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Seth and Sean discuss Cal McNair saying CJ Stroud is fully "bought in" and fans' questions surrounding CJ Stroud's future as franchise QB.
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00:00On the C.J. Stroud quotes, and just C.J. Stroud in general,
00:05I'll read the quote again from Cal McNair in the article
00:08that Jonathan Alexander has on The Chronicle today.
00:10Go out of your way to find it. It's a good article.
00:12Jonathan Alexander had an exclusive with Cal and Hannah.
00:15The quote on C.J. Stroud, we're totally behind him.
00:18He's totally bought into being our quarterback, and all that entails.
00:21We all want to get better every year.
00:23He's doing that. We're doing that.
00:25Everyone's doing that in the organization.
00:27Everybody is trying to get better every day.
00:28And, quote, boy, and you and I talked, Seth,
00:32about how the Texan fans are very, you know,
00:36there's some divide on this right now.
00:38There's some that are entirely in on C.J.
00:40I'm going to put up a pender poll during the next break.
00:42I really do want to get a feel for the fan base
00:46and what bucket they fall into.
00:47I think there's definitely the ends of the spectrum
00:50where there are people that are still totally in on C.J.
00:54They blame the offensive line.
00:55They blame Nick Casario for not putting a good offensive line
00:58in front of him.
00:59They blame the change in play callers now that he's played for two
01:02and three years.
01:03Nick Caley, they're breaking in new play callers with this guy.
01:07Both times they've had offensive coordinators for him.
01:10They make all the excuses, and some are valid,
01:12and I think some are over the top.
01:14But you got the all-in.
01:15You got the other side, which is we're out on C.J.
01:18And then the middle ground is really interesting
01:20because I think there's some that are still – they'll say they're in,
01:23but it's with caution, and I think that's where I am.
01:26And then I think there's another middle ground where it's I'm just waiting to see,
01:29and it sounds like you're more in that bucket, Seth,
01:31where it's just like you're not ready to say I'm in on C.J.
01:34You're like – but you're not anti-C.J.
01:36You're just like, I got to see how it looks this season
01:38before I can make that determination.
01:40If I wanted – if I were 100% in on C.J., I'd be saying give him his contract
01:45right now.
01:46Okay.
01:46Whenever the – and I'm not at that point.
01:49So I need to see what he does this year before I give him
01:53what will be some kind of a league-leading contract.
01:57You know, maybe it's modified somewhat or whatever.
01:59But I think that the Texans – I would guess the Texans and Stroud right at this point
02:04are somewhere where C.J. – and this is a complete guess –
02:08is that C.J. would acknowledge that the Texans want to see more from him,
02:14and he understands that they probably don't want to give him, you know,
02:18a top-of-the-market QB deal.
02:20But he also – you know, so he understands that part,
02:24but he doesn't want to accept that lesser contract right now.
02:28So he's kind of betting on himself to prove that he can get that contract.
02:33Maybe the Texans would be willing to give him some kind of a modified,
02:36shorter-term, not-marquee deal.
02:38But that C.J. is going to bet on himself.
02:40And that's a complete guess on my part.
02:42There's an article on CBSSports.com last night that I was reading.
02:45I'm going to see who – it's from Jonathan Jones, actually.
02:48So there you go.
02:49So this is what the people on Twitter were citing.
02:53They were citing Jonathan Jones who wrote this article.
02:55The title is that the QB market is getting set to explode.
02:59And it brings up, look, Jaden Daniels, Caleb Williams.
03:02These are all guys who are going to be in the same position a year from now that C.J.'s
03:05in.
03:06Three years in.
03:07You know, those two – Jaden Daniels had injury issues,
03:10but Caleb Williams certainly trending in the right direction.
03:12Bo Nix is going to be up for a contract.
03:14There's guys who are on second contracts that are coming up
03:18where it seems like this is the offseason – that this may not be the offseason
03:24that people break through the Dak Prescott ceiling of $60 million,
03:27but next year it could really explode.
