C.J Stroud

An effortless pocket passer, Stroud does his best work within the structure of the offense. He has a strong arm that can consistently attack the intermediate and deep areas of the field.

Mechanically, Stroud’s base is aligned with his shoulders. He keeps his feet buzzing and there’s no delay in his consistent motion. He understands how to change the pace of throws, giving his targets catch and run opportunities on short passes where they can carry their momentum. I love his use of the pump fake to freeze defensive backs.

Under pressure, Stroud is still a work in progress. He can throw with incredible touch when drifting towards the sideline. Against straight ahead pressure, he has a habit of drifting backward and trusting his arm (without his base) to reach the target. He’s so talented that at times it gives the wide receiver a chance, but this can be extremely costly in the NFL. His completion percentage when pressured went from 71.7% to 41.3% and his yards per attempt went from 10.3 to 5.7.

Stroud has been vocal he should utilize his athleticism more to extend and create plays off script. He displayed the ability to do this against Georgia, but there were few examples before that. He’s not very twitchy as an escape artist, but can run with long strides to threaten front seven defenders.

Stroud’s ability to carve up the opposition from the pocket with accuracy and a strong arm sets a solid floor for him as a passer. If he unlocks more of a playmaking mindset with his legs on a consistent basis, his ceiling enters top ten quarterback range. It’s a big question mark, but the former justifies him being a top five selection.