- 2 days ago
Seth and Sean react to Bryce Young taking up for CJ Stroud on the Pivot podcast, discuss some things that need to happen for Stroud to be better, and talk about their excitement that the Colts are looking to lock in a multi-year deal with QB Daniel Jones.
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00:00C.J. Stroud's been a big topic around here and around the league in the offseason so far. I think
00:05a lot of people are anxious to see what year four looks like for C.J. Stroud. Before we get
00:12to the
00:12Bryce Young audio, there was footage that surfaced of C.J. over the weekend, I guess, at a charity
00:20event here in Houston where his mom and his foundation were getting honored. And C.J. went
00:27up after the acknowledgement, after C.J.'s mom and the foundation were given their accolades,
00:35he went up and did a little bit of an impromptu, about three or four minute speech that was
00:40very well received in the room there. But the big thing for me, Seth, this was the first
00:43public appearance that I've seen of C.J. Stroud at an event of note with the new look, the new
00:50haircut. Yeah, looks good. I thought it looked good. I thought he looked good, especially
00:53in that tuxedo. Like, okay, this is a man that commands respect. I think it looked good.
00:58I think it looked like he commanded respect. I don't know if this is confirmation bias or
01:03not by me, but I felt like his speech, I felt like he was a little bit more kind of,
01:09had
01:10a little bit higher notch of energy to the speech. And he was a little more kind of, I don't
01:17know,
01:17there was a, there was a different vibe to him giving that speech to me. I didn't have that. I
01:20mean, I think, especially speaking, uh, about what are you speaking about? Cause he's, he cited,
01:27uh, a Bible verse and, you know, spoke, spoke about that for a little while in his faith and
01:33everything. Um, I didn't think it was necessarily any different than what he typically does. I think
01:37we see him in a press conference, which is different, a different environment. And it's,
01:42you know, it's certainly not usually wearing a tuxedo at press conferences.
01:45Right. Right. And that, yeah. And that may be, you know what, that's a good point. That
01:49could be it. Cause in a lot of, even though he was speaking impromptu, it's still a formal
01:52speaking environment. Sure. And, and admittedly, even play, even playing on a good team, a lot
01:58of his press conferences looked like hostage video type stuff this year. He didn't look super
02:02excited to be at a lot of the press conferences here as he has in years past. Right. So you
02:07may
02:07be right about that. It could be the environment that he was in either way. I was very impressed.
02:11I was impressed with the speech. I liked the look and, um, the, that has me, you know,
02:16if it's pushing me one way or the other, it's got me more excited for next season.
02:20The, uh, the audio from the TV that we saw online, wasn't that great to play on air, but
02:26he had, he had referenced Philippines one verse 49. And he spoke for a while about actual real
02:33world suffering and everything and the value of suffering. So this isn't like some football
02:37player getting up there and saying, yeah, I've suffered just the same as anybody. He
02:42was, he was speaking about serious topics. Um, but then he said, uh, as another example,
02:47of course, the last game didn't go the way I wanted to, of course, I wish I had plays back,
02:51but I'm okay with suffering in front of people because I know somebody is going to see how
02:55I respond. Yeah. We're all going to go through bad days. We're all going to have bad moments.
02:59I'm going to have bad plays. I'm going to have bad games, but my response needs to be humility
03:04and enjoy in gratitude. I like where his head's at, man. I like where his head's at. I bet that
03:10event, that event, the, the, the message combined with the haircut. I I'm ready for OTAs, man.
03:18Yeah. I like, he's already taken responsibility for having a, just a horrendous, a horrendously
03:23bad game against Patriots. Yeah. I feel like, I feel like some people, depending on what their
03:28agenda is or either ignoring the Steelers game completely, uh, or in terms of his bad
03:34performance, there's a, there's a few people out there. The CJ haters are ignoring any of the
03:40positive stuff that happened in the regular season. The CJ lovers are ignoring the Steelers
03:45game when they're excusing the playoff performance as saying just, it was just one bad game. Like
03:50nah, it was two bad performances, but it was, it was different. It was a different variety of
03:55bad than we saw in the regular season. Yeah. Yep. Uh, so, uh, taking up for CJ Stroud,
04:01this was Bryce young, Bryce young, who goes back a long way with CJ. Admittedly, they're both from
04:06Southern California. They played against each other in, in basketball in high school. And this is on
04:11the pivot. And it's interesting because a couple of years ago, it was CJ Stroud on the pivot taking
04:15up for Bryce young. Yeah. Yeah. Now it's Bryce young on the pivot. Yeah, here it is. Here's Bryce.
