Titans First Round Options: C.J. Stroud

Stoney finally got around to watching the tape on Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud on this edition of Titans First Round Options.

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The 2023 NFL Draft takes place April 27-29 this year, emanating LIVE from Kansas City, Missouri. As it stands, the Tennessee Titans have one first round draft pick. New general manager Ran Carthon and head coach Mike Vrabel currently hold the 11th overall selection. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be taking a look at some of the prospects who are either rumored to be tied to, have met with, who make sense for the Titans, or who are for some reason being mocked to the Titans even though they don’t really have a need at the position. Whatever – there are no rules here. Today, we’re lookin’ at Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud.

I don’t think quarterback is necessarily off the table for the Titans just because the Carolina Panthers traded up to #1 in this year’s draft. Now, it may take some real finagling to get up high enough to get Stroud, and my gut feeling says that’s who the Panthers want right now (if you listen to Panthers quarterbacks coach Josh McCown gush about the guy). But, it’s possible. You just never know how the dominos are going to fall. Maybe the Panthers like Anthony Richardson and the Texans like Bryce Young. Could the Titans then sell the farm to Arizona to move up and get Stroud? Maybe. Could they trade directly with the Panthers if they’re not bluffing about being open to trading the pick? Maybe. Is it possible Stroud slides in the draft? Longshot…but maybe. That’s why I’m not ruling anything out at this point.

Stroud has a myriad of quarterback awards to go along with his back-to-back Heisman finalist honors, his second-team All-American honors in 2022, his third-team All-American honors in 2021, and his back-to-back first-team All-Big-Ten honors. Yeah…this is a guy that has a pedigree at the top of college football the last two seasons. From a statistical standpoint, Stroud’s 2021 season was more prolific than 2022 – he had a 71.9% completion percentage, and threw for 4,435 yards with a whopping 44 touchdowns to six interceptions. In 2022, it was a 66.2% completion percentage while throwing for 3,340 yards with 37 touchdowns and six more interceptions.

I’m so late getting around to Stroud. I watched the Ohio State highlights throughout the season. I watched the Georgia game, and I watched him throw at the Scouting Combine. It felt like there was a bit of a disconnect between the Georgia game and everything else…like it was an outlier…so, I wanted to wait until I had the chance to watch a little more film on Stroud before making an evaluation. He seemed to have really cooled off from a prolific 2021 campaign, but I found that the player we saw in that Georgia game was there more consistently throughout 2022 than I had realized.

For me, the Notre Dame tape is some quintessential Stroud. We saw him hit guys on the run after getting out of the pocket and throwing a dart down the field. He had a bucket shot in the end zone that was dropped, but should’ve been a touchdown. His accuracy popped, and he played with sound mechanics in the pocket. He was also throwing the ball short and low on occasion. I jotted down at least three times when the ball hit the dirt at the receiver’s feet. The inaccuracy when plays break down showed up a couple of times too. That was an impressive game in hindsight because Notre Dame had a great game plan and executed it perfectly on defense. They were driving back that vaunted Buckeyes offensive line, and their guys were covering in the secondary. I’ll cut Stroud some slack for that, and for the fact that it was the first game of the season, so there may have been some rust to knock off. But, it felt like the gamut of everything that is good and bad about Stroud. It was also wild to see how much better he’d gotten between that Notre Dame game and the Georgia game. He seemed to hit his stride as the season went on and put some really good stuff on tape down the stretch.

No one should ever have to watch that Northwestern tape unless you have a torture kink, which hey – I’m not here to judge. If that’s the case, then this is the tape for you. Some would say you throw it out with the bathwater, but I wanted to watch it to see how he responded to some adverse conditions. If you don’t remember, that was the game during which there was a torrential downpour. Northwestern scored early, and proceeded to sit on that seven-point lead forever as Ohio State just handed the ball off over and over. When they did call a pass, the ball was sailing on Stroud and bouncing off of his receivers’ hands. It was his lowest passer rating of the season (63.0), and he only completed 10 passes. Why not fire this up? Am I the only person that sees that and is filled with intrigue?

Nonetheless, what I saw was drop after drop after drop. It was obvious that the weather was effecting the game, but he did show some poise in the face of that adversity. His placement was accurate on those short range throws. He made a play down the field blocking on a touchdown run. He ripped off a chunk run down the sideline with a wide open lane in front of him. While I saw some of those instances of his inaccuracies on the move, he showed a nice command of the offense and a collected demeanor. He didn’t panic. He showed some moxie in that game.

The opening drive against Penn State was genuinely impressive. He looked decisive in whipping balls to the sideline. He had yet another bucket dropped in on a play. And, all in all, he seemed highly active pre-snap in reading what the Penn State defense was doing and knowing where to attack. He diced them up on that drive before they eventually punched in a rushing touchdown.

The accuracy and the poise is something that is evident from the first drive you watch when you pop on the tape. Digging into it a bit, I feel like the inconsistencies I once thought marred his game were actually pretty explainable. There were a lot more drops down the field on throws that were placed perfectly than I had realized. Placement is something he’s known for, but it’s married to a sense of timing that doesn’t seem to be talked about enough. Not only is he incredible at putting balls right where his guys can get ’em, but he hits ’em in stride regularly. It’s crisp, precise, and accurate. You can draw up bootlegs to get him moving, and that’s where I really do love the Ryan Tannehill comparison, as that’s also an underrated aspect of Tannehill’s game.

He’s not the most elusive runner, and he loses his accuracy on the run when his primary option isn’t open and he has to sort of re-scan the field. I also worry about the short throws – what’s up with that? All in all, he has a rightful spot up there with Bryce Young atop this quarterback class. The Georgia game answered a lot of questions about his deep ball accuracy and play-making ability when things don’t go according to plan. The Combine highlighted his touch passing. He’s checked an awful lot of boxes since the regular season ended. He definitely seems like the type of quarterback that Carthon and Vrabel would covet, but they may have to trade away more capital than they have to get him. I don’t see him in Nashville next season.

Further reading: Georgia defenders sound off on NFL Draft’s top quarterbacks and QB C.J. Stroud says he’s been best player in college football

2023 TITANS FIRST ROUND OPTIONS

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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.

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