In a class where the draft industrial complex determined one quarterback was too short (Bryce Young), one quarterback was too raw (Anthony Richardson) and one quarterback was too infatuated with mayonnaise (Will Levis), spurring a long evening in front of blood-sucking network cameras for Levis, it’s surprising I’m still most sympathetic toward C.J. Stroud.
This is because Stroud, the Ohio State product now headed to the Texans, spent the weeks leading up to the draft and the days following it answering questions about a test he reportedly did poorly on, as if any singular assessment is wholly indicative of someone’s intelligence.
To be clear, I have no problem with Bob McGinn, who first reported for Go Long that Stroud received an 18% on the S2 cognition test (here’s a primer on what the test measures). McGinn, who has been covering the NFL longer than I’ve been alive, is one of the most accurate draft experts walking the Earth. His goal has always been to relay to you what scouts relay to him, and thus, what scouts are discussing in team meeting rooms. My problem is with what happens when that information (like bad Wonderlic scores that have leaked for years) leaves his capable hands, and we, in the media, start using it as an automatic shorthand for the possession of, or lack of, intelligence. It’s great Young nearly broke the scale on the S2, which I’d heard back in the winter when reporting our magazine profile of him. That may help explain why he’s such a good quarterback.
