Texans Offseason Focus Turns to Fixing C.J. Stroud

The truth is, rebuilding the core fundamentals of any quarterback is a process which is traditionally fraught with danger, and even more so as Stroud moves into year four. As far as Ryans is concerned; he maintains the personal belief that Stroud did indeed make progress during an injury-interrupted year three.

"Throughout the season I thought he [Stroud] did a really nice job," Ryans continued. "New offense, new scheme, thought he picked it up well. We got better as the season went along. He made some plays to allow us to win a lot of football games. I'm not gonna let the bad plays there in that game dictate to me who C.J. is, what he's capable of doing. No one feels worse about the situation than C.J."

Irrespective of Ryans' more supportive take, there's always going to be the school of thought out there which says maybe Stroud's tendencies to put the ball in danger too frequently are already just embedded too deeply in his core DNA. His poor decision-making and itchy feet in the pocket only point toward an alarming collapse in his own confidence levels.

Improving the protection upfront, another basic fundamental which similarly crumbled under pressure when faced with the Patriots' furious pass rush, must surely provide another no-brainer for Ryans and Co. when it comes to the draft and free agency. Stroud hardly helped himself much either; throwing lame ducks in the shadow of his own end zone not only served to deflate the offense, it punctured a hole in a defense that had manfully kept the Texans in the game.

Kudos to coach Ryans for admitting a lot of work needs to be done to get Stroud into more fundamental shape; it's just a pity that he feels he has to tiptoe around the tough love he clearly needs to dispense to his own quarterback.