00:00Here's Area 45 with Bashani and Creighton.
00:05Yeah, I mean, I let my agent handle it, you know,
00:07and if it's time to do it, then it is.
00:09If it's not, my job is football,
00:11so that's what I focus on is just getting better,
00:14and I think I've held my bargain up on that edge,
00:17so, you know, whatever happens, happens.
00:20I'm excited to be a Texan this year and go from there.
00:24All right, that was C.J. Stroud earlier today.
00:27C.J., that's how he ended his press conference availability
00:31after the first session of O.T.A.
00:33That was the final question, final response.
00:35Okay, thank you, bye. I'm out.
00:38And, you know, I was coming in today,
00:40and I heard Ron Hewley and Clint Sterner talking about what C.J. had said,
00:46and they did a whole segment on this,
00:48and, you know, Clint had his thoughts,
00:51and I thought at the time, you know, there was nothing to him.
00:55I mean, it was just observational kind of thoughts, whatever.
00:59Big nothing burger, you know, I would say from Clint.
01:02And then Ron seemed to make a bigger deal about what Stroud had said there
01:08in response to the question about the contract.
01:11And the question was, and I'm paraphrasing, but, hey, you know,
01:15Will got his contract.
01:17Nico just got some new money.
01:19You know, how do you stay focused, you know,
01:21going into this season with your contract situation?
01:24And so that was the response.
01:27And Ron seemed to me to make a bigger deal about what Stroud had said
01:31that he feels like this is Ron saying what he interpreted C.J. Stroud saying
01:38is that he's done enough to this point to earn a new deal
01:42and is kind of puffing his chest out about it in those remarks.
01:45And I don't think that's at all what C.J. Stroud said.
01:50Take a listen once again, because many of you probably need to,
01:54what C.J. Stroud actually said.
01:57Yeah, I mean, I let my agent handle it, you know,
01:59and, you know, if it's time to do it, then it is.
02:02If it's not, my job is football.
02:03So that's what I focus on is just getting better.
02:07My job is football.
02:08That's what I focus on is just getting better.
02:11And then he said after that, Lee, after that,
02:14what everybody's going to be writing stories and tweets about.
02:17I mean, I think I've held my bargain up on that edge.
02:20Boom.
02:20I think I've held my bargain up on that edge.
02:23He feels like he's held his end of the bargain up
02:28on the assignment of you need to get better, sir.
02:31And he feels like he's done that part to this point, gotten better.
02:37And now you need to put it into practice, OTAs and training camp,
02:42and most importantly, the regular season,
02:44and hopefully plenty of opportunities in the postseason.
02:47But I'm telling you, PC, there are stories out there on social media
02:52and major platforms right now.
02:56One of the, I guess you would call it an aggregate account, ML Football,
03:00that has like a half a million followers on Twitter.
03:03Aggregator, bro.
03:04Breaking news.
03:05CJ Stroud believes that he has earned an extension from the Texans
03:10because of all of his accomplishments.
03:12And it literally has the same clip that we just played for you on Twitter.
03:18But it's being sold as if CJ Stroud said something different.
03:22And one, that's how Ron maybe interpreted it.
03:26And that's how others are interpreting it to hopefully get you to click on something.
03:32But it couldn't be further from the truth, in my opinion.
03:35And I'm willing to hear arguments otherwise.
03:39And then I will try my best to quickly as I can unhear it.
03:44But just curious, your thoughts, Colin, PC, you out there,
03:487, 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 10, if you want to weigh in on exactly what you say
03:54there.
03:55Drama, or as we would say, poop, sells.
03:59So everybody is going to try to take the biggest poop angle,
04:02which is quarterback wants money, he's mad.
04:06And we talked about this last week, or even yesterday with John McClain.
04:12CJ ain't worried about it because he knows he's going to get paid.
04:15He knows he's going to get paid, whether it's today, tomorrow, next year, whatever.
04:19The longer it takes him to get paid, the more money he's going to get.
04:23He understands this.
04:25His agent is the best agent in the NFL.
04:28He understands this.
04:30CJ ain't worried about it.
04:33These are things we talked to John McClain about.
04:35The Texans have become an organization that has gotten the reputation of,
04:40if you ball here, you get paid.
