C.J. Stroud is "keeping the main thing, the main thing"
It sounds simple, but the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft isn't making things too complicated. He's in a quarterback room with veterans Case Keenum and Davis Mills, getting coached by Offensive Coordinator Bobby Slowik and Quarterbacks Coach Jerrod Johnson.
They've all been on the field together through the first two days of Organized Team Activities (OTAs) at the Houston Methodist Training Center, but Stroud said he's keeping things very simple.
"I'm really just trying to focus on ball," Stroud said. "Everything else, I'm trying to do my best to have people figure things out for me, and of course trust people on my team. For right now, for me really it's just football. I'm here all day, every day and just trying to get better.
Stroud's viewed his early days working with Mills and Keenum as "a blessing", pointing to their combined NFL experience as something he's needed.
"That guidance and that confidence that they have, because they've both played in the League and been starters," Stroud said. "They've been very helpful. We have constant communication on and off the field. It's been really great."
The help he's received from that duo, has also been buttressed by the way he's learning the offense from his coaches.
"They've been very methodical and want to get me to learn it step by step, just like how they would teach anybody else," Stroud said. "I feel like I've tried to do a lot of work on my own, so when I come back the next day, I have that to put in the bank to be able to move on to the next install, whatever it is."
Head Coach DeMeco Ryans has liked the consistency he's seen from the young signal-caller.
"C.J. has been the same from the pre-draft process to now," Ryans said. "Hard worker, very intelligent guy and a true competitor. He's been the exact same guy. Nothing has changed. Excited to see him out on the field working with his teammates. C.J. has been doing an excellent job these past couple days."
Stroud and the Texans continue with OTAs over the next two weeks.
