My Guys: Week 3 – CJ Stroud, The Raiders and Sad WRs.
Every week Adam from Talent Alone brings you an article curated to a list of “his guys”. Who are his guys? Well, you can see the list here. These are a group of players that, due to fantasy, priors or playing for the Commanders, Adam feels a sense of take ownership of these players.
Alright ladies and gentelmens, three weeks in the book and the NFL season is ready to start cooking. 50-point wins, Field goals when you’re down 8 and Brandon Staley wins a game, so what are we gonna talk about? Well, that’s simple, CJ Stroud.
CJ Stroud
Devotees of the My Guys list will be the first to point out that Stroud wasn’t here on Week 1 and thus is ineligible to be included in the article, and I will retort that they forgot the clause I included that I can add players to the list as long as I remove another player.
So, with that parliamentary reminder, it saddens me to say goodbye to a long-time Commander in Brandon Scherff. Listen Brandon, it’s not you, it’s me. Well, it kind of is you. We’ll say 60/40 you to me ratio.
With that nasty bit of business out of the way, lets talk about CJ Stroud.
I definitivly said pre-draft that Anthony Richardson was unquestioned the QB1 in this draft. Now it’s worth a disclaimer here that I am:
- Not a very good analyist
- More likely to watch Season 4 of Arrested Development than I am to watch College Football
After Three Weeks of NFL action I gotta say, I think I would rather have Stroud than Richardson. It is way way way too early to really make that call but let’s talk about Stroud a bit here.
WHAT IS GOING RIGHT
Stroud is playing like a multi-year pro already. He’s throwing out of the break with anticipation. He’s deceiving defenses with his eyes and he’s (occasionally) making plays with his legs.
One of the things that quietly won me over very early was how immeditaly he’s using his eyes to move defenders. In Week 2, against the Colts on First and 10 in the Second Quarter, Stroud flashes a look and turns his body to the flat to pull down the Colts linebacker before flipping his hips back upfield and drops a pass into the soft spot in coverage to Nico Collins who takes it upfield for a 24 yard gain. These moves and feints can elevate an offense and Stroud’s tape is littered with them.
Stroud’s anticipation is already NFL-caliber three games into his first NFL season. Let me drop this screenshot here:
So what you’re seeing here is a First and 10 pass. Right there Stroud is about to throw it. Like less than a second away from throwing it. What’s the result? A 13-yard completion that nearly puts Houston in the low red zone. Here’s the full clip:
Throwing with anticipation, to Tank Dell before the break, WITH PREASSURE IN HIS LAP. My man was COOKING.
Shout out to Bobby Slowik too, OC in Houston is running a bunch of cool stuff and a bunch of Shanahan stuff but he’s been doing my personal favorite, two back sets, often. He’s also running Bobby Trees out of the backfield which is all kinds fo fun.
WHAT IS GOING WRONG
Uhhhhh not much. The offensive line? Stroud throwing across his body while on the move? The man has 906 yards, 4 touchdowns and 0 interceptions through 3 games. He’s only had 2.7% of his plays deemed turnover worth by PFF which would have put him only behind Kenny Pickett among rookies in the last 3 years. He’s currently got the highest EPA/play among rookie QBs. He’s a jack of all trades and he’s making more good plays than bad ones. He’s not perfect but let’s give him some time and see what kind of QB he can become.
Got other things to talk about but before we move on let me close out this CJ Stroud fan fest with a few things:
First, I was working on this article when Ben Solak of the Ringer dropped a Play Sheet video about Stroud, and it is incredible. Huge Shout outs to Solak who is a great internet football mind and helped me a lot on this article without his knowledge
Second, I didn’t get time to watch the Jaguars/Texans all-22 because I have one of those annoying “Normal Jobs” that has nothing to do with football. I will try to only write film breakdowns in the future when I have time for what I’m breaking down but I wanted to crowbar some other things in here and there are only so many hours in the day. I don’t feel great about it but thems the bricks. I also want to have more images and videos in the future.
Alright with that let’s get on to the next point.
A Plea to the Las Vegas Raiders
For those of you who don’t enjoy watching Josh McDaniels coaching decisions, the two important things you missed from the Pittsburgh Steelers @ Las Vegas Raiders game:
- The Raiders, coached by one Josh McDaniels, kicked a field goal from the 8-yard line on 4th and 4 to cut the game to one score. Here’s the thing, the game was already a one-score game when they did this. The Score pre-field goal, 23-15 Steelers, the score post-field goal, 23-18 Steelers. Thanks Josh, got everyone off Brandon Staley’s dick for a week with that one.
- The other event is that Jimmy Garoppolo has a concussion. Quick side note: I will no longer be using the term “concussion protocol” because it feels like the NFL is brainwashing us to not associate the game with concussions anymore. This means either veteran QB Brian Hoyer or 4th Round Rookie out of Perdue Aidan O’Connell will be the starter.
Josh, I need you to hear me out. Start Aidan O’Connell. This young and was slinging it in preseason. PFF gave him an 89.5 overall grade in the preseason and a scorching 90.1 on play-action, and during preseason, he wasn’t even throwing to Davante Adams. Listen buddy, season is looking bleak right now. 1-2 in a division with the Chargers and Chiefs. Hunting a wild card spot in the AFC with the Chiefs, Bengals, Bills, Dolphins, Chargers, Steelers, Ravens and any AFC South Team that has to make the playoffs means your odds are not great here. Currently ahead of only the Texans at 85:1 to win the AFC. Brian Hoyer ain’t saving any of that.
Let’s take a shot on upside, let’s take a shot on promise, and let’s take a shot on the inaugural Gerald McCoy Trophy Winner Aidan O’Connell.
AWARDS
Only one award this week everyone. I know I know, we all love awards talk and maybe next weeks collum will have a whole lot of it but I want to hand out the Saddest WR Situation Award.
Now the My Guys list has some stiff competition so let’s lay out the candidates first:
Chris Olave, WR – New Orleans. He will be catching passes from Jameis for at least a couple of weeks.
Jahan Dotson, WR – Washington, DC. Sam Howell threw 4 completions to the Buffalo Bills and only 2 to Dotson
Drake London, WR – Atlanta. Times are bleak for Desmond Ridder and we talked about if it was time to throw in the towel on this week’s TAP.
Terry McLaurin, WR – Washington, DC. Seriously, it was bad.
And the winner is…
*Drum Roll*
Scary Terry with his 10th potential bust at QB in his short NFL career.
Alright. That’s it. Turn the lights off, carry me home. See you next week for some more talk about My Guys.
