in the steady -2000 odds for him to get snagged first. However, after that, it was chaos. The number two spot, where the Texans stood, had everyone from Tyree Wilson to Will Anderson to Will Levis as the pick in the hours leading up to the draft.
In the final hours before the Texans were on the clock, Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud made a late run, and just before the pick was announced, Stroud was a prohibitive -6000 favorite to go to the Texans. And that he did. The reasons Stroud was off the radar until the very last moment are somewhat murky. The rumor mill was cranking out a ton of misinformation in the days leading up to the draft.
That said, while it was clear for two months that the Texans SHOULD be taking Stroud, some skunk-weed narratives, which now we know were clearly myths, developed in the final days leading up to the draft. All of these were debunked the second commissioner Roger Goodell read Stroud’s name off the card as the Texans’ selection.
Here are the three myths debunked hy the Texans’ selecting Stroud:
Texans can take their time with the rebuild, because DeMeco Ryans has a six-year deal
For some reason, people think that DeMeco Ryans is really nervous about (a) getting fired after one season, or (b) having to rush into rash decisions to start winning right away. How do I know this? Because people won’t shut the hell up about his six-year contract the Texans gave him. (A normal NFL head coach contract is four or five years.) People, DeMeco Ryans is not worried about his job security, nor does he feel like he meeds to take his time in making big moves. That much is evident in the huge moves to secure C.J. Stroud and Will Anderson.
The Texans won’t draft a David Mulugheta guy
Any Texan fan plugged into the drama swirling around the team over the last three years knows that David Mulugheta is Deshaun Watson’s agent. He also happens to be Stroud’s agent. There were many folks, including respected media members, who thought Mulugheta’s representing Stroud eliminated the Ohio State signal caller from consideration, even though Nick Caserio said on my show in February that they would not use Mulugheta as an excuse not to draft a player:
Hell, after this past weekend, Mulughta is even retweeting the Texans’ Twitter account!
The S2 cognition test will be Stroud’s undoing
The S2 test is a cognitive test that 14 NFL teams subscribe to as part of their evaluation criteria. To be clear, the Texans are not one of the subscribers. If you follow the draft process, you know that the leaked scores of this test became a BIG thing in the evaluation of Stroud as he reportedly had the worst score among the prominent QB prospects.
Some experts and anonymous personnel folks were saying this would be Stroud’s undoing, and that his stock would plummet. He was picked second overall.
Three myths, all debunked. See you at training camp, C.J.
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This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
