The pressure this season is squarely on C.J. Stroud and Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson, The Drive's Clint Stoerner says.
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00:00And I think it kind of established a little bit more.
00:04Yes, the draft is coming, but this thing is still about C.J.,
00:10what Nick Haley's going to be able to do,
00:12what this offense is going to be able to do.
00:14And it's hard to get away from C.J.'s pressure yesterday
00:18and the different comments that he made
00:21that really caused us to pause a little bit
00:26and want to kind of dive in a little deeper on this.
00:29C.J. Stroud yesterday had a couple of comments.
00:33We heard him talk about his relationship with Nick Haley
00:36and the start of it right now,
00:37but we also heard him talk about some established relationships
00:41like his quarterback coach, Gerard Johnson.
00:44We know Gerard Johnson.
00:45He went up and interviewed to be the O.C.
00:51That job ultimately went to Nick Haley.
00:55But C.J. had some conversations about returning
00:58and having him for a third straight year in his career.
01:02Yeah, I think it's very important.
01:03You know, Gerard is somebody who has, you know,
01:06been with me since my rookie season,
01:09but also, you know, known me since I was in high school.
01:12He was like 16 years old.
01:13So for him to, you know, be here and seeing me in those different lights
01:17and those different points in my life has been cool.
01:19So I think it's going to be great for him, you know, for him and Nick
01:23because, you know, I mean, Gerard is specialized in quarterbacks
01:27and I think Nick is going to lean on him a lot in that area
01:30and he's going to give him a lot more responsibility,
01:33which I think Gerard is due for,
01:35and I think he's going to do great with it.
01:37And I told him, man, he's one of the best coaches I've ever worked with
01:40and just the way he thinks, the way he operates, you know,
01:43the fact that he played and the real genius.
01:48And I'm excited to see him elevate just as a coach
01:50and to be, you know, more hands-on is going to be amazing.
01:53All right.
01:54I do want to get an overall point for that,
01:57but Gerard is getting more responsibility and deserves it
02:00is what C.J. said in that bad boy.
02:02But this also caught our ears as well as C.J.
02:07talking about now the adjustment from his first two years to Nick Caley
02:11and now this thing going closer to where he's comfortable.
02:15Yeah.
02:16I mean, you know, he comes from L.A. and New England
02:19and, you know, he's going to bring some of that swag over here.
02:22So, you know, that kind of is what I'm used to is, you know,
02:25taking control and, you know, being a little more pre-snap,
02:28you know, having tools to put my guys in the best position.
02:31And that's, you know, something that we really didn't work on
02:34these last two years.
02:35But even those principles I learned from and it made me better
02:40because it added a new element to my game.
02:42So, you know, being able to, you know, just get better
02:44and learn from, you know, what he did with, you know,
02:47New England and L.A. would definitely help me
02:50because I feel, you know, those are two schemes that I'm, you know,
02:53kind of used to in a sense.
02:54That's kind of what I ran at Ohio State,
02:57what kind of New Orleans does a little bit.
02:58And L.A., you know, it's kind of what we ran here these last two years.
03:01So I'll be able to, you know, put my swag on it and have fun with it.
03:05And, you know, he's all about, you know, me taking full ownership
03:08and running the show, and that's what I want.
03:10So, you know, I'm going to get what I want.
03:12And that's really been really cool just to see that he's, like, bought into me
03:16and he doesn't really know me well yet.
03:18So, you know, he talked about today having blind trust,
03:20and I have a lot of trust in him already, just how he talks
03:23and, you know, how he presents in the room and things like that is really cool.
03:27CJ, with the connection of those three, himself, the quarterback on the field,
03:32the quarterback coach, the one who directly works with him,
03:35and then Nick Cayley, who is going to be the new OC.
03:38And obviously those three are going to be tied and tight together
03:43with what happens with CJ Stroud at least next year
03:47and the rest of the time they're here.
03:48But, Clint, when you heard him talking about Gerard,
03:51you heard him talking about Nick Cayley
03:53and I guess in a way talking about how things are going to be for him this year
03:59in terms of responsibility, as he said, getting what he wants.
04:03Where did that take your mind for this season for CJ Stroud?
04:08Look, I can't speak for everybody out there and how they heard it,
04:10but I can speak for how I heard it.
04:12And I believe that the pressure is squarely on CJ Stroud and Gerard Johnson.
04:16You don't remove an offensive coordinator and an O-line coach,
04:22bring in a guy that's never called plays, and retain everybody else,
04:29give more responsibility to your quarterback coach as he deserves,
04:33and give more freedom and control to your quarterback as he deserves
04:37going into year three.
04:39You don't do that, and then all the pressure remains on the offensive coordinator
04:44to do X, Y, and Z and to fix all the problems.
04:48Look, Nick Cayley's got his work cut out for him.
