This week marks the two year anniversary of the most transformative night in the history of the Houston Texans, for it was back in late April of 2023 when the Texans drafted C.J. Stroud with the second overall pick in the draft, and followed that up, ten minutes later, by trading up to the third pick to draft Will Anderson, Jr.
The plan, at the time, was very obvious — with all that high draft capital the Texans “earned” from being horrible the season before, and all that draft capital from the Deshaun Watson trade, the franchise had a unique opportunity to not only bring in elite talent, but also elite leadership, on taboo sides of the line of scrimmage.
And so it was, on that fateful April evening, that the Texans made Stroud and Anderson the future faces of the franchise, the two that would set the bar for work ethic, teammate quality, and whatever it was their new head coach meant (and means, today) by “SWARM.”
This was all quite evident on Monday afternoon, when the Texans began their spring workout program, and the three people they trotted out to meet with the media were head coach DeMeco Ryans, Anderson, and Stroud. If you want to watch all three press conferences, you can do so here:
Here are the four quotes that were the biggest indicators that this team, at a player level, now belongs to Stroud and Anderson:
Anderson is excited about the foundation that the front office is building
“Yeah, I think that’s what you have to have when you want to build something special. You have special guys and special human beings in the front office. All the work that we’ve put in collectively together, we want to build something special and I think that’s the main focus and the main goal. Like I said, locking up those guys, they are the future. We are the future to be here and I’m excited to keep seeing where the Texans go and how far we can keep going. It’s a new thing that we’re doing, coach said ‘we can’t stop until we get a bull on a ring.’ I think that opened up everyone’s eyes and gave us a new perspective.”
Early in this cut, Anderson is referring to the contract extensions for Derek Stingley and Jalen Pitre, two players the Texans clearly see as part of a foundation that can eventually win a Super Bowl. This time next season, Anderson will have likely signed his own extension for even bigger money than either of them.
Anderson has not moved on from the loss to Kansas City in the playoffs, and that’s a good thing
“Yeah, I haven’t moved on from it at all. I was just talking to my coach about it today and that feeling like now that you know how close you were to almost being in the Super Bowl, it hits a little differently. For us, we’re almost there. Like when I broke it down today – we’re almost there. We have to have that intensity every game. No matter where we’re at, when we’re on the field, no matter if we start on defense first, like we have to bring that energy every time and never forget that feeling. I have to tell people that I have to keep my composure because I’m just so excited for next year and what this team can do and how far we can go. I know we have all the right pieces to do it and we just have to keep building that connection. Coach DeMeco hit it on the head today in the team meeting, the connection is everything. When your players trust you, when your coaches trust you, everyone has the same goal and everyone can go out there and ball. Coaches can get what they want, players can get what they want and the ultimate goal is to get to the super bowl.”
This is the precise mentality that a fan could want in the leaders of his or her football team. If you watched Anderson deliver this quote, you’d see how serious he was about how drastically he’s internalized that playoff loss to the Chiefs.
C.J. Stroud has evolved his leadership style and seems ready for 2025
“For me, I always believe in servant leadership. Servant leadership in any way that I can. My coach in college taught me the most important jobs, the only job really that a quarterback has is to make everybody around him better. Whatever that looks like that’s what I want to do. It’s been nice, now that I feel like I got another year under my belt. More experience, more comfortability with just how the NFL works, how the league works, how the city works, everything. Just being a “quarterback in the NFL” is something that no one can teach you about, it. You got to experience it. Got to make mistakes, you got to fail. You have to do good, and you have to do bad. That’s what I plan to do, is just use those experiences to help others, and be a servant to one another. It says in the Word that iron sharpens iron, another man sharpens another. That is what I plan to do.”
The concept of “servant leadership” is good and noble, but for years it had taken a beating around Houston, because the infamous Jack Easterby used as a descriptor of his management style, which could not have been more false. It’s nice to have it back in our lives, used properly, with C.J. Stroud espousing it as his way of leading his current teammates.
Stroud will be getting more control of the offense at the line of scrimmage
“Yeah, he comes from L.A. and New England and he is going to bring some of that swag over here. So, that kind of is what I’m used to. Taking control and being a little more pre-snap, having tools to put my guys in the best position. That is something that we really didn’t work on these last two years. Even those principles I learned from, and it made me better because it added a new element to my game. We will be able to just get better and learn from what he did with New England and L.A. and will definitely help me because those are two schemes I am used to in a sense. That is kind of what I ran in Iowa State, kind of how New England does a little bit. L.A. is kind of what we ran here these last two years. So, I will be able to put my swag on it, have fun with it. He is all about me taking full ownership, running the show, and that’s what I want. So, it’s really been really cool just to see that he’s bought into me and he doesn’t really know me well yet. He talked about today having blind trust and I have a lot of trust in him already. Just how he talks and how he presents in the room is really cool to see.”
Stroud having control of the offense pre-snap is something Texans fans, and Stroud himself, have been clamoring for since the offense got stuck in mud during the 2024 season. Stroud’s football IQ is one of his strengths, so it’s exciting that new offensive coordinator Nick Caley seems inclined to allow Stroud to deploy his acumen in this way.
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