Dan Orlovsky cites Ryan Day, Ohio State coaching as reason for C.J. Stroud's NFL success

Dan Orlovsky gave a lot of credit to Ryan Day for CJ Stroud’s early NFL success. Stroud started for the Houston Texans as a rookie and led them to the AFC South title, going 1-1 in the playoffs.

Stroud played 15 games last regular season and threw for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns, five interceptions and a 63.9% completion percentage. It seemed like he picked up right where he left off at Ohio State, where he lit it up for the Buckeyes.

Orlovsky gave the example of a player, such as Stroud, that can take in and process way more information right off the bat.

“Yeah, I think during OTAs and mini camps, I think you can walk away in regards to a player and be like, we can give him more and he can handle more,” Orlovsky said on The Pat McAfee Show. “You know, I think once you give them that information, I’ve said this before, you guys have heard me say like I think every quarterback in the NFL was accurate. Not all of them have really good ball placement. Every quarterback in the NFL is intelligent. All of them could sit there, take stuff, information in a meeting, get up on the board and recite it … 

“When you give those guys all that information, all they have to handle when it comes to the different personnel and the cadence and how they’re going to communicate in the huddle and the different play calls the situational football and then they’re able to go communicate a little bit different level in the huddle instead of just calling (the play).” 

Orlovsky mentioned how quarterbacks, like Stroud, can get into the huddle, recite play, break down different tendencies and situations moments before getting to the line of scrimmage.

“That’s why I think you walk away and be like, ‘Oh, we can give them more,’ like I was thinking about it this morning, CJ Stroud in part had that year last year, at least in my beliefs because of the way that Ryan Day coaches those quarterbacks at Ohio State,” Orlovsky said. “Like they, they have long play calls. You just gotta make sure that there’s different levels based communication within the huddle. I think that really was like a huge foundation for him and his success.”

There are more expectations for Stroud and the Texans this season. But, he should be used to that by now considering his experience with Day and Ohio State.