04:50Nick Cayley's got a scheme.
04:52Nick Cayley's got to call plays.
04:53But when it comes down to the major problems,
04:55not being able to protect the quarterback,
04:57the quarterback taking too many hits,
04:58the quarterback turning the football over,
04:59the quarterback knowing where to go with the football,
05:01the quarterback now knowing how to communicate the protections up front
05:04to protect himself, how to get bad plays and into good plays,
05:09how to communicate all that,
05:10it is squarely on CJ Stroud and Gerard Johnson.
05:14No more passing the buck.
05:15No more.
05:15There's nobody there.
05:16They've let – I don't know if they purposely did it,
05:18but they let the cat out of the bag, right?
05:20Now there's no more, well, Nick Cayley didn't get the job done.
05:24The OC didn't get the job done.
05:25This guy – you know, the communication wasn't here or there.
05:27It is squarely on the shoulders of CJ Stroud and Gerard Johnson.
05:32They're both getting more control, more responsibility, more freedom,
05:36which ultimately that position, that coach with more freedom,
05:44more responsibility, everything but the play calling duties,
05:47that's where the pressure is, big-time pressure this year on those two guys,
05:52and we'll see if they can deliver.
05:53When he's talking about Gerard Johnson,
05:55and he's talking about getting more responsibility than he deserves it,
05:58you're one –
05:59What does that mean?
06:00Well, you're telling us that he was handcuffed last year
06:03and he didn't get the responsibility last year to now,
06:05hey, part of the deal is this year we're going to keep Gerard Johnson in the house.
06:09Yeah, but, Clint, I'm dead ass here.
06:11Yeah.
06:11What is more responsibility for a quarterback?
06:15Well, I'll say it like this.
06:17There are – there is no doubt about it that Gerard Johnson
06:22and Bobby Slowick didn't see football through the same lens last year.
06:25Clearly.
06:26There was nothing that Gerard Johnson could do about it.
06:29He's a quarterback coach.
06:30You're a position coach.
06:31Your job is to – I'm the offensive coordinator.
06:34Your job is to communicate what the hell I teach you in my language
06:37to our quarterback and make sure our quarterback is physically in shape
06:41and mentally knows my plan to go out there and play.
06:45That sounds – now –
06:49Is that uncommon?
06:51No, I don't think it's – I don't think it's uncommon.
06:53I think you would like for your quarterback and your quarterback coach
06:56to get to a point where, you know, they have the freedom
06:59that they look like they're going to get.
07:02It sounds – the uncommon part of Bobby Slowick is for him to lose his job
07:06and for everybody else to keep their job and for guys to get –
07:09I mean, guys ultimately to get promotions.
07:11It seems like Bobby was obviously very aggressive with it.
07:17I would say that that's uncommon.
07:19I don't think it's uncommon for a lot of –
07:22especially if you've got a young quarterback coach that's never done it.
07:24That guy typically doesn't come in and have a ton of say-so
07:26in what the hell you're doing offensively.
07:28Now, as the year goes along, you have a bunch of struggles.
07:31Year one, I doubt there was too much to complain about.
07:33Year two, there's a lot of struggles.
07:35Now all of a sudden, you've got coaches underneath your OC
07:37that are voicing opinions and have opinions
07:40and would do things differently, and he wasn't able to do that last year.
07:43Now, you've got the voice.
07:46You've got the responsibility, Gerard Johnson.
07:48Now there's no excuse for the quarterback to go out there
07:51now that he has more freedom and more responsibility
07:55and more tools to put his swag on it,
07:59and he's running the show and he's getting what he wants.
08:02There's no excuse for the quarterback to go out there
08:06and not be able to communicate at the line of scrimmage
08:09and protect himself.
08:10There's no excuse for the quarterback not to go out there
08:13and play at an extremely high level,
08:15given what we've already seen C.J. do,
08:16which is play at an extremely high level.
08:18And if he doesn't, then it's no longer
08:21pinning on the offensive coordinator.
08:22At this point in time, it appears that Gerard Johnson
08:25and C.J. Schrola, what the hell's going on
08:29as the offensive coordinator is,
08:30with the exception of obviously the terminology that they use,
08:34the playbook, and what play is called in what moment.
08:38But it sounds like Gerard Johnson's going to have
08:40a strong hand in this,
08:42and there ain't no more passing the buck.
08:44This is on C.J. and Gerard.
08:45Oh, yeah.
08:46To me, I guess C.J. and Gerard,
08:48it feels very much,
08:51hey, C.J., what do you want?
08:54Sure does.
08:54Now, he said it.
08:56Hell, he said it.
08:57I'm going to get what I want.
08:58But even more, in that cut, the second cut we played,
09:01he spoke of, I think it's,
09:05I love that Nick Caley just has blind faith in me
09:08and is going to give up.
