The Houston Texans gave C.J. Stroud the opportunity, and he looked callow.
The No. 2 overall pick threw an interception on his first drive against the New England Patriots, and then the Texans went three-and-out on the next series. Stroud’s night was over by the third drive as Davis Mills took over.
While Stroud’s stat line of 2-4 for 13 yards and an interception suggests his early benching was due to poor performance, coach DeMeco Ryans clarified the objective was always to give Stroud a limited foray into live action — regardless of mistakes made.
“With the reps that C.J. got, it was planned that way to not get him 10 to 12 reps in this game — just to get him some experience, get him his first NFL game, to get him some NFL reps, NFL experience,” Ryans told reporters Friday at NRG Stadium. “That’s the reps that we decided to go with for C.J.”
The Texans prevailed 20-9 over New England at Gillette Stadium Thursday night. Ryans believes there were good plays Stroud made.
Said Ryans: “It was good to see him when the play broke down, see him operate outside of the play as it was designed, to see him move. That was good. It was also good to see him make a poor decision with the football, and he had to pay for making that poor decision, but it was good to see him learn from that, and it’s good to see him — we talked to him on the sideline after those plays happened — to see a young guy who knows exactly what happened when he comes off of the field.”
What Ryans saw as a positive for the near term is Stroud’s ability to absorb the information and get over the bad plays.
“Easy to communicate with, and it’s easy for him to put that behind him and move on to the next play,” said Ryans. “So, I’m encouraged with him and his growth process.”
The Texans’ next preseason game is Aug. 19 against the Miami Dolphins at NRG Stadium.
