00:00But I feel like we've got to acknowledge the fact that ESPN continues to drop these top 10 lists
00:06at various different positions in the NFL.
00:09Interestingly enough, inside linebacker is coming up tomorrow,
00:15so I'm interested to see where Aziz is because I think he has a chance to be on this.
00:19Unfortunately, C.J. Stroud not on the top 10 list specifically.
00:22It is, though, interesting where he does show up in their rankings.
00:28And I'm saying this without doing the buildup of, where's C.J. Stroud?
00:31I think we all know that C.J. Stroud has not felt like a top 10 quarterback of late.
00:36And that's not even like, that's before we even get to the why and the what's and the how's of
00:41that.
00:41I think we all understand that that is the frustration, that is the tension point when it comes to C
00:45.J. Stroud
00:46is you know that he should and he has capability to be a top 10 quarterback.
00:49He's not quite demonstrated that yet for various different reasons that we can then sort out.
00:54The interesting thing about this, and it's worth remembering that this is a top 10 list that is put together
00:59with votes from executives, coaches, and scouts.
01:03So this is a management style list, right?
01:05As opposed to the NFL.
01:06Football people.
01:06There we go.
01:07As opposed to the NFL top 100.
01:08I also think that this one is, this one, they undertake this a little bit later than the top 100,
01:14as we found out, which happens kind of at the very latter end of the previous season.
01:19But Josh Allen comes in number one.
01:21Patrick Mahomes comes in number two.
01:23We can get into like the nitty gritty of that maybe a little later.
01:25The interesting thing is you go through the top 10 of this list, and the back end of the top
01:3010
01:30sees Justin Herbert come in seven.
01:31Drake May come in eight.
01:32Jared Goff come in nine.
01:34Caleb Williams come in 10.
01:36And he had kind of a fascinating season, so I understand the love and the hype that happens there,
01:40especially with the dynamism that he plays with.
01:42We're taking them hits, bro.
01:43Yeah.
01:43Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:44Little bro.
01:44All right.
01:45The honorable mentions is where this gets interesting.
01:47Sam Darnold comes in as honorable mention.
01:50Obviously, this would be kind of 11, for lack of a better way of saying it.
01:52Jaden Daniels, honorable mention, 12.
01:55Jordan Love, honorable mention, 13.
01:57Brock Purdy, honorable mention, 14.
02:00Baker Mayfield, honorable mention, 15.
02:02Trevor Lawrence, honorable mention, 16.
02:05Jalen Hurts, honorable mention, 17.
02:08All right.
02:08What frustration for you before we move any further with the names that are here?
02:12Sadly, no.
02:13Oh, okay.
02:14Yeah.
02:14And then after that, you get to a tier that is not even like a tier, right?
02:18This isn't fleshed out.
02:19This is just an acknowledgment that, hey, some people received top 10 votes.
02:22These are the remainders that received top 10 votes.
02:24Bo Nix, Daniel Jones, and your Houston Texans quarterback, C.J. Stroud.
02:28So he did receive votes.
02:29Somebody out there listed him in their top 10 voting.
02:32But ultimately, he did not receive enough votes to be an honorable mention and clearly not to make the top
02:3610 list.
02:37What do you make of this, J-Lo?
02:38Well, at best, if you're just doing the math, he's 18th, maybe 20th, because there were three guys in that
02:45bottom tier.
02:45And I feel like this was not – if you look at the names and the way they're listed, it's
02:49Bo Nix, it is Daniel Jones, it is C.J. Stroud.
02:51That is not alphabetical order neither by last name nor first name.
02:55That's right.
02:55It's not.
02:56So that feels like that tells me something about the votes.
02:58So conceivably 20th.
03:00He got the fewest – I mean, I think this is a fair thing to say.
03:03I think it's fair.
03:04He got the fewest votes of the guys who – of anybody that received any votes.
03:08Which, I mean, honestly, there's a possibility that there was one person that put him in at 10 and then
03:11that was what got him on this list.
03:14Well, first of all, on this list, as much as I like the players list because they're playing the game
03:19and they're – you know, they know their peers and they go against these guys.
03:22I think there are a lot of biases in the players list, like if they like a guy, if they
03:28don't like a guy, I think it comes into play.
03:31Now, certainly that's possible among execs and coaches, et cetera.
03:35But I think it's more accurate.
03:37I think there's more actual what they're doing on the field, scouting, so to speak, evaluation from these guys.
03:44So this is an important list to me.
03:45I think it's probably a little more accurate than the players, just et cetera.
03:49What are we to make of the fact that he is down towards like the 20 area amongst the decision
03:55makers in the league?
03:56And, I mean, to give you an assortment of the things – because we know the things that we tend
04:00to look at as C.J. Stroud and his strengths, right?
04:02Being able to like throw a great deep ball and, you know, generally there's accuracy even though those issues have
04:07popped up at times, right?
04:09He has an ability to scramble even though like he did not utilize that very much after the concussion last
04:14year.
04:14But, I mean, things like looking at Baker Mayfield and seeing a coordinator say he's a winner, he can make
04:19every throw.
04:20This is something that, again, Baker Mayfield gets love for earlier, right?
04:24Brock Purdy got two superpowers, layering the ball, short area quickness.
04:28These are things that, like, again, various different qualities that you could very easily look at and go,
04:33hey, man, C.J. Stroud might have that, are being represented amongst the players that are above him.
