Fresh off winning the 2023 NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud joined Sports Illustrated on behalf of C4 Energy drink and explained why his rookie season was just the start of him improving as a NFL QB.
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00:00 What is understood does not need to be explained.
00:03 I have CJ Strauss sitting to my left right now.
00:06 Offensive Rookie of the Year.
00:10 How you feeling, man?
00:11 I'm blessed, bro.
00:12 Blessed to be here, man.
00:13 Appreciate you having me.
00:14 Yes, sir.
00:14 Real quick, before we even get to football talk.
00:17 Next week,
00:20 we're going to be in Indianapolis giving bubbles.
00:23 Talk, I mean, the highlights have been going around.
00:25 Talk to us a little bit about your basketball game, man.
00:28 Yeah, I feel like I'm a shooter, you know.
00:29 That's what I'm best at.
00:31 I can take it off the dribble, get to the rack, but you know,
00:33 I'm gonna be careful.
00:34 I'm not gonna be out there doing too much, you know.
00:36 Yeah, you can't do too much, baby.
00:36 Houston needs you.
00:37 You gotta be good.
00:38 And I got Mike Hayden on me, so he didn't want me to score no points.
00:41 He's just a hater, you know.
00:42 So, I'm gonna try to do my thing, though.
00:43 Yeah.
00:44 Let's talk about this season, man.
00:45 Rookie year.
00:47 Did you expect to have this much early success going into the
00:52 Texans in which the last couple years haven't been so good for them?
00:55 I wouldn't necessarily say that I would expect what happened this
00:58 year, but I did not expect it, you know.
01:00 I just came with the mindset, like, I'm gonna work as hard and do
01:03 whatever I gotta do to, you know, win games, you know.
01:05 Whatever that took, I was gonna have to, you know, will our way to
01:09 win. And, you know, I also had a lot of great teammates and coaches
01:12 that helped me along the way.
01:13 So, you know, I wouldn't say that I wasn't expecting it, but it's
01:16 been a blessing to have that type of success.
01:18 And now I want to do more, you know.
01:20 For sure.
01:20 So, what's your biggest takeaway after year one, dawg?
01:23 You just came from a high state, big-time program.
01:25 You go into the league, ball out, take it to the playoffs, feel
01:28 just like college again.
01:29 But what's the biggest takeaway?
01:31 Biggest takeaway, you know, is players make plays, you know, like
01:35 that's my job is to make plays and win games.
01:37 And, you know, even sometimes the other team makes plays and you
01:40 can't do nothing about it.
01:41 Since those guys are good just like us, they get paid like us.
01:43 But, you know, it's, you know, my job to, you know, try to make
01:47 that not happen.
01:47 You know, it's been exciting to learn a lot.
01:49 My first year now, you know, a lot of learning experiences.
01:52 So, good to just double down on that.
01:54 Yep.
01:54 Going into season two, what are some things in your game that
01:59 you feel like, I know we ain't really in the film room yet.
02:01 We just had a break.
02:02 You just came off the season.
02:03 But what are some of the things that you think you need to improve
02:06 on to get better, to take it even to a next level next year?
02:08 Yeah, you know, it's most of the things, you know, we always
02:11 do like self-scout, you know, and for me, really just the operational
02:15 stuff sometimes, it's getting out the huddle faster, you know,
02:18 getting to play call and relaying it the right way.
02:21 And, you know, that's different from college where you're getting
02:22 signals and stuff, you know.
02:23 So, that's something that I definitely can improve on, you know,
02:26 especially in the playoffs where it's loud, it's an away game.
02:29 And hopefully we don't got to do that.
02:30 We just get all home game.
02:31 Yeah, all home game.
02:32 You know, just win our AFC, you know, win the conference.
02:34 But, you know, if that's not the case, then, you know, we got
02:37 to lock in and be able to execute on a high level in those harsh environments.
02:40 Yeah.
02:41 Talk to me a little bit about your relationship with head coach
02:44 Domingo Rhymes, man.
02:45 Like, I grew up watching him play for the Texans.
02:48 And then seeing him coach, playing against them, defenses that
02:51 he coached, and now seeing him with you.
02:54 Talk to us a little bit about your relationship.
02:56 Yeah, it's a great relationship, bro.
02:57 Somebody that I know I can go up to his office and talk to him about anything.
03:00 Yep.
03:01 He'll text or call me to, you know, make sure that I'm straight, you know,
03:03 especially like during my concussion.
03:05 He stayed, like, in contact with me, which I appreciated.
