Ohio State Legend Receives Bold Outlook After Surprising NFL Season

Ohio State Buckeyes legend C.J. Stroud did not exactly have the NFL season most expected during his sophomore campaign with the Houston Texans, and now, the young quarterback is facing a pivotal Year 3 that could ultimately determine his professional trajectory.

After putting together a historically great rookie season, Stroud struggled in 2024, throwing for 3,727 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions while completing 63.2 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 87.

To be fair, Stroud dealt with a lot of injuries to his receiving corps and was also playing behind a shoddy offensive line, but he also simply wasn't that good.

However, Jared Dubin of CBS Sports has named the 23-year-old among a handful of the NFL's top bounceback candidates heading into 2025.

"As the supporting cast atrophied around him, Stroud took a significant step backward in Year 2," Dubin wrote. "He dropped down to 7.0 yards per attempt, saw his interception rate more than double, had his yards-per-game average dip by over 50 yards and checked in 28th in EPA per dropback, posting a negative average. A change in offensive coordinator from Bobby Slowik to Nick Caley, plus investments in the offensive line and receiving corps, provide some home for a bounceback in 2025."

The Texans made over much of their offense this offseason, completely retooling their receiving corps and also making some significant moves along their offensive line (which unfortunately included trading away five-time Pro Bowl tackle Laremy Tunsil).

Stroud displayed in 2023 that he is a tremendously talented quarterback with a pretty high ceiling, so perhaps he will perform much better with a new-look offense next fall.

The Ranco Cucamonga, Ca. native spent three years at Ohio State between 2020 and 2022, taking over as the Buckeyes' starting signal-caller in 2021. Over the course of those final two seasons, Stroud amassed an incredible 85 touchdown passes to just 12 picks.