04:23I don't know why people act like they haven't watched him go and dominate this league. We've
04:27all seen it. Like, and also one thing quarterback position in general, like this is one of the rare
04:31sports. You can't call ISO on every step in the NFL. It takes 11 on one side of all living
04:37on the
04:37other. We all sign up for that criticism. We all sign up for the credit. You know, we all want
04:41to take
04:41the bullet for the team. That's, you know, that's our job. But at the end of the day, like we
04:44can't
04:45control everything. We know what, what he can do. We know what he does. We've watched him have do such
04:50crazy things in this league. And like, that's who he is. Like, don't get that twisted. Like
04:54ever. That's who he is. Media wants to make things, you know, fans, that's part of the thing.
04:58They're going to be up and down, whatever it is. I know who he is as a player. I know
05:01who he is as
05:01a leader, as a person. He knows that too. I know that as well. So it's like, I'm excited to
05:06watch
05:06what he, what he does. Okay. Um, so I, I'm in, look, I, I tend to agree with, I think
05:14if you're a Texan fan,
05:15man, I'm not saying that you should shape your opinion based on what Bryce Young is saying right
05:19there. I'm saying that if you're a Texan fan who one of your goals is to enjoy the upcoming season
05:24and get excited about it, you're going to have to love the one you're with. Yeah. I, yeah. I think,
05:28um, when it comes to the way other players feel about CJ, I think that's the interesting thing is
05:33that the, the league and defensive players, guys on his own team, um, they still talk about CJ in a
05:44certain kind of way. Yeah. You know that there's, um, and like Bryce Young doesn't count as much as
05:49other defensive players, but it's, it's the hardest thing about evaluating the quarterback position is
05:55okay with just exactly how do you separate the quarterback from everything else on the offense
06:00and just how do you separate it? You don't want to make excuses for them, but you also have to,
06:04you have to take these things into account. And that's where during the regular season,
06:10it was a lot easier to just say, all right, look, he's dealing with imperfect circumstances here,
06:17but he's also doing a good job of leaning on the defense. And I think he's doing some things in
06:22turn, in terms of learning how to manage the game as a veteran quarterback, I thought he was doing
06:27some really good things. Yeah. If, if the, if the Texans, it's a, we're in a weird place where
06:31if the Texans had missed the playoffs, I think we'd feel better about CJ's child right now,
06:36or at least a lot of people would feel better about CJ's child right now. Then if then,
06:41then going through the playoffs and seeing what happened, that's an interesting notion. If they
06:46had gone 11 and six and lost a tiebreaker to somebody. So missing the, if they'd missed the
06:51playoffs and gone eight and nine, I would tend to disagree just because CJ probably would have
06:55with that defense. If they would have gone eight and nine, it meant CJ play, but if they got 11
06:59and
06:59six, let's say, and you lose a tiebreaker, I don't want to get into it. They probably would have won
07:03the tiebreakers with LA and Buffalo. Let's say they start off. Oh, and four, but then have that
07:07same, uh, you know, incredible climb back, but they don't make the playoffs. Yeah. There's, I mean,
07:14there's going to be things to criticize CJ for like there is, you know, just about every quarterback
07:19in the NFL, probably nothing that pushes him so far out of the contract extension conversation,
07:25right? It was, it was, it was the way all of those good things that he did on the margins
07:31just
07:31flew out the window in the playoffs. It just changed the perception of everything. That's
07:35where, and it's hard. Cause I look at Peyton Manning, Peyton Manning was atrocious in the
07:40playoffs his first seven years in the NFL, but he was also much more impressive in the regular
07:47season. He was a literal MVP. Yeah. Yeah. But there was that, but that dynamic was an extreme
07:52one where he was incredible in the regular season. And then he was atrocious in closeout in,
07:58in, well, they're all elimination games, but they're like the games in which the Colts