04:44If you play like a champion, you will get paid.
04:47And they preemptively pay people,
04:50something I know you and I have talked about for the last couple of years.
04:53We've talked about it longer than that when we used to go see each other
04:56over at Texans practice and whatnot.
04:57Yeah.
04:59Why do teams always wait until a player is ticked off to decide,
05:05okay, you know what, I guess we should probably address their contract.
05:08If a guy is being grossly underpaid, is outperforming his contract, you know what,
05:14you could just pay him a little more and then he'll be happy and then you can work on an
05:19extension.
05:20Instead, they try to, oh, nope, you got to make this less than everybody else.
05:25You got to make this, you know, whatever you're making here.
05:28And then when your contract's up, we're going to tell you that you're not worth, you know,
05:32what you could get on the market and they value you and then tell you you need to stay.
05:37No, the Texans take the smart approach to it.
05:39They're preemptive about it.
05:41They step in ahead of the game and say, hey, you know what,
05:45Nico, you've outperformed your contract.
05:47You deserve to be paid like a top eight wide receiver.
05:49So you know what, here's some money.
05:52You know who's not looking to get the hell out of here?
05:55Nico Collins.
05:57You saw them do it with Daniel Hunter.
06:00They did it with Aziz.
06:02They pay their guys who ball out.
06:06CJ knows the money's coming.
06:07He ain't worried about it.
06:08No, and he also knows if he goes out there and he's an absolute boss this year,
06:14he's going to get, he might reset the market.
06:17Yeah.
06:17Because that's what happens.
06:19Who's next?
06:20That's kind of how it works.
06:21CJ's going to be next.
06:22With quarterbacks, right?
06:23If he earns it, he's next.
06:25Look, he said it, you know, my job is football.
06:29Everything else, contractually, that's his agent's job.
06:33And his agent's going to get a pretty percentage if, in fact,
06:35CJ balls out this year and gets that big payday.
06:39Again, here's what CJ actually said.
06:43Yeah, I mean, I let my agent handle it, you know.
06:45And, you know, if it's time to do it, then it is.
06:47If it's not, my job is football.
06:49So, that's what I focus on is just getting better.
06:52And I think I've held my bargain up on that edge.
06:54Done.
06:55That's all we need to hear.
06:56Is that not exactly the answer you would expect from, quote, veteran leader,
07:02even though he's not a long-term veteran, defusing a situation?
07:07I ain't worried about it.
07:09My agent don't take care of it.
07:11I'm here to throw footballs.
07:13And the part that everybody's going to hang on, though, and is already hanging on,
07:17is that he feels like he's held his end of the bargain up.
07:22On what?
07:23People are going to write and have written and say and have said and think and do think
07:28that he's held his end of the bargain up to earn a contract already.
07:32No.
07:33That is not what he said.
07:34He said his job is to get better, and he feels like he's holding up his end of the bargain
07:43on that edge, is what he said in his exact words.
07:46And those words are kind of funny, the way to put it like that, on that edge.
07:50But you get it.
07:51He's held his end of the bargain up in that he knew he needed to get better.
07:56And he feels like he's gotten better, and he's held his end of the bargain up to this point,
08:01on that edge, right?
08:02And let's also take a look at it from this point of view, too.
08:05He's won 32 football games, give or take.
08:10And three playoff games, playing behind worst offensive line, worst offensive line, and wait
08:19for it, worst offensive line.
08:21Yeah.
08:23And lived.
08:26We've seen what happened to other quarterbacks who have played here behind worst offensive line,
08:31and they died.
08:33They football died, for sure.
08:34Yeah.
08:35So, this dude has lived.
08:37Won 10, 10, 12 games.
08:39Won a playoff game every year.
08:41And yet, you know what?
08:43For a guy who's had a play behind, you know, five park cars as an offensive line three years
08:47in a row.
08:49Say he held up his end of the bargain.
08:51Wouldn't it be nice if the Texans actually invested in the offensive line?
08:56They finally got around to that this year.
09:00Wouldn't it be nice if they, you know, invested in the offensive coaching staff the way they
09:05do the defensive coaching staff?
09:08Maybe they've done that this year.
09:10We will see.