04:37And yet those players are all above him and C.J. Stroud ends up in a bucket of players that
04:41are at best 17th.
04:43Yeah, I think two things jumped out at me beyond the first thing I said.
04:46I think I respect this list.
04:49But the two things that jumped out, number one, I think this might be the most important one.
04:54Of all these guys, especially in the AFC, that are above him, do you really see him passing any of
05:00these guys?
05:01Trevor Lawrence is in a good situation.
05:04I can easily see him passing Trevor Lawrence with a good season.
05:06But Trevor Lawrence has found his coach, has found his offense, and they're a good team.
05:13So I think you could argue it both ways.
05:16You know, guys like Drake May, you see him passing Drake May, you know, really still young, younger than C
05:23.J. Stroud in a good situation.
05:25I think the only argument, well, maybe not only, but the argument that is the ways in which year one
05:30situation, like especially schedule, really favored him.
05:34I know there's a lot of people that are not as high on the Patriots going into the 2026 season
05:38because of the, you know, first place schedule and the, you know, the way that that changes.
05:42But I understand what you're saying, right?
05:43This is very much a system that he played very well in and circumstances where he gets a better wide
05:48receiver in A.J. Brown.
05:49And then you go into year two or year three of him in this system, right?
05:52Like those things should give him an advantage.
05:55I think right now the quarterbacks you just named offensively got a better coaching situation.
06:00That's my point.
06:01Do you really, like, I see you can, you know, you can pop some holes in this.
06:04Sure.
06:05You know, but I think realistically, good situations, found their guys kind of rolling right now.
06:10Jacksonville seemed like they got the better offensive, you know, scheme for him.
06:14Then you got Justin Herbert.
06:16I don't think he can pass him.
06:18You know, he's also finding some legs there.
06:20Then Lamar Jackson and then all these other guys.
06:22Like, I don't know.
06:23Number one, I don't know if he can really.
06:25We keep here.
06:26We keep saying, sitting here and saying, well, he just needs to be average, you know, 14, 15.
06:30I don't know if he can pass those guys.
06:32And that's the conversation I think is really interesting is I don't think that there's a circumstance that's been built.
06:36And I think this is probably ultimately the point you're making.
06:38So I don't want to make it seem like I'm making something that you were ultimately saying.
06:41But, yeah, man, it doesn't seem like the Texans are interested in creating a circumstance that deals with this list.
06:47And I guess there's an argument to be said that, like, made that maybe that should not be their concern
06:51at all, right?
06:51Their concern is winning football games and not with, like, winning the offseason list circumstance.
06:56But within that, like, I think that you could see players in here like a Sam Darnold who, again, that
07:01is also kind of the way that he has played.
07:03And he ends up being the first guy out on the top ten list.
07:07And so maybe that's what made it is, hey, man, just play to your best in the circumstance that we
07:12put you in.
07:12And you could still get this love outside of it.
07:15I think that it would require, though, that they're actually right in getting this run game going,
07:19that they actually protect him and that the system works to also accentuate his strengths on the other side of
07:24that.
07:24And then the other thing to me, it ties in with that.
07:27So let's, you know, let's assume that it's going to be really difficult for him to take this leap.
07:32The second thing is, I think he's got one year, man.
07:35I think this accentuates the fact that with the window open the way it is, with the defense playing the
07:40way it is, this is it.
07:42But he's got this year, and then they might have to make and might make, you know, an interesting decision.
07:48But you know what's funny about that?
07:49Like, the way that we've talked about the C.J. Stroud, and obviously this is looking forward, this is too
07:53early, right?
07:55Next offseason provided, and obviously the big if is if it doesn't work out,
07:59and if for some reason the Texans decide that they don't want to pay C.J. Stroud and they want
08:02to move off of him.
08:03I've always operated under the assumption, and I think it's a fair assumption,
08:07that C.J. Stroud would very quickly be picked up and, you know, put somewhere else.
08:10And I guess that's evidenced by the fact that he receives votes.
08:13Everybody on this list receives votes because they are viewed as a quarterback that very much you would want in
08:17some way, shape, or form.
08:20This is kind of interesting, though, that you have, like, the decision makers have him so low.
08:24And now, of course, we're talking about top 10, and, you know, maybe a top 15 quarterback is one that
08:29you're like, I would still snatch up.
08:30But it makes me wonder, what would be the desire, what would be the appetite for C.J. Stroud if
08:36he becomes available?
08:37Because I think it would be a large one, but, and I guess you could say that, hey, man, there's
08:40still 15 other teams that, I guess, in a way, you go, hey, we could get better at quarterback.
08:44But I'd be very curious as to what the appetite would be for C.J. Stroud on the other side.
08:49Would be one, simply because, as we all know, you know, coaches always think they can rescue a guy.
08:53That it'll work with them.
08:55And he, I mean, he is.
08:56And it may well.
08:57Yeah, he is peak rescue a guy circumstance.
08:59Because you've seen, you've seen it not just in theory, not just like, you know, pieces.
09:03You've seen him put it together for a season where you go, oh, man, this is a really good quarterback.
09:06And a different offense.
09:07Right.
09:08Yeah.
09:08Yeah, no, it's very curious, though.
09:10I mean, all this does is make me go, all right, well.
09:13Yeah, this is it.
09:14Well, yeah, maybe that's the way that you have to look at it.
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