NFL Network analyzes what CJ Stroud must show during preseason

CJ Stroud is entering his rookie season with high expectations, and many are excited to watch him perform during his first preseason game.

The former Ohio State Buckeyes star will make his NFL preseason debut against the New England Patriots on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET. Ahead of the showdown, Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks discussed what they’d like to see from the No. 2 overall selection in the 2023 NFL Draft in his first taste of NFL action.

“I want to see a command. It sounds like he’s picking things up very quickly there,” explained Jeremiah, via their Move The Sticks podcast. “Is he aggressive, is he challenging, is he attacking down the field, because he’s got the arm strength to do that. I want to see kind of where the confidence level is with him. A lot of times it’s like, let’s come out and let’s take some completions early. Let’s take some check downs.

“You watch, if you’re watching preseason games this week, I promise you when you see rookie quarterbacks, I’ll say conservatively, 60-70% of the first throws for all these rookie quarterbacks will be on boots. It’s the same every year. We’re going to boot you out, we’re going to get the tight end in the flat, we’re going to get you a gimme and we’ll get you going a little bit.”

As for Brooks, he agrees for the most part with his broadcast partner, and added that the Texans will be in good shape if Stroud continues to string completions together.

“That’s what you want. That’s kind of what you want. You want to get them eased in into the game,” added Brooks. “Let them have an opportunity to have success, by doing that. And if you can do that, you can begin to build that confidence, because what you eventually want them to do is to take completions. Let’s see if we can put three, four, five completions in a row, because we’ve seen it DJ, the elite quarterbacks, they go quarters without seeing the ball hit the ground, because they understand the entire offense and they know when to go to their third and fourth option, so they’re able to take the check down.

“So I want to see some of these young quarterbacks, ‘Hey man, let’s start stringing together these completions, so the offense can run efficiently.'”

That sounds easy enough for CJ Stroud, who did that with consistency at Ohio State. The NFL is a whole different story though, and time will tell if he can get the job done.