Ohio State football: C.J. Stroud has bucked the OSU QB narrative

For the longest time, Ohio State football haters would complain about the fact that the Buckeyes didn’t have a good quarterback in the NFL. While the Buckeyes have had quarterbacks drafted high, their success at the next level wasn’t great. Critics would point to Dwayne Haskins and Justin Fields as recent examples of failures.

C.J. Stroud was the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. Quite frankly, I thought he should have been first. With what we saw in the Sugar Bowl against Georgia, I thought he clearly had what it takes to succeed in the NFL. The Panthers opted to take Bryce Young instead and Stroud fell to the Houston Texans.

The former Ohio State football player is killing it in the NFL

While it’s only been a year, Stroud has proven to be the better quarterback and may have already established himself as a top-ten QB in the league. In his first year in Houston, he threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, just 5 interceptions, and completed 64% of his passes. He did all this while missing two games as well.

Stroud was so good in his first year that he became the first Ohio State quarterback to ever make the Pro Bowl. He does so in his first year too. Stroud has officially put to bed the narrative that Ohio State QBs can’t succeed in the NFL. His success is part of the reason why Ryan Day was able to land two top-five quarterbacks in the 2024 class.

Stroud is only going to get better from this point forward too. He still doesn’t have a true number-one receiver to throw to yet. His offensive line was a mangled, injured mess for the first few weeks of the season too. I expect the Texans to be able to surround him with some really good players with the draft capital that they have.

I’m truly happy to see Stroud succeed. He’s a good dude and has credited the Ohio State football program with his ability to step in and succeed right away.