Texans OC says C.J. Stroud entering pivotal Year 2: It ‘sets the trajectory for the rest of his career’

Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud is coming off one of the best seasons any rookie quarterback has ever had. In 15 games last season, Stroud completed 63.9% of his passes with an average of 8.2 yards per attempt, throwing for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He won Offensive Rookie of the Year, made the Pro Bowl and finished eighth in MVP voting.

Now it’s time for the encore. And Texas offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who interviewed for several head coaching positions this off-season before returning to Houston for another year, knows that Year 2 is usually a big problem when it comes to quarterback development. .

“It’s a really, really impactful year for me that really sets the trajectory for the rest of your career, and I think a lot of that is that you get to set the foundations,” said Slowik, via conversation about professional football. “Like last year, there was a lot going on. You’ve got to get the fundamentals right, you’ve got to get the verbiage right, you’ve got to get the play calls right, you’ve got to get the protections right, you’ve got to get all those things right. degree, but you can’t do much.

“Now we can really dive into the fundamentals of this, what we do, how we play and what makes it great, and really fit that in and build on that in our offense. This really for me was – just in Phase 2 [and] in OTAs so far he is on board and committed. He’s picking up right where he left off.”

Obviously Stroud had a lot of success last year and it’s reasonable to expect that to continue in the future. But the Texans didn’t rest on their laurels either and bet on his improvement to move forward. They added Stefon Diggs to the receiver room via trade, brought in Joe Mixon to bulk up the running back room and drafted Blake Fisher to play right tackle. The group around Stroud should be better than it was during his rookie season, especially if the Texans can keep their offensive line healthy.

Typically, quarterbacks take more command of the offense as they progress in their careers. But Slowik said that won’t necessarily be the case for Stroud because he already had a voice in the offense during his freshman season.

“It’s really the same thing. He contributed a lot last year too,” Slowik said. “It’s more what he feels comfortable suggesting and when we have dialogue, outside of last year, we get the answer much quicker. There may be weeks where there is more dialogue because he has more thoughts. We’re already on the same page because of what we went through last year and there’s not a lot of dialogue needed, but that’s really not going to change from last year.”

Slowik, Stroud and head coach DeMeco Ryans will obviously continue to adapt the offense to fit the available personnel, and Stroud in particular. And as the young play-caller gains more experience, he will likely have more information about what plays should and should not be called and when. And presumably he will be trusted to take on more work at the line of scrimmage, including setting protections. But he was already quite advanced in many of those areas last season, and it showed. Now, it’s just about taking another step forward and getting even more comfortable and consistently elevating the system and your teammates above and beyond their individual capabilities.