09:12But the bottom line is, when you big picture it, and you take a look at it in the whole
09:19scope, and not just, you know, a game or two, C.J. Stroud has took this team from four
09:27wins, put them back on the map, Nico Collins has become basically on the verge of an all
09:35pro.
09:36Yeah.
09:36Well, he's a star.
09:37Catching football from C.J. Stroud.
09:38And he's being paid like a star, and he produces like a star.
09:41We know how good he is when he's healthy.
09:42By the way, text messages coming in.
09:47Hey, he kept talking.
09:49Hey, he finished it with, I'm a Texan this year, or something along those lines.
09:53That stood out to me.
09:54This year.
09:55Yeah, okay, here's exactly what he said for you people that think there's something else
10:01that's there, but it's not there.
10:03This is exactly what C.J. Stroud said.
10:06Got the transcript right in front of me.
10:07Maybe that'll help you.
10:08I'm excited to be a Texan this year and go from there.
10:13Okay, thank you.
10:14And then he walked off because his time was done.
10:17That's it.
10:18The crux of it, which is why I keep playing it, is what people are hanging on as if there's
10:23any breaking news present there that is not there.
10:26Could you imagine if C.J. Stroud had not played the way that he did against New England?
10:35Could you imagine if C.J. Stroud played against those two teams the way that he had, take any
10:42two of the best games that he had all regular season long and inserted them there, and the
10:46same fate is to be had by the Houston Texans?
10:49Stroud plays pretty good, fantastic, and the Texans still lose.
10:53What would the conversation be right now after those same comments made by C.J. Stroud?
10:59What would you think then?
11:01It would be a giant nothing burger, you know, ultimately, right?
11:05Oh, but wait.
11:07He played good and he still didn't get a contract offer?
11:09Boy, there's something there.
11:10This is a guy who knows that the money's going to be there if he continues to perform.
11:18If he continues to play like he has 99.7% of the time in his NFL career, and those
11:27other
11:28.3%, those last two games, one of which was still a win, miraculously, that he was able
11:35to and the Texans were able to get by in Pittsburgh because, well, Pittsburgh sucked that bad and
11:39the defense was that damn good, it ain't going to be a problem.
11:43He's going to handle it as professionally as possible.
11:48The only thing I would say that if you really want to talk about anything and have a problem
11:53with or concern about today and what C.J. Stroud said is that he said he hates how public
11:59his life is, and he also qualified that by saying he understands this is the life that
12:04he's chosen.
12:05Listen, you just hope that the guy does get as used to that as you possibly can when you're
12:11a quarterback and one of 32, and you hope it's the case.
12:15You need it to be the case because that means your team's doing really good and your quarterback's
12:20doing really good as well.
12:22He's going to be one of maybe even just a handful.
12:25In fact, maybe for a few short days, weeks, or months, he's going to be one of one because
12:29at some point in time, he's going to be the highest paid quarterback in the NFL.
12:32Well, that's just the way it's going to be.
12:34And if we're going to be fair about things, there is no way in hell the Texans beat the
12:39Kansas City Chiefs on the road Sunday night football in the freezing cold without C.J.
12:45Stroud after C.J.
12:47Stroud literally got the snot kicked out of him by a rampaging Chris Jones for a quarter
12:53and a half because the Texans just couldn't frigging block him no matter what.
12:57Yeah.
12:58When they needed a score in the fourth quarter, who got it for them?
13:01C.J.
13:01Stroud.
13:02And it was cold, and he got his ass kicked behind a crap line again, and that was one
13:09of the most important wins they had all year.
13:11They beat Patrick Mahomes in KC.
13:14Yeah.
13:14Yeah.
13:16It's there, Sean.
13:17Stop saying it's not there.
13:18It's there, says the 281.
13:20He said, so far as I know, I'm a Texan this year.
13:24That leaves the door wide open.
13:26No, it doesn't.
13:27He's under contract the following year because they picked up his fifth-year option for $26.9
13:32million.
13:33So keep putting your tinfoil hat on and go watch the UFO files that were released on government.com
13:39or whatever the hell you want to.
13:42Nothing is there.
13:43There is nothing there.
13:44Believe whatever you want.
Comments