09:11Like, this is a, and this tells me, Clint,
09:13that the decisions were driven around,
09:17all right, man, we're handing everything over
09:19almost to C.J. in comfort with C.J.
09:23to a point where you have to come in here
09:26and roll with the coaching staff
09:29that kind of we have in place
09:30and roll with the thought of,
09:32hey, C.J. is going to have,
09:34and I'm not saying this is wrong,
09:35I'm just saying this is what it looks like,
09:37that C.J. is going to be somebody
09:39who is in control,
09:42like, to the point where this is your first gig,
09:44you've never been an O.C.,
09:45you never know, you don't know any of these coaches,
09:47and you never worked up close with this quarterback
09:49who's in the second year
09:50that took a step back last year,
09:52and it is, hey, man, I'm handing it over to you.
09:55Like, that, to me, would,
09:57I don't know, it's just common.
09:59I'm not saying you wouldn't get to a point of that,
10:02but before you walk in the door
10:03and you had a practice,
10:07it's all means, Clint, they said,
10:09all right, C.J., we want to put this thing in your hands.
10:12Well, yeah, and here's the thing,
10:14is it better work?
10:15Because, once again, you've got unproven guys
10:18that have never done it with the responsibility.
10:20You've got a bunch of unproven guys in the building, right?
10:23That's the part here as a Texans fan
10:25that you go, ooh, you know,
10:26how's this going to go down?
10:27How's this going to work?
10:28But it's clear at this point in time,
10:30based on what they've said,
10:31based on what we've heard since they hired Nick Cayley,
10:33based on all the, you know,
10:35flipping all the stones and studying and seeing
10:37and checking and reading and covering
10:38what's going on over there,
10:40it is clear that there was a,
10:44we're going to keep things as similar as we can
10:46on the offense.
10:49We're going to,
10:50we're going to,
10:50as stable as we can with Gerard Johnson.
10:52In fact, we're going to give Gerard and C.J. more power.
10:55Now, what offensive coordinator?
10:57And the people that C.J.'s comfortable with.
10:59Yeah, what offensive coordinator can accomplish that
11:02with knowing the terminology that he's like,
11:04he's been in two different systems
11:05and being comfortable with Nick Casario
11:07and can come in and is going to allow
11:09Gerard Johnson to have a lot of say-so,
11:11is going to allow C.J. Stroud to have a lot of say-so.
11:14It explains how you land on Nick Cayley,
11:17to be completely honest with you.
11:19And I'll be honest with you,
11:20everybody knows I'm a fan of
11:22hire a guy, turn the reins over to him
11:25and everybody does it his way
11:26and let's all get on one court.
11:28Hire a guy that's got pelts on the walls,
11:30yada, yada, yada, okay?
11:31That was not the route that they take.
11:33Now, the other route is
11:35lean into your quarterback,
11:37lean into your quarterback coach
11:38who you have, you believe at some point
11:40is going to be an offensive coordinator.
11:42Keep things as comfortable and as stable
11:44and as similar as possible
11:46to the pre-quarterback
11:48and hire an offensive coordinator
11:50that you know is not going to ruffle feathers
11:51and not going to have a problem
11:53with people having input in his offense.
11:55It looks like that's the route they took.
11:56The more and more I hear,
11:58I'm surprised they didn't turn it over to Gerard.
12:02Would have made more sense.
12:04That's what I was thinking was going to happen.
12:06Remember, that was what I was betting.
12:08I didn't think they were going to do that
12:11because I thought they were going to go
12:12with somebody with more experience.
12:14But now when they've done this
12:15and now that we're starting to see,
12:18it's like, come on.
12:20Listen, you've been in the NFL
12:21more obviously inside of it
12:24more than I have.
12:25I just don't think it's real common
12:27like, hey man, it's a second year quarterback
12:29going to his third year
12:31that had a great one year
12:33but a second year
12:34that kind of took a step back
12:36to where before we have a practice,
12:40like, this is a
12:42we're working together type of deal.
12:45Yeah, I don't know that that's...
12:47Well, if it works, Ron,
12:48it could be beautiful
12:49because you do pull in
12:50what they claim is a really, really, really good coach.
12:52It's got a lot of experience
12:53in a couple of different systems
12:55that knows the game, pass game,
12:57and run game
12:57from coaching tight ends
12:58in two different systems.
12:59So there's some big value there.
13:01The question becomes
13:02you still have a lack of experience
13:04in play design,
13:05play call,
13:06play creation,
13:07managing a game.
13:08You still have a major,
13:11major lack of experience there.
13:13How do you make up for it?
13:14Your quarterback
13:14and your quarterback coach
13:15looks like they're the ones
13:17that the task is going to be
13:17laid at their feet.