00:00So this was C.J. Stroud last Thursday talking about his contractual situation.
00:05Yeah, I mean, I let my agent handle it, you know, and, you know, if it's time to do it,
00:09then it is.
00:09If it's not, my job is football, so that's what I focus on is just getting better.
00:13And I think I've held my bargain up on that edge, so, you know, whatever happens, happens.
00:18You know, I'm excited to be a Texan this year and, you know, go from there.
00:21Okay, so we played that umpteen times now.
00:23We know everybody knows where we stand.
00:25Yeah, he's held up his end of the bargain in improving and getting better.
00:30He's excited to be a Texan this season, which is the exact same thing the Texans have been saying about
00:37him.
00:37We're excited to have C.J. this season.
00:40Right.
00:40We'll see where it goes from there.
00:41Yeah, and you can do that any different way you want.
00:44I just think my first knee-jerk reaction was when he said, you know, basically I've held up my end
00:50of the bargain.
00:51That just felt like, oh, wait a second, that sounds like somebody who feels like he deserves a contract.
00:56I don't think that's what he meant, and I don't think it's fair to interpret it that way based on
01:00the actual,
01:01where he had already said, my agent handles all that stuff.
01:04I'm focusing on my job, which is improving, and there you have it.
01:09It does not feel like a contentious situation.
01:11At all.
01:12I don't think.
01:12Uh-uh.
01:12Now, it's hard with C.J. because it's not like he always has the most kind of, like, upbeat type
01:19of mannerisms and everything.
01:21If you didn't know the way C.J. operates, you might read into the body language and say, like, oh,
01:25I don't know.
01:25He doesn't look all that enthusiastic about this.
01:27Like, ah, it's just kind of the way he talks.
01:29I think with the haircut, though, I think he looks, he's got better energy about him, I think.
01:34He looks more like all business or something.
01:36Yeah, just with the ball cap.
01:37I don't know.
01:38He just looks.
01:39I think, honestly, the hair, I think it made him look younger.
01:42Then, in some respects, you know, maybe as a quarterback, yeah, there's certain.
01:49Yeah, maybe he's more mature.
01:50Yeah.
01:51Something like that.
01:52I don't know.
01:52I think he looks good.
01:54So, that was C.J. on his contract situation.
01:56Oh, yeah.
01:56No, no.
01:56I think he looks good.
01:57Yeah.
01:57I'm just trying to figure out exactly what, you know, if it's, because, again, talking about things that are nonsense
02:03and don't actually matter or whatever.
02:05When people are talking about the perception of him and everything, yeah, the haircut might actually matter with people's perception
02:10of him.
02:10Maybe.
02:11Maybe.
02:12So, why are we talking about this?
02:13Well, Adam Schefter said this on the McAfee show on Friday.
02:16In an offseason where it feels like this contract extension for C.J. is going to be a next year
02:21thing.
02:23That's what golf signs kind of point to that.
02:25Here's what Adam Schefter is guessing.
02:27But Texas is going to pay C.J. Stroud.
02:29What's going on?
02:29I picked up his fifth-year option.
02:30What's the deal there?
02:31Is he getting paid before the year starts?
02:32My guess is he does.
02:34That's my guess.
02:35That they've been paying their players.
02:37And if I had to guess and bet on the Texans and how they handle it, I would say that
02:42C.J. Stroud gets paid this offseason.
02:44And I would say by the time the season begins, C.J. Stroud has a new deal.
02:48That's my guess.
02:49That's my hunch.
02:51We'll see if it plays out.
02:52He got his haircut this week.
02:53That was big, too.
02:54At least he showed a new haircut to people.
02:56I thought it looked very good.
02:57C.J. looked very sharp there with that new haircut.
02:58Yeah, he discredited himself at the end there, man.
03:02The tell, yeah.
03:03He made it clear.
03:04He said guess twice and hunch once.
03:06So he was going out of his way to say that this is a guess.
