C.J. Stroud knew he was getting a unique opportunity, and the Houston Texans quarterback capitalized.
The No. 2 overall pick had the chance to spend time with former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady during the lead-up to Stroud’s rookie campaign.
Stroud spent time with Brady on “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray” on SiriusXM NFL Radio to discuss how meeting the seven-time Super Bowl champion helped his understanding of the NFL.
“Personally, it was like a cheat code to not only be an NFL quarterback, but to be a professional person and a real man in this game of football,” Stroud said. “Right after I went and I took notes from it, I had the guys who did the whole video for us, and I re-watched the whole thing and wrote notes and just really tried to just make it my own, try to really adapt it into a routine for me. That was one thing that I know that Tom was preaching was routine and being a great teammate and things like that. So for me, that was what I wanted to do.”
Stroud was also appreciative of Brady allowing transparency during the meeting as it gave the former Ohio State signal caller the confidence to carry out functions as a competitive franchise quarterback.
“That meeting really instilled a lot of confidence in me and told me, man, like, I can do this,” said Stroud. “Seeing Tom, and him being so personable and so relatable, and you would think like he’s a seven-time NFL champion, a MVP, this G.O.A.T. status quarterback, but he was really vulnerable in that moment [and] he really made it easy for us to understand what he was talking about.”
Stroud has led the Texans to a 5-4 start and leads the NFL with a 15-2 touchdown to interception ratio — a stellar imitation of Brady, who had a 649-212 ratio during his career.
