Noah Brown hasn’t kept an eye on Ohio State since entering the NFL in 2017.
“I’m not going to lie to you and act like I watched every Ohio State game since I’ve been in the league,” Brown said.
Don’t ask the former Dallas Cowboys 2017 seventh-round receiver about Stroud’s two-time, first-team All-Big Ten honors. Who knows how many of Stroud’s 85 touchdown passes Brown saw over the past two years?
All Brown can go off of is what he has seen from Stroud in person over the past month and a half’s worth of offseason workouts.
“I know C.J. has great arm talent,” Brown told reporters June 13 after the first day of the Houston Texans’ mandatory minicamp.
Talented passers have come and gone in the league, and at loftier draft statuses than Stroud’s No. 2 overall entry. For Stroud to manifest as the Texans’ future franchise quarterback, other traits — those unable to be measured with a stopwatch or even a cognition test — must come to the fore.
According to Brown, Stroud has demonstrated a satisfactory level of maturity from a rookie signal caller.
Said Brown: “The little bit of time I’ve been here working with him, he’s picked up the offense fast, taken ownership of his reps. I think that can only lead to positive things.”
Stroud remains locked in a battle for the starting job. Making fewer mistakes, and taking ownership of them nevertheless, is a recipe for Stroud to usher in a new era under center.
