C.J. Stroud should be in the NFL MVP conversation. Anyone inside Space City over the past couple of weeks would agree with that premise.
However, it takes on a different feel when decision-makers who cast votes for the actual award start to drum up such talk.
According to Peter King from NBC Sports, the Houston Texans rookie quarterback made a convincing case throughout the club’s 30-27 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 10. King noted that Stroud is on his ballot for MVP.
Considering the gravitas King has as an NFL writer since the 1980s, it isn’t hyperbole. The No. 2 overall pick’s performance against the Bengals sealed it.
Stroud’s 22 going on 32, and after the game sounded like he’d been in this situation 63 times before, and he wasn’t too upset about it. There is a sense of calm in Stroud’s orbit, the kind of calm a 22-year-old kid should not have.
“I mean, this game, it’s a players’ game,” Stroud said from the Houston locker room. “I’ve had a lot of respect for Cam Taylor-Britt over the years. He’s a player. Made a hell of a play. Of course, I just should have taken the sack there and punted. But the type of person I am, a one-play-at-a-time guy, that’s not gonna kill me. And my teammates on the sideline helped me a lot. Just telling me, ‘You’re good bro.’”
No Texans quarterback has finished in MVP voting. The closest a Texans player has come to claiming MVP was in 2014 when J.J. Watt finished second in MVP voting.
