New Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud said in a pre-draft interview with Uninterrupted’s The Shop that he felt “disrespected” when Ohio State brought in five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers in the fall of 2021.
Ewers, who was ranked as the No. 1 player in the high school class of 2022, reclassified up one year to join the Buckeyes early in fall camp ahead of the ’21 season. That move didn’t sit well with Stroud, who already had sat behind Justin Fields in the 2020 season.
“I kind of felt disrespected. I didn’t like that,” Stroud admitted.
Stroud had been penciled in as the starter for the ’21 season after Fields departed for the NFL, but adding Ewers to the mix during the team’s fall camp could have changed things. And to make matters worse, Stroud said the Ohio State coaching staff didn’t let him know about Ewers’s impending arrival until “the day [Ewers] came.”
Cj stroud talking about why he has a chip on his shoulder and how he felt disrespected when ohio st brought quinn ewers in 2 weeks before his first game. pic.twitter.com/XHIfHADIJy
— BELTWAY BOYZ (@beltwayboyz) May 8, 2023
Here’s the full interview:
Before he was selected second overall by the @HoustonTexans, @CJ7STROUD stopped by @TheShopUN 🍿
— NFL (@NFL) May 4, 2023
Watch on NFL+ https://t.co/tIDJDVBiHT @uninterrupted pic.twitter.com/P4bnsLHnRV
Stroud still ended up as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback and put up eye-popping numbers in that 2021 season, completing over 70 percent of his passes for 4,435 yards and 44 touchdowns while leading Ohio State to a Rose Bowl victory over Utah. Meanwhile, Ewers hit the transfer portal after the 2021 season and returned to his home state of Texas to suit up for the Longhorns.
Now headed to the NFL as the Texans’ new franchise quarterback, Stroud says he learned from the Ewers saga.
“I know the business that I’m in, that it is, in a sense, cutthroat,” Stroud said.
