HOUSTON – Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud declined an invitation to the annual Pro Bowl Games, per a league source.
Stroud is concentrating on his preparations for next season.
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A former NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl selection, Stroud is looking to bounce back from a tough ending to his third NFL season.
Stroud had five interceptions and five fumbles combined in two playoff games, with seven turnovers overall, including four interceptions in an AFC divisional-round playoff loss to the New England Patriots.
It was an uncharacteristic performance from Stroud, a former Heisman Trophy finalist and consensus All-American from Ohio State drafted second overall. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon, who has mentored the California native, predicts that Stroud will bounce back strong next season.
“I think he’ll come back really well,” Moon told KPRC 2. “He has a lot of pride. He works very, very hard in the offseason. And the key is to get the pieces that he needs around him to make sure he feels really confident and really secure. So he’s got a lot of confidence. You’ve got to beef up that offensive line and then make sure your skill people stay healthy. You’ve got to keep those guys healthy.”
If the Texans upgrade their offensive line and running game and have Pro Bowl wide receiver Nico Collins available along with tight end Dalton Schultz available, unlike the loss to New England at Gillette Stadium, Moon is confident that Stroud will dramatically improve his production.
“No question about it,” Moon said. “He’s already shown that. He showed it when he first got here. And then he’s shown a lot of flashes over the last couple years.
Stroud is 3-3 all-time in the playoffs and 28-18 in the regular season in three NFL seasons. He has completed 63.8 percent of his career passes for 10,876 yards, 62 touchdowns and 25 interceptions. He reduced his interceptions from 12 interceptions in 2024 to eight interceptions during the regular season this past year, finishing with 3,041 yards and 19 touchdowns. He missed three games due to a concussion. He was sacked a career-low 23 times during the regular season.
Stroud led the Texans to a 10-game winning streak, seven wins by him, three by backup Davis Mills.
“I’m still growing this league,” Stroud said. “Still a player that has a lot to learn from, a lot to look forward to in my career. So, I’m excited to do that.
“But yeah, I’m just going to take my best foot forward, and move on, and learn from it. I just add fuel to the fire. Makes the story a little sweeter. I know this ain’t the end of C.J. Stroud. This ain’t the end of my career.”
The Texans had the top-ranked defense, but the offense wasn’t as successful. The running game had its moments with rookie Woody Marks, but wasn’t nearly as vibrant as it was the previous year when Joe Mixon had a Pro Bowl season. Mixon missed the entire season with a foot injury that has endangered his career.
Collins, who missed the Patriots game with a concussion, said he has offered his encouragement to Stroud personally.
“Just keep your head up,” Collins said. “Like, it’s not the way we want to end, you know what I’m saying? Our goal was to go to the Super Bowl, but things happen. Just keep being you, brother. Don’t let this one game define who you are. We all know who you are. Keep being a star. Keep being a leader you are. Keep being the light in the room and just keep being you.
“The dude’s a baller, man. One freak of an athlete. So, I’m excited for next year. Just can’t wait to get back on the field with the guys, get back grinding, and continue to be great.”
In the playoff loss to New England, the Texans had five turnovers, including a costly fumble by Marks.
“They had a strong year, no question about it,“ Moon said. ”Their defense was one of the best, if not the best in the league. They had a lot of problems offensively. A lot of their key weapons were injured, especially in the playoffs.
“And that makes it tough on a young quarterback when he doesn’t have the weapons around him. And the offensive line was kind of hit or miss all season long. So, they’ve got some work to do on the offensive side of things.”
No quarterback in NFL history has ever had five interceptions and five fumbles in the playoffs until now. Stroud inexplicably managed to have five fumbles, two lost, and an interception in a blowout victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
And he had four interceptions against an aggressive Patriots defense that hit him constantly while he tried in vain to operate an offense missing Collins and Schultz with a disappearing running game.
“I look back and I just feel like I let people down, and I’m not happy with that,” Stroud said. “It hurts, and I’m not naïve to it. I didn’t play my best this year, but I’m going to respond. I’m going to keep my chest up, my chin up high, and I’m going to just keep battling forward.
“If God be for me, who can be against me? I’m just going to rely on that. I think even today, just our team doing great, our defense getting stops, and just being careless with the football, I’ve got to get that fixed, and it’s something that I know I can, so I’m going to get that done.”
Stroud raised questions about his viability for a blockbuster contract extension that felt like an eventuality after his banner rookie year. That plan is likely on hold now and understandably so despite Texans coach DeMeco Ryans emphasizing Stroud is his guy. At the least, the Texans could see how next year goes with Stroud and secure him contractually with a fifth-year club option this offseason through the 2027 season.
“C.J. is our guy,” Ryans said in dismissing a question about whether he considered replacing Stroud at halftime with Mills. “I believed that he could come back out in the second half and flip it. I believed that he could play better, and he did that in the second half. He did play better.
“I always tell our guys: ‘At halftime, it really doesn’t matter what happened in the first half. You have to flush it, remove it, and you just have to go out and finish the right way.’ We’ve been there before. We’ve been in situations much more dire than this, and we were able to bounce back. So, there was no doubt in my mind.”
That is all technically true, at least by the barometer of Stroud didn’t throw any more interceptions.
Stroud completed just 20 of 47 passes for 212 yards. He had an ugly passer rating of 28.0, one of the lowest in NFL playoff history.
And the Texans’ season is over. They are now 0-7 in the AFC divisional round and have lost at this stage of the postseason three years in a row under Ryans’ leadership. The Texans’ Super Bowl ambitions won’t be met, at least not this year. That dream is on hold and in need of an offense that can match or approach the excellence of a Super Bowl caliber defense headlined by Anderson and fellow All-Pro defensive end Danielle Hunter. They combined to sack Patriots quarterback and NFL MVP candidate Drake Maye five times.