08:02got eliminated in the playoffs. He was atrocious through four interceptions against the Patriots
08:07in the playoffs, like that kind of bad. So there were a lot of people at the time that thought
08:13like, ah, this guy just doesn't have it. He's just, he folds up in the playoffs. So I mean,
08:19it's, there's a lot that goes into it. I had texted you yesterday about one guy whose name
08:25doesn't get brought up enough. I think when we talk about players who remind you that, Hey,
08:31you got to wait more than a few years. It takes more than three years sometimes for guys to really,
08:37this was a good one by you. Yeah. Eli Manning comes up a lot. Yep. Sam Darnold obviously is
08:41coming up a lot. People will bring up Baker Mayfield. Gino Smith is a, an extreme example
08:45of a guy who took forever to just actually even do anything. Yeah. Um, Alex Smith. I don't know why
08:51Alex Smith isn't mentioned more because Alex Smith spent the first five years of his career
08:56in quarterback hell and didn't do much impressive at all. And then I, it is, I think it was a
09:03sixth
09:04year when Harbaugh shows up and it's off to the races and he became a very good, not, you know,
09:11not what you hope CJ's ceiling is, but he became a very good NFL and competitive NFL quarterback in a
09:16way that he hadn't looked at all like that in his first few years. Yeah. I would say, yeah,
09:20he was drafted in Oh five and Harbaugh got there in 2011. So whatever, six, seven years,
09:25something like that. He had one missed season due to injury. So it was his first five or six seasons.
09:29He just, he didn't do a while, but a long time. Your points are good one. A long time. I
09:32I'll just,
09:34I'll answer your question with just a guess as to why maybe Alex Smith doesn't get mentioned with
09:38those guys. One, he never won a Superbowl. Those guys you named did win Superbowls. Um, you know,
09:43the two Mannings and Darnold, both ones, you know, they all won Superbowls. The other thing is he was
09:47eventually replaced by my homes. Like Kansas city eventually said to themselves, this guy's just
09:52not good enough to get us over the hump. Yeah. And I, and that's what I'm just internally. I'm
09:57not saying that that's the ceiling or that's what you hope for, but in terms of, of, of just the
10:02actual, how long it takes and what the circumstances need to be for a guy that went from being a
10:07perennial
10:082300 yard passer. Yes. Starting half the games and everything to like, all of a sudden, the guy
10:13who's a, uh, every other year or so a pro bowl. I'll back up your point. If Alex Smith, if
10:18what,
10:18whatever the aggregate of what Alex Smith was with Harbaugh and Andy Reed, if the Texans had gotten
10:24that in the post season, they probably win the Superbowl or at least get to the Superbowl.
10:28Yeah. Um, so I think it's a, you know, from that standpoint, I definitely think it's a valid
10:33one to bring up, you know, you, you brought up CJ and how he's viewed by his peers, as opposed
10:38to
10:38how fans view him. You know, I think the fan view on him right now is still, especially here is
10:42still
10:43down just based on the playoffs. CJ's first two seasons after his rookie year. And it's, it's
10:51weird to go back and remember this time in place after CJ's rookie year, he was number 20 in the
10:58NFL
10:58top 100. It's voted on by his peers, you know, not all of them, but several players, you know,
11:04hundreds of players vote on this thing. He was number 20 in the NFL top 100 after his awesome
11:10rookie year. Goes backwards a little bit in 2024. Yeah. But still rated number 39 in the NFL top 100.
11:19Do you think that CJ Stroud makes the NFL top 100 this year? Oh, that's a good question. I doubt
11:25it.
11:26Um, he goes from 20 to 39 to all the way out. Hmm. There was a residual glow from that
11:34first year
11:35where the, for the, for the number 39. Yeah. I think when guys are like, I, and especially,
11:40I think guys probably only put so many quarterbacks in, um, when they're doing the rankings and
11:45everything. I wonder if they're, if there's just a natural kind of cutoff point where maybe they
11:50don't put him in the top 10 anymore. Right. And, uh, that, Hmm. Okay. That's a great one. I wonder
11:55if the over under is, what would you put set the over under on? I think he's not going to
11:59make it.