03:10Not that some of these nugget hussies don't categorize inside information they have as educated guesses.
03:16Right, yeah.
03:16There's times where they don't want to actually report something.
03:20But you know there's times where it's more informed than just the guess.
03:24They know things.
03:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:25They know things.
03:26This is why I think he is 1,000% guessing on this was what you just pointed out, Seth,
03:33at the very end where he said C.J. Stroud got his haircut this week, you know, and he,
03:38no, he got his haircut back in February.
03:40I don't think Schefter's been paying any attention to the Texans other than the fact that they've
03:45paid a couple guys like Nico Collins got a raise and Will Anderson Jr. got a huge contract
03:49because the other thing he said in there is, well, they're just paying all their guys.
03:52They're paying all the guys that went to the Pro Bowl or were all pro or in the top five
03:58at their position by some metric.
03:59They're not paying, at least it doesn't appear, maybe we'll be a quarterback who was, who just
04:05threw four interceptions in a playoff game and has been very up and down the last two seasons.
04:12Yeah, I guess the perception that they're paying everybody, it doesn't quite, it doesn't do
04:18justice to the fact that, yeah, but they also have a lot of really good young players on
04:22their team.
04:23Who deserve to be paid.
04:24That's different than just paying everybody.
04:26They didn't pay Henry Toa Toa.
04:28Right.
04:28You know, like it's not, it's not like to take Schefter and I know he didn't mean it
04:32literally, but they're not paying everybody.
04:35They've paid a few guys that they really feel strongly about.
04:38Yeah.
04:38This, this is just, this segment is, or this part of this segment is just my warning label
04:44for anybody taking what Schefter said on the McAfee show as informed.
04:49Now I am guessing on this too.
04:51I don't know.
04:51I don't have any information that would, that would, that would dispel, you know, that would
04:55contradict Schefter, but I just thought he just doesn't strike me in that 32nd clip as
04:59somebody who's been super plugged in on the Texans.
05:01It's also an organization that's very tight lipped as we point out many, many times.
05:05But to be clear also, it doesn't mean that they're not going to pay CJ Stroud.
05:09No.
05:09It's just that he is, it's a random guess by him.
05:12It's a guess.
05:12And, and or a bet.
05:14So if he thinks there's a 51%, really Adam, I'd say 55% before you make the, I don't know
05:19if Adam knows about the VIG or not.
05:21Um, but yeah, like he thinks there's a, he thinks based on all the tea leaves that there's
05:27a good chance.
05:27I do.
05:28I think there's a chance.
05:29I think it's more likely that both sides just play it out.
05:32Um, but I wouldn't be blown away with shock if there was one.
05:35I just think that it also would end up being one of those things where it's a shorter term
05:40deal.
05:41And then the overall money might rate as a lot of the other contracts, but that it's going
05:46to be way more guaranteed money.
05:49The percentage is a percentage of the contract.
05:51Yeah.
05:51Yep.
05:52Um, this was, uh, is it rich Ornberger Seth?
05:55Is that his first name?
05:56Yeah.
05:56He's a former offensive lineman in the NFL.
05:58He was on with Jason McIntyre on the, uh, on the football podcast that McIntyre hosts.
06:04He's part of Colin Cowherd's team over there.
06:06Um, and I brought up an interesting question.
06:09Does CJ Stroud trust the Houston Texans?
06:12Here's the question that CJ Stroud needs to ask and answer honestly himself.
06:16Do I trust the Texans?
06:19If I take less, am I their guy?
06:22And if the Texans, and this may be the Houston's front office fault.
06:26This may be the coaching staff's fault.
06:28If he isn't 100% bought in and trust that he's their guy going into the future, well, then he's,
06:36he's going to hold this team hostage like other contract negotiations go with other quarterbacks across the league where he
06:42says, no, no, no, no.
06:43You can tell me until you're blue in the face how you're going to build around me, but I, I
06:49don't feel like you're that invested in me.
06:51So I'm going to get that back.