03:29C.J. might benefit from waiting another year
03:32if the QB market has a new ceiling on it a year from now, you know,
03:36and he plays really, really well.
03:38So, yeah, we'll see about that.
03:41I would tell this because I see some fans – I'm going to read some texts here in a second.
03:45I see some people saying, like, what if he holds out?
03:49You know, what if he stays away because he wants a new contract?
03:52The one thing I would say about that, Seth, is that C.J., and, again,
03:58he's been very private the last couple offseasons in terms of, you know,
04:01doing interviews, watch, you know, videos of him working out, things like that.
04:06It's tamped way down from after his rookie year a couple of years ago.
04:11But from the little dribs and drabs that we've seen or heard from him
04:15or heard about him, he's not conducting himself like somebody who is planning
04:20to hold out from the spring activities or OTAs or mandatory minicamp.
04:28Right.
04:29He's texting new teammates.
04:32He's changed his look.
04:34You know, he's in on all his workouts.
04:40You know, I just – I don't feel like he's handling things in a way that would –
04:46that he's dissatisfied with being a Houston Texan right now.
04:49Yeah.
04:50No, I think that – I think that, given, again, that jibes with what I think about
04:56where his headspace probably is, where the Texans' headspace probably is regarding a contract,
05:01that it's not ideal, you know, for either parties involved.
05:06If C.J. wants to get one of the league-leading contracts for quarterbacks,
05:11he hasn't performed, you know, up to that level yet.
05:15Even though other teams have just said, okay, cool, Trevor Lawrence,
05:18you've had some good moments, we'll just go ahead and give you that deal.
05:21And then if C.J. does gamble on himself, he could be in line to be making tens of millions
05:25of dollars more next year than he would get this year.
05:29Absolutely.
05:30So, you know, you put your money where your mouth is
05:33and you just play this season out and see how it goes.
05:36Yep, absolutely.
05:37Jose Abreu, by the way, was the guy that I had wanted to point out that early in the season,
05:42especially early in the season, you see some guys with ridiculously low OPS as an OPS.
05:48Yeah, you're right.
05:49He would have been in that neighborhood, no doubt.
05:51He was in a stretch where, yeah, I mean, he finished 2025 with an OPS plus of three,
05:56but that was not very limited.
05:59I had probably stopped looking at his page at that point.
06:02We just see, sometimes you don't need stats to validate something.
06:07Here are actual, this just goes to show you how kind of divided the fan base is on C.J.
06:13These are all consecutive texts from when we talked about it a couple segments ago.
06:18I don't know how any real fan watches the Texans and C.J. Stroud can still be bought in on
06:24C.J.
06:24That is just blind fandom.
06:27So that's a text.
06:28Yeah.
06:29Very next text.
06:30C.J. is talented.
06:31It's all on tape.
06:32It's his urge to make big plays too early in games that needs to be fixed.
06:36Well, it was definitely not something that needed to be fixed in the Patriots game.
06:39He was trying to do too much in that game for sure.
06:43Next text.
06:44Great way of breaking that down, Sean.
06:45You summed it up perfectly.
06:46I'm rolling with C.J. because he's here, but I would not be disappointed if they went in another direction.
06:52This is the last one I'll read.
06:54This is a little over the top.
06:56Anything less than an MVP caliber season, we should jettison C.J. Stroud.
07:03Anything less than an MVP caliber season.
07:05And that person is 100% serious, I guarantee you.
07:08So Tom Brady or Peyton Manning at any given point in their career?
07:13Gone.
07:16He hasn't won.
07:17He didn't win an MVP.
07:18Yes.
07:19Oh, come on.
07:20Seriously, man.
07:21Anything less than an MVP caliber season.
07:23I understand why you might feel that way.
07:26That's a bit extreme.
07:27Because, for one, if your goal is to win a Super Bowl, you don't need an MVP caliber quarterback.