Despite this disappointing ending to the season and an extremely rough performance from Stroud as he forced throws, made poor decisions by not taking sacks when there was nothing promising down field and struggled with his accuracy, he has a ton of support behind him. They aren’t turning their back on a friend and teammate and quarterback they believe in wholeheartedly.
“I’m gonna be 100 on this,” Anderson said. “It’s so much bigger than football. It’s so much bigger than football. It’s so much bigger than what everybody has to say, especially for C.J. He’s big on his faith, he knows who he does it for. He knows who he is, and he’s God’s, man.
“God’s hand is upon him. He’s going to be good. We’re rallying behind him. I told him, ‘Man, I still think you’re the best quarterback in this league, hands down. It’s nobody better than you.’ And we’re behind him. We’re rallying behind him, man.”
The worst moment for Stroud was a pick-six touchdown as he was hit that former University of Houston cornerback Marcus Jones intercepted and took it to the house.
An NFL-leading winning streak of 10 games was snapped. During the regular season, Stroud had just eight interceptions and no lost fumbles. This postseason represented a clear and concerning regression.
“I’m going to learn from this, the ball security and everything, especially the way our defense has played all year,” Stroud said. “It’s something that I had done a pretty good job of, you know, to this point. So I’m going to continue to be better in that area. But I’m not happy with myself when it comes to that, because I took points and opportunities away from our team.”
The offensive line, depleted by massive right tackle Trent Brown unable to play due to a lingering ankle injury that didn’t respond well in warm-ups, reshuffled to Tytus Howard at right guard and Jarrett Patterson plugging in at left guard. Stroud was sacked three times and hit nine times overall. The Patriots, led by K’Lavon Chaisson, a North Shore graduate who had one sack and four quarterback hits, were all over Stroud.
The decision-making of Stroud wasn’t up to his usual careful standard. He looked hesitant at times and noncommittal after the snap. He hasn’t been eager to run since suffering the concussion against the Broncos during the regular season.
The Texans’ defense had breakdowns, too, allowing three touchdowns passes to Maye. That included an outstanding throw and catch to Kayshon Boutte from 32 yards behind All-Pro corner Derek Stingley Jr.
The offense and Stroud was the story, though. Bereft of any true dangerous weapons without Collins and Schultz, Stroud didn’t look himself.
“I told him, ‘Keep your head up. I love you, like, I’ve got your back,’” Ryans said. “And that’s what I told him at halftime: ‘This whole team has your back. We’re in this thing together, from Day 1.’ It doesn’t change for me, like we have a really special group, a tight-knit group, and when things don’t go your way, you have bad performances, it’s not a time to point fingers or say it’s all one person. It all starts with me, me as the head coach of this team. We didn’t perform well. Obviously, I didn’t have our guys ready to go in this moment.”
Those words resonated strongly with Stroud.
It reminded him of his visit to the Texans before the former Heisman Trophy finalist and consensus All-American from Ohio State was drafted second overall.
“For him to say that meant a lot,” Stroud said. “It reminded me of when I was about to get drafted, I was 20 years old, a little wet behind the ears, and he told me if I came to this team, he’d always have my back. So, I was appreciative of that support, which will help me get to the other side of this.
“We’ll go back and look at the film. … This year, we didn’t put enough points on the scoreboard. Our defense got stops all year, turnovers, put us in great position and I didn’t put us in position to get the wins by scoring points. I take full responsibility as the leader of the offense.”
Stroud had a minus 15.9 percent completion rate over expected, per Next Gen Stats, for the lowest of a starting quarterback over the past decade. Over the past quarter-century, just one quarterback has won a playoff game with four interceptions and those were Trevor Lawrence in 2022 and Russell Wilson in 2014.
Nonetheless, the Texans’ future appears bright. They rebounded from an 0-3 start and had a resurgent season. A stellar defense returns intact. The offensive line, receiving corps and Stroud having a second season in the Nick Caley system could pay dividends.
“We didn’t get the outcome we wanted, but that’s why we have the offseason for, to get better and grow,” Anderson said. “The growth that you’ve seen from the beginning of the season to now the resiliency, the perseverance, everybody coming to work every day. Obviously, it wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, man, but you talk about a team built on toughness. Man, we just gotta keep finding a way, keep finding a way to get over this hump, and it’s gonna come.”
The message from Anderson to Stroud was one of staying the course and not forgetting his successes, which includes three playoff wins and one Pro Bowl appearance.
“All quarterbacks make mistakes,” Anderson said. “I told C.J., ‘Man, you’re still so early in your career,and the success that you’ve had in your career so far, man, don’t lose sight of that. Don’t lose sight of who you are. Don’t lose sight of all the great things you accomplished. He’s still early in his career. He still has a lot of ball to keep the team from hurting and he has great people to learn from. So, I’m excited about his future and excited about him being a part of this team.”
Texans Pro Bowl linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair can empathize with Stroud. A year ago, he apologized to teammates after the loss to Kansas City. He felt like he fell short.
“Last year, it was me,” Al-Shaair said. “Both of my knees were hurting. I gave up a touchdown. Dude was standing over me, taunting me. I played terrible. And so I know exactly what it feels like to feel like you let the team down. I remember sitting in the locker room in Kansas City literally saying that to the whole team. I couldn’t look nobody in the face.
“So, you know, for me, I know what that pain and things are like. At the end of the day, I told C.J. already, it’s just the work. Just put the work in. Don’t forget the feeling because let it fuel you to where you want to go moving forward for this next season. But that’s what it’s about. Just putting the work in and just putting your head down and just blocking out the noise.”
Aaron Wilson is a Texans and NFL reporter for KPRC 2 and click2houston.com