06:53It's really going to come down to whether or not he trusts this front office.
06:57I think, uh, you know what, uh, the more, when I listened to these guys talk on this podcast a
07:02little bit, I felt like there was a, there was something lost in the, the, the almost like they're trying
07:07to talk their way through the way normal negotiations work.
07:10Um, as far as CJ trusting that the team likes him, like, okay, well, if he's not happy with the
07:16contract they give him now, it's not like that's going to be the thing that means they're going to, they're
07:22going to give him a huge concierge or whatever it might be.
07:25I, for me, the trust is more like define less.
07:29What is a lesser contract that he takes?
07:31If it's something like Jordan Love who got a nice contract and the average per year is good and everything,
07:36but it wasn't as much guaranteed money as like a Trevor Lawrence.
07:40It's not about like, clearly the team is committing to you for the next few years.
07:44It's more about, does the quarterback trust that the team is going to do everything right to be sure that
07:51they have a good offense and that they have people around, around him?
07:54Cause there's, I mean, there could be a side of this whole thing where, you know, CJ just feels like
07:59he, he wants to be absolutely certain and might as doesn't mind waiting an extra year because let's just see
08:06how everything plays out and we'll revisit it.
08:08Then, um, I don't worry about whether or not, I don't think he, I like, he's not worried about what,
08:14if, if the Texans give him a healthy contract that he's willing to sign, that's enough trust in the form
08:20of money expended.
08:22Yeah.
08:22Uh, it's just a matter of just how, what's that actual number.
08:25I do think it's a fair question.
08:26You know, they look, since CJ got here for the last three years, the offensive line has been in multiple
08:30teardown modes, you know?
08:32And then, so that would be the part, it wouldn't be so much just like, Hey, there's, I'm taking this
08:37much less money.
08:38Do I trust you guys?
08:39I mean, I guess it is, I guess it is part and parcel of that.
08:42I'm really specifying a position group.
08:44Like you look at the way they've attacked the offensive line in trying to build that for CJ and the
08:49offensive line has not played well in whatever iteration it's been.
08:53That might be the part where if I was CJ Stroud, that I would have the biggest trust issue is
08:56them putting together the group that's supposed to protect me and my physical wellbeing.
09:01Well, and there's another part of it too, where part of it is that, look, I just, you always have
09:08to reset and remember, okay, wait a second.
09:10Quarterbacks don't have to be treated differently than other position players that I know that's the trend because everybody was
09:17bowing down at the altar of quarterbacks and just getting one any way, any how you could get a quarterback.
09:23But the, okay, maybe the organization, the organization doesn't trust you as much as say the Rams trust Matt Stafford.
09:29That's the question.
09:30Sorry about it.
09:31That's the, that like, we're sitting here talking, we're sitting here hashing out, do the, does CJ Stroud trust the
09:36Texans?
09:37Do the Texans trust CJ Stroud?
09:39Right, right.
09:39Yeah.
09:39And like, there's not, like, if just by, you can, you can make explanations and excuses and everything.
09:46But the fact of the matter is CJ, for whichever reason you choose to explain it with or whatever, the
09:52sum total of it is, no, he hasn't played as well as the best quarterbacks in the league.
09:56So why should the Texans feel like somehow, because he's a quarterback, we got to be sure we give him
10:02a Trevor Lawrence contract.
10:03The Texans aren't beholden to that.
10:05No NFL team is.
10:06And there's been a little bit more sanity in the last couple of years in the way teams are treating
10:10him.
10:10The last, the last round of stupid money given out to quarterbacks was Trevor Lawrence, Tuak, Tungavailoa, Kyler Murray, all,
10:20all of that.
10:20And just things have stabilized since then.
10:23There's not, the, the, it's, the quarterback salaries haven't kept skyrocketing since then.
10:27CJ's is the one that everybody's got eyes on around the league heading into training camp in a, in a
10:31month or so.
10:32So, so we'll see.
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