HOUSTON – Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud has been named the Associated Press NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, the NFL announced tonight as part of the 13th annual NFL Honors ceremony. Stroud is the first player in franchise history to garner the honor.
Selected No. 2 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft, Stroud took the league by storm this season and started in all 15 of his appearances, completing 319-of-499 pass attempts for a rookie franchise-record 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions and a passer rating of 100.8, which marks the third-best passer rating by a rookie quarterback in NFL history. His 4,108 passing yards during the regular season rank third in NFL annals among rookie signal callers, while pacing all rookies in every major passing category this season.
Stroud finished his 2023 rookie campaign with 4,557 total passing yards, including the postseason, which is the second-most in NFL history by a rookie, trailing only Andrew Luck (4,662) in 2012. He began his career with a record-setting 192 consecutive pass attempts without an interception, the most ever by a player to begin a career. Stroud led the league in passing yards per game (273.9), while also pacing the NFL in touchdown-interception ratio (4.60), joining Joe Montana (1989) and Tom Brady (2007) as the only three players in NFL history to finish first in both categories.
Among Stroud's numerous record-setting performances was his 470-yard, five-touchdown performance in Week 9 vs. Tampa Bay that set the NFL record for passing yards by a rookie quarterback and tied the NFL single-game mark for touchdown passes by a rookie. The performance earned him his first of two AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors, with his second Player of the Week nod coming in Week 18 at Indianapolis after clinching a playoff berth and the Texans' first division crown since 2019. Additionally, Stroud garnered NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month and AFC Player of the Month accolades for the month of November, becoming just the second rookie quarterback in league history to win AFC Offensive Player of the Month and just the fifth player ever to earn NFL Offensive Rookie of the Month in the same month. Stroud's stellar rookie season culminated with a Pro Bowl honor, becoming just the second offensive rookie in team history to be named to the Pro Bowl.
Stroud joins Texans rookie DE Will Anderson Jr., who was named the AP NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, marking a Texans sweep of the top rookie awards. The Texans become the fourth team since 1967 to win both Offensive and Defensive Rookie of the Year in the same season, joining the 2022 New York Jets (WR Garrett Wilson, CB Sauce Gardner), the 2017 New Orleans Saints (RB Alvin Kamara, CB Marshon Lattimore) and the 1967 Detroit Lions (RB Mel Farr, CB Lem Barney). Stroud is the 11th rookie quarterback since 1967 to win the award.