11:59You don't think he's going to make it. I don't think he's going to make it. I think that playoff
12:02performance, I think that we're two years removed now from the rookie of the year campaign. I mean,
12:08look, we saw so, I mean, he was the punch. He, he was, uh, he was a punchline after that
12:14Patriots
12:15game. He was a meme. And there were actual, there were actual players talking about that
12:20performance, you know? And so I think, I don't think that was necessarily fair. I'm not using
12:24that as a justification to not vote for the guy, but I'm not a voter vote that people are making
12:29in the prime time games matter. And then the big time games, just like after the, after the Texans
12:34lost to the chiefs in 2024, a lot of people were heaping a bunch of praise on the Texans defense,
12:41even though they lost because, and I think a lot of defensive players felt like the Texans defense
12:46really got screwed in that game with a couple of those unnecessary roughnesses. But also there was,
12:52there were also people praising CJ Stroud for the first three quarters of work. And then everything
12:57fell apart in the fourth quarter when the, the, the pass protection just broke down completely.
13:01Um, yeah, I think the, when, when I see other players talk about it, when you talk to the Texans
13:06players themselves, the, their sentiment about CJ Stroud as a leader and everything is way higher
13:13than I think the public perception is. And again, because of whatever you read into on body language
13:19during the playoffs or anything else like that. Um, I get it. And it made, and it makes sense.
13:23You got Troy Aikman, you know, making the comments he did. I don't, I don't worry that the players on
13:29the team feel the same way that a lot of the people in the media totally agree. Totally, totally agree
13:34with you on that. I just think like, I think at large, like your question was, what would your
13:39over under be on where he's going to be ranked? I think the prop bet is actually, does he make
13:44it
13:44yes or no? And I think yes is like plus one 20 or something like that. You know, looking for,
13:50uh,
13:50I was looking for some quotes on what, uh, defensive players are saying about CJ Stroud recently.
13:55And I see this quote, I see this headline, ex Texans player raises concerning red flag about CJ Stroud.
14:01And I go to it and I'm scrolling down and it just, uh, ex Texans defender raises red flag
14:07about CJ Stroud. Oh, it's Seth Payne. No way. Yeah. On heavy.com. The best, the best would
14:18have been if your thought was, I can't see what this dip bleep has to say. Uh, it was basically
14:23something I'd said in our show. They pulled it off of, uh, but it was what you and I have
14:28talked about that, uh, that he seemed to operate differently after he came back from his concussion.
14:33Yeah. And it wasn't that he didn't have good moments in those games. It, it was, there were
14:38specific moments in some of those games where I felt like he didn't handle the rush as well
14:43as he had been before that, but mostly it was, it was his reluctance to run. Yeah. And at times
14:49when man, the easy yardage is there, there were some, he made some nice throws, but that were
14:55dangerous throws at times where the smarter decision would have been just to run for the
15:01easy yardage. Uh, you know, going to the chiefs game, he made some really nice plays where he was
15:06under pressure and he was running towards the line of scrimmage. There was one of you, he made
15:09the Dalton Schultz. I can remember where man, it was a nice throw, but that was a, that was a
15:14risky
15:15throw. And you had seven or eight yards of easy yardage in front of you that you could run for
15:19on it.
15:19Dude, there was a, um, there was a video that popped up yesterday on my timeline. I think NFL.com
15:24put it
15:25together. It was the top 10 plays from the Texans season this year. And there ended up being like
15:3013 because for whatever reason, they had a couple of them that were tied for seven and a couple of
15:36them ties. So it ended up being about a dozen or so plays. And a few of them are throws
15:41where you're
15:41like, Oh, it's still in there somewhere. You know, that Kansas city game, CJ had one of those throws in
15:47that game that we saw him and Nico connect on so often their first two years together, where CJ gets
15:52flush from the pocket. He rolls, right? He starts running towards the line of scrimmage. And then
15:57he throws it back across his body to the middle of the field. And you're like, no, no, no. And
16:01Nico's right there with nobody near him catches it, turns it upfield and turns it into a 50 plus yard
16:06gain. Yeah. He's still in there, man. Right. It's still in there. It's just a matter of the
16:10consistency. And as all the old quarterbacks say, it's not as much about the great plays you do make.