03:07 Yeah.
03:08 You know, and he's a player's coach.
03:09 You know, he's been, like you said, he's been in our shoes.
03:11 He understands what it is, the grind that it takes to win games, you know,
03:14 and he holds that standard.
03:15 And he holds a high, you know, if you don't fake that standard, you
03:17 stick out like a sore thumb.
03:18 Right.
03:19 You know, that's the type of culture that we wanted.
03:20 So, it's been amazing to work with D'Amico, man.
03:23 He's been a great coach, a great, you know, a great person.
03:26 You know, I'm just super excited to get another year with him.
03:28 All right.
03:28 So, first year, first Pro Bowl.
03:31 Looked like you were having a lot of fun last week.
03:33 What was like, let's say this, who was the person that you kind of
03:38 gravitated towards last week?
03:40 Because you know how it is.
03:40 Yeah.
03:41 Played, you growing up.
03:42 Right, right.
03:42 You go to these camps.
03:43 There's always, like, a guy that you're like, man, like, I enjoy
03:46 hanging out with him.
03:47 Yeah.
03:47 Who was that guy for you last week?
03:48 I really got close to Stephon Diggs.
03:49 Okay.
03:50 Me and Steph got really close.
03:51 Okay.
03:52 We talked a whole bunch and Derek Henry as well.
03:54 Okay.
03:55 You know, two stand-up dudes.
03:56 Like, I got a lot of respect for them, of course.
03:57 Been watching them for a while now and, you know, to see mutual
04:00 respect, you know, my first year, man, that's, it's like super
04:04 cool to me.
04:04 It's actually like, I'm in awe, you know, of all the guys who
04:07 have respect for me, you know, coming out of the season.
04:10 So, those are the two guys that I definitely got to talk to a
04:12 bunch and got close with and, you know, had this open conversation
04:16 and, you know, got to know each other a lot.
04:17 Yeah, for sure.
04:18 All right.
04:19 So, we're in Vegas.
04:19 Obviously, it's a Super Bowl game.
04:21 We got Patrick Mahomes.
04:23 We got Brock Purdy.
04:24 What do you think Brock Purdy needs to do for them to take
04:29 the Chiefs?
04:29 He got to be himself.
04:30 You know, I think Purdy is somebody who's been a great quarterback
04:34 in this league.
04:34 Definitely top 10 quarterback and I think people got to start
04:37 putting more respect on his name, you know, like there's nothing
04:39 easy about being an NFL quarterback.
04:41 Don't get me wrong.
04:41 He has a great team, but like, at the same time, you're the
04:43 quarterback. You got to make plays.
04:44 You got to get guys in out the huddle.
04:46 You got a lot of things that have to go right just for the
04:49 quarterback to make everybody around them do their job and, you
04:52 know, I have a lot of respect for him and, you know, it's not
04:54 going to be easy because Mahomes is a dog as well and somebody
04:56 I think is playing at his highest level right now and a lot of
04:59 respect for that dude as well.
05:00 So, and then you got two great defenses.
05:02 So, you know, it's gonna be a great game in my opinion.
05:04 Who do you think wins the game, CJ?
05:05 I can't bet against Mahomes, man, you know, so I'm gonna go
05:09 with the Chiefs, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a long
05:12 four-quarter game.
05:13 Yeah.
05:15 Talk to me about your partnership with C4, dawg.
05:17 Yeah, so I've been working with C4 for a minute now, all the
05:19 way since college and, you know, it's been amazing to work with
05:21 them. A great product, really is what helps me, you know, sometimes
05:25 on the long days and day 16, 17, the training camp, you know,
05:28 how it is.
05:29 Yeah.
05:29 Need that extra burst of energy in that morning and 5 a.m.
05:32 get up, you know, lifting, got practice, got meetings.
05:35 So, you know, drink some energy drink or some pre-workout, you
05:38 know, and it helps me out a lot, you know, so it's NSF certified.
05:42 So the league approves of it.
05:43 Yep.
05:43 Yep.
05:43 So which is really important and, you know, it's just, you
05:46 know, it's an amazing product and my favorite is Starburst.
05:49 So go out there and get it.
05:50 Ladies and gentlemen, CJ Stroud, catch him dropping buckets
05:54 fadeaways on Michael Parsons next week at the All-Star game,
05:57 baby.
05:57 Appreciate your time.
05:58 Appreciate you, bro.
05:58 Yes, sir.
05:59 Much love, bro.
06:00 [WHOOSH]