Former Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud won NFL Rookie of the Year honors. He sat down for an interview on radio row at the Super Bowl to discuss hi big rookie year.
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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. 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
00:58 this 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
01:03 do 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
01:09 to win. And, you know, I also had a lot of great teammates and
01:11 coaches that helped me along the way.
01:13 So, you know, I wouldn't say that I wasn't expecting it, but
01:16 it's been a blessing to have that type of success.
01:18 And now I want to do more, you know.
01:19 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.
01:26 You go into the league, ball out, take it to the playoffs, feels
01:28 just like college again.
01:29 But what's the biggest takeaway? Biggest takeaway, you know,
01:33 is players make plays, you know, like that's my job is to make
01:36 plays and win games.
01:37 And, you know, even sometimes the other team makes plays and
01:40 you 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
01:46 make 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. Going into season two, what are some things in your game
01:58 that 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
02:05 improve on to get better, to take it even to a next level
02:08 next year?
02:08 Yeah, you know, it's a multitude of things, you know, we always
02:11 do like self-scout, you know, and for me, really just the
02:15 operational stuff sometimes, it's getting them out the huddle
02:17 faster, you know, getting to play call and relaying it the
02:20 right way.
02:21 And, you know, it'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
02:26 know, especially in the playoffs where it's loud, it's an away
02:28 game and hopefully we don't got to do that.
02:30 We just get all home game, you know, just win our AFC, you know,
02:33 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 at a high level in those
02:39 harsh environments.
02:40 Yeah.
02:40 Talk to me a little bit about your relationship with head
02:44 coach Domingo Rhymes, man.
02:45 Like, I grew up watching him play for the Texans and then
02:48 seeing him coach, playing against them, defenses that he
02:51 coached and now seeing him with you.
02:54 Talk to us a little bit about your relationship.
02:56 It's a great relationship, bro.
02:57 Somebody that I know I can go up to his office and talk to him
03:00 about anything.
03:00 Yep.
03:01 He'll text or call me to, you know, make sure that I'm straight,
03:03 you know, 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, you know, he's been, like
03:10 you said, he's been in our shoes.
03:11 He understands what it is, the grind that it takes to win games,
03:14 you know, and he holds that standard and he holds a high,
03:16 you know, if you don't fake that standard, you stick out like
03:18 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, look like you were having a lot
03:32 of fun last week.
03:33 What was like, let's say this, who was the person that you
03:38 kind of gravitated towards last week?
03:40 Because you know how it is.
03:40 Yeah.
03:41 Played, you growing up, 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.
03:46 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, like I got a lot of respect
03:57 for them, of course, been watching them for a while now and
03:59 yeah, no, to see mutual respect, you know, my first year, man,
04:03 that's, it's like super cool to me.
04:04 It's actually like, I'm in awe, you know, of all the guys
04:07 who 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
04:12 to a bunch and got close with and, you know, had this open
04:15 conversation and got to know each other a lot.
04:17 Yeah, for sure.
04:18 All right.
04:19 So we're in Vegas, 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
04:28 take the Chiefs?
04:29 He got to be himself, you know, I think Purdy is somebody
04:32 who's been a great quarterback in this league, definitely
04:34 top 10 quarterback and I think people got to start putting
04:37 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, he has a great team, but like at the
04:43 same time, you're the quarterback, you got to make plays,
04:44 you got to get guys in out the huddle, you got to, there's
04:46 a lot of things that have to go right just for the quarterback
04:49 to make everybody around them do their job and, you know,
04:52 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 he's playing at his highest level right now and
04:59 a lot of 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
05:09 go with the Chiefs, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's
05:12 a long 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
05:19 the way since college and, you know, it's been amazing
05:21 to work with them.
05:22 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
05:28 know how it is.
05:29 Yeah.
05:29 Need that extra burst of energy in that morning at 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,
05:38 you know, and it helps me out a lot, you know, so it's NSF
05:41 certified.
05:42 So the league approves of it.
05:43 Yep, yep.
05:43 So which is really important and, you know, it's just, you
05:46 know, it's an amazing product.
05:47 My favorite is Starburst, 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]