16:16It's also the bad plays that you don't make. And that was what just reared its ugly head in the
16:20playoffs so much. This was, um, uh, you know, along those lines, former Texans player, Seth
16:26Payne had said this in this article from the, uh, incredibly well-respected heavy.com. Yeah,
16:31for sure. You can't take that away from where CJ ceiling is. He has the ability to really make
16:36some great plays and clutch moments. The fact is that he just ran so minimally after his concussion.
16:41And then the fact that in both the Steelers game and the Patriots game, he just did not look
16:46comfortable when pressured in the pocket. Some of the pressing, some of the turnovers he made in
16:50those games were like Ross Tucker said, every turnover tells its own story. Oh yeah. Ross Tucker
16:56paraphrased Brock Osweiler and then was quoted by Seth Payne. Yes. So you're kind of complicit in Ross
17:04Tucker stealing Brock Osweiler's key material. Yeah. And he still made some great, he made some great
17:10plays under pressure, even in that Patriots game. It's the, I'm not saying he didn't do anything good
17:16after the concussions came back. It's just, there were more moments where he started staring at the
17:21rush. Yep. He just looked a little bit more flustered and hurried than he had earlier in the
17:26season. Dude. And then, and I think that's a lot of what came back to roost in that Steelers game
17:30was
17:31him paying attention to the rush before the snap, you know, his eyes coming up and taking his eye off
17:36the ball and things. I think that had a lot to do with why he fumbled the ball five times
17:39in that
17:40game. That Seth Payne guy made a lot of good points in that heavy.com article, man. I'm not
17:44going to read the comments. I don't like that. A couple of the headlines and the bylines basically
17:48made my, my takes look a lot harsher than they are. Oh really? You know how it goes. Are you
17:52looking
17:52at the comments now and you don't want to read them on air? No, no, no. I'm not going to
17:55read the
17:55comments. Whenever I see something where I can tell, including when our own, you know, sometimes our web
18:01people do a really good job of putting a sensationalistic headline on it. And you know that we signed up
18:06for
18:06it. People's opinions about what you said are already formed by the headlines. I'm like, nope,
18:11I'm not going to look at the comments. Cause I, they're going to be, they're going to be fuming
18:15about something that I didn't actually say. Cause I didn't read the article and that's fine. Okay.
18:19I'll forward them to you so that you, yeah, thanks. No worries. No worries. No, I generally, I, I realize
18:25I'm going to get taken out of context these days a lot. And I try to, when I see that
18:30that's happened,
18:31I don't fight it, but I also just don't look at people raging against something that I didn't say.
18:35I don't need that. No. Cause then you, then you gotta, what am I going to do? Write a letter
18:39to 2,900 different people about what I actually said, dude, it's empty calories, man. Don't do it.
18:44Don't, don't do it. Um, so how did you feel yesterday, Seth, when you saw the report from
18:50Tom Pellicero that the Colts are beginning negotiations on a multi-year deal with Daniel
18:57Jones? I got so excited. I did too. I'm so happy for Colts fans. Yes. Oh, I hope it's,
19:03I hope it breaks records. I hope they have the guts. Do you hear me? Ursae family. Do you have
19:09the guts to give him 500 million guaranteed? Cause I don't think you do. I don't think you do.
19:17Maybe, I don't know. Maybe you're going to, maybe you'll, maybe you'll uphold the family legacy and
19:22actually do something that takes some cojones. Yep. But probably not. I don't think you've got
19:27the nerve. Your dad would have done it. Your dad will hold up the legacy girls, ladies. Yes. Yeah.
19:34I think you should find a way to, uh, figure out a way to trade away even more of your
19:37first round
19:37picks somehow, somehow include a first round pick in the negotiate in the renegotiation.
19:43There's only one more they can trade away. You can only trade away three of them. We gave Daniel
19:47Jones 200 million guaranteed. And we gave him a first round pick to do with whatever he wants
19:52with it. They're in a rough spot, man. And the, well, that was the bit of Colts news I saw
19:56yesterday
19:56as we'll kind of take a look around the AFC South for a minute here. Um, I, I like that
20:01news. You and
20:02I are of like mind on that one. Sign Daniel Jones for as long as you want to sign him.