07:32Yes.
07:32You need, more times than not, you need, at the very least, a pretty good quarterback.
07:37That's right.
07:38And having an awesome quarterback helps a lot.
07:41But you don't have to have that season's MVP quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
07:45You don't.
07:45And there are plenty of quarterbacks who've gotten paid big money, deservedly so.
07:49They'd have not been necessarily MVP candidates on a year-in and year-out basis.
07:52Now, I will say, if eventually they give C.J. a big contract, somewhere along the way, I would expect
07:58him, kind of like a Matt Ryan situation, where, like, you know, Matt Ryan won an MVP.
08:02I don't think he was in MVP conversations on a perennial basis, but he rose up at one point.
08:08Like, I would expect that out of a quarterback I'm giving $65 million a year to.
08:12Yeah.
08:12Because at some point, we get a special season out of you, where everything, the stars align, and you get
08:17an MVP in a Super Bowl appearance.
08:19You know what?
08:19Let's workshop that a little bit for our texter, who's very, very upset and done with C.J.
08:26I would say, what if you modify it to MVP of the team?
08:30Okay.
08:31Anything less than him being the guy that is the catalyst for why the offense was able to improve so
08:37much in 2026, all of that.
08:40It's hard on this team to say that any one offensive player is going to be better than a bunch
08:44of defensive players.
08:45But that's a little bit closer to reality, I think.
08:48I would say so, too.
08:48Does he become the guy that you say, oh, wow, okay, this is the guy that is going to give
08:55you an awesome chance to win a Super Bowl?
08:57Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:58I think so.
08:59I think that's a good way to look at it.
09:00I just, Sean, I just, just to, because this goes back into people telling people to be patient with a
09:06player or anything.
09:07You know, there were still people last year who were, who were somehow arguing that you just got to give
09:11Jose Abreu some time.
09:12Remember how good he was at the end of 2024 in September and in the playoffs?
09:16I do.
09:17Sean, I didn't want to breed that, that OPS plus stat.
09:20So remember, I said that Kyle Tucker's was a 30 something right now.
09:23And you said you've never seen anybody with that low.
09:25And I said, I'd never seen an OPS plus that low in my baseball reference scouring days.
09:30But Abreu in 2024, excuse me, I had my years in my baseball, 2024 in 113 at-bats finished with
09:39an OPS plus of three.
09:42Yeah, that was the year.
09:4310% of what was the previous lowest jaw-dropping number you had seen.
09:48That was, that was unprecedented things going on with the team.
09:52Remember that, Seth, the team?
09:54Yeah.
09:54Trying to salvage Abreu.
09:55They sent him to Florida.
09:57Yeah.
09:57Just to, like, to, to fix himself.
10:00Yeah.
10:01Like, just to take batting practice.
10:02I know it, honestly, in my mind, because last year was so miserable at the beginning of the season, I
10:06had to remind myself that, you know, that, that was a long time ago.
10:09That was two years ago.
10:10That was two years ago, yeah.
10:11It felt, it feels like yesterday that we were getting updates about how great he looked in Rookie League.
10:16Right.
10:17Right.
10:18This, this.
10:1938-year-old guy down in the Rookie League.
10:21This former MVP looks great in the Rookie League right now.
10:25So, everything's looking up.
10:26All arrows are pointing up for the Houston Astros.
10:29That's so funny.
10:29With the way you just said that, I'm like, boy, if I hadn't been following baseball for a long time,
10:34but that was a tease for the next segment.
10:36This former MVP is tearing up the Rookie League, and I didn't know who it was.
10:40I would stick around to find out who that person was in the next segment.
10:43This Hall of Famer is seeing good things from this former MVP down in the Rookie League.
10:48Oh, that's right.
10:49Bagwell was the one who had eyes on him down there.
10:51Yeah.
10:51Oh, my God.
10:52Oh, my God.
10:52So my God.
10:53Oh, my God.
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