Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard has hit out at “b*******” claims made about Houston Texans newboy CJ Stroud.
Ahead of the NFL Draft, which got underway on Thursday, an unnamed NFL executive told Go Long that the 21-year-old had only scored 18 per cent in his S2 cognition test during an interview. By comparison fellow quarterback Bryce Young, who became this year’s first overall pick when he was snapped up by Carolina Panthers, scored 98 per cent.
The S2 test measures a player’s ability to process information, make decisions and react to various situations. And Ballard appeared to be referring to the leak when he leapt to the defence of young players in the game. “I’m not going to lie to you all, I get frustrated,” Ballard told reporters.
“Now I’m going to go off on a sidebar here. All the… I almost said a bad word. All the c*** that comes out about these kids - it’s c***. It’s b*******. I’m sorry but it’s b*******. People that leak these stories, these negative stories on kids. I don’t agree with it. It’s b*******.
“These guys worked their ass off to get to where they need to be. And then all week you’ve got to read. And then they’ve got to answer questions on it. Not on Anthony [Richardson], it’s on some other kids in the Draft that are good kids and I thought had to take a little bit of a beating that they shouldn’t have had to take.”
Ahead of the Draft, the NFL executive appeared eager to reveal Stroud’s test score as he explained: “Stroud scored 18. That is like red alert, red alert, you can’t take a guy like that. That is why I have Stroud as a bust.
“That in conjunction with the fact, name one Ohio State quarterback that’s ever done it in the league. The S2 people will say, ‘hey, guys that graded high on this test don’t always play well.’ But we’ve never had somebody grade low and play well.”
Stroud, meanwhile, brushed off the criticism as he responded: “I'm not a test-taker, I play football. At the end of the day, I don't got nothing to prove to nobody, so I'm not going to sit here and explain how I process football.
“The people who are making the picks know what I can do, so that's all that matters to me. I know what I can do, I know what I can process. If I'm not the smartest quarterback in this draft, I know I'm one of the smartest quarterbacks in the NFL when I step in there tomorrow, so I have confidence in myself.”