20:05He was starting
20:06to play and look like the old Daniel Jones before the Achilles injury. They started seven
20:11and one, they were eight and four in the game that he got hurt against Jacksonville. I think
20:17they were playing Jacksonville in that game. The game before was the Texans game where he
20:21was kind of hindered by a calf. Um, but he was, he lost three or four going into that game
20:26where he tore the Achilles. Like he was starting to, he was, he was starting to erode. He was
20:31starting to show signs of, okay, I mean, maybe, maybe Shane Steichen got the absolute
20:36most out of this guy for eight games. They also played a ridiculously easy schedule early
20:41in the great point. They were stacking up, uh, kudos to them for racking up a bunch of
20:46points against inferior opponents and defenses. But when, when they got down to crunch time,
20:52he just didn't look as good. Uh, and then he got injured and he's coming up in Achilles.
20:57So yeah, I hope they, I hope they throw as much money at him as, as possible.
21:00The Colts will reportedly, if they have to Seth franchise tag, Alec Pierce,
21:06which I think would be really smart for them. You know, the, the Cowboys it's reported are
21:10going to franchise tag, or they may already have franchise tag, George Pickens one year,
21:1528 million. That feels like something that could blow up in the Cowboys face.
21:19Franchise tag one year, 28 million for Alec Pierce is a good deal for the Indianapolis Colts.
21:24I have no idea. Alec Pierce. The only reason I'm saying that about Pickens is we've got evidence
21:29that Pickens can be a bit of a live wire. It has a personality. That's a little bit combustible.
21:34I don't know what the deal is with Alec Pierce. If he's just a go along to get along guy,
21:40if he's cool with one year guaranteed 28 million bucks, you know, he's a second round pick back
21:45in the day, you know, so was Pickens. So they haven't made the super duper life-changing money.
21:51So is Alec Pierce cool with that? Would he want to trade all those things? I just know that
21:55I want him the hell out of the division. I'm so much more frightened of him than I am any
21:59of the
21:59other weapons on that team. Maybe even including Jonathan Taylor, because the Texans by and large
22:04do a pretty good job of bottling up Jonathan Taylor, Alec Pierce, the Texans do a pretty good
22:10job of bottling up Jonathan Taylor. You know what they don't do a good job of preventing big plays
22:13down the field. That's the thing that they, that's where they made a lot of improvements in 2025 over
22:212024, 2024. They just allowed way too many huge chunk plays last year. They were, they improved a lot.
22:27They still weren't. And that was the one area of the defense that just wasn't stellar was how many
22:34explosive plays they allowed. It does. It, it seemingly shows up against the Colts, no matter
22:39who the quarterback is, whether it's Ryan, Riley Leonard or Anthony Richardson or Daniel Jones.
22:45That's the, that's the annoying thing. Yes. Yeah. Didn't matter who it was. Yeah. Yeah. Daniel Jones last
22:51four games, he was one in three. Yep. What did his numbers look like? Oh no, I'm sorry. One in
22:56four
22:57apologies. Well, he, the fourth one was the one he left the Achilles injury. How early,
23:02how early, relatively early in the game. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll just say one in three. Yeah.
23:07What was, what was like his numbers, his, his, you know, counting numbers in those games sorted
23:12out here. No, no, no. I'm just, was he, did it, did the numbers look good or did they look,
23:15it was, was he a big reason why they were in the course of those, uh, that four and one
23:19quarter
23:20games. Yes. He threw six touchdowns and five interceptions. Yeah. That's bad. Yeah. He, uh,
23:26had a quarterback rating of 84.2. That's not good in this day and age. No, his, uh, completion
23:31percentage was 62.4%. Okay. Well that's whatever. That's whatever these days. Yeah. Um, yeah. So
23:38no, the, I guess the, six touchdowns, five interceptions. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No,
23:43he, he, he had started to, that's why I love seeing them buy into him, you know, like, Oh,
23:48this is your guy. Okay. And, and understanding that, you know, they say multi-year deal, that could
23:53be a two-year deal. You know, the multi-year, you know, it's, I doubt they're giving him
23:57five years, 220 million or anything like that. I hope they've got the guts to say, give him
24:02a record vacant contract with you. Yeah. No, we should challenge them to put up or shut
24:06up. You guys have gone long enough without an incredible, uh, generational talented quarterback.
24:11And I think it's time you lock them down. Colts. You got the cojones.
24:14You got the cojones.
24:15Bye.
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