Last season, Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud emerged as a legitimate superstar in the league as he posted what was arguably the most dominant and impressive rookie season of any quarterback in league history. And now, it sounds like he’s taking some big strides as a leader.
During a press conference on Thursday, Houston Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans explained that C.J. Stroud has made some major moves for Houston in his development as a leader.
“Where can we see him grow in his second year? It’s his leadership, first and foremost — continue to become the leader that we want him to be,” Ryans said in his Thursday press conference. “And it’s just in his play. It doesn’t change for C.J. or anyone else — can we get a little bit better each day? There’s no big grand thing for him, just continue to get a little bit better. You see how much better he got from his first day of camp last year until our last game — how much better [he got], you saw the growth of him. And that’s the same thing as we come into this season.”
Now that Stroud has a year of experience under his belt already, he can focus more on his role as a leader and less on things like learning the offense and adapting to the NFL game.
“I think C.J. has done a really good job this offseason as a leader when it comes to working with other guys — knowing that he’s not just working by himself, but finding the avenues to get a group together and work together,” Ryans said. “That’s very important, especially when it comes to timing in the passing game for receivers and quarterbacks. They have to be in sync. And it shows that they see how important that was because guys were working together this summer.”
We’ll have to see how Stroud performs in his second year as a starter and how he continues to develop as a leader of this team.
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