C.J. Stroud’s debut season last year is the one rookie quarterbacks will be compared to not only because of his sterling statistics but the fact he helped guide a three-win team in 2022 to the playoffs in 2023 — and the Houston Texans won a wild-card game.
The link for the Chicago Bears as they prepare to play the Texans on “Sunday Night Football” at NRG Stadium is even greater as the Texans selected Stroud at No. 2 a year ago after general manager Ryan Poles traded the No. 1 pick to the Carolina Panthers.
That, of course, was possible because the Texans, with Lovie Smith as coach, staged a stunning comeback to win the 2022 season finale at Indianapolis, a last-second victory that propelled the Bears into the top spot in the 2023 NFL draft.
Had the Panthers selected Stroud and not Bryce Young, they still would be groaning in Houston about the opportunity spoiled by winning a meaningless game and costing the franchise the first pick.
The Bears could have stayed put and drafted Stroud, replacing one Ohio State Buckeye — Justin Fields — with another. That’s not a controversial take the way things were trending offensively and with the knowledge that Poles would need to take a shot at quarterback sooner rather than later.
It’s wise to stack all of the assets the Bears gained in the trade with the Panthers — one still to come as they own Carolina’s second-round pick in 2025 — because they have fast-forwarded a roster makeover and enhanced Caleb Williams’ chance for success. But the ultimate decider down the road — think five-plus years — will be which team landed the better quarterback: the Texans with Stroud or the Bears with Williams?
There’s no answer in the short term, and if Williams blossoms this season as the Bears hope after an uneven opener against the Tennessee Titans, perhaps it will be a great debate by the end of the year.
Right now, Stroud is an ascending superstar coming off a season in which he completed 63.9% of his passes for 4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and five interceptions. At midseason, he had 470 yards and five touchdowns against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was the runaway winner of the Offensive Rookie of the Year Award. He had six 300-yard games and was playing with a roster that, at the start of the season, was deemed one of the worst in the league. The Texans had a lot of moving parts on the offensive line, but Stroud, with a new coaching staff and an emerging cast of wide receivers such as Nico Collins and Tank Dell, elevated the organization.
The knee-jerk reaction is to say Stroud would have been doomed with the Bears last season without the roster parts they began collecting in the Panthers trade — wide receiver DJ Moore, right tackle Darnell Wright and cornerback Tyrique Stevenson — but that ignores where the Texans were organizationally at the start of 2023.
The Bears had a better roster to begin this season than the Texans did a year ago, so there is confidence at Halas Hall that Williams is in position to display growth, which everyone understands isn’t going to happen in a linear fashion week-to-week.
“I don’t like comparing players because everybody’s journey is different,” coach Matt Eberflus said. “Everybody moves through that their own way. It matters where you finish up at the end of the day.
“I will say this, C.J. did have a heck of a year with the yardage and managing the game and the explosive passes. He’s got some really good guys around him, which is really good to have. With some new additions this year with another receiver and a running back, but excellent year commend him and the coaches and everybody on that staff.”
An under-the-radar trade with the Cincinnati Bengals for running back Joe Mixon looks like it could pay big dividends for the Texans, who swapped only a seventh-round pick. Mixon carried the ball 30 times for 159 yards and a touchdown in the Week 1 win at Indianapolis.
The Texans tied for 22nd in the NFL in rushing last season with 1,647 yards but were 29th in yards per carry at 3.7. They had 40 carries in the opener — their most since Week 1 of 2021. It’s notable that they had more carries than rushes in only five games a year ago; in seven games, the Texans had 10 or more pass attempts than runs.
Mixon was added for a reason. The Texans don’t want to be put in positions in which Stroud has to throw 30, 35, 40 times per game routinely because that’s when bad things can happen. Mixon closed out the game against the Colts, and while it’s just one week, it appears the offense has an entirely different dynamic than it did when Stroud carried much of the load as a rookie. That’s one reason the Texans were blown out of the divisional round against the Baltimore Ravens, losing 34-10. They gained only 38 yards on the ground, and Stroud was forced to drop back repeatedly against a defense with Pro Bowl talent all over the field.
Perhaps that is something the Bears considered as they prepared for this game after a clunker of an offensive opening. They paid D’Andre Swift in free agency for good reason, and it’s a real risk to ask a rookie quarterback, especially with wide receivers Rome Odunze (right knee) and Keenan Allen (heel) either not available or not at full strength, to do too much.
Williams admitted he was playing a little too fast on some of the throws he missed in Week 1 — he was 14 of 29 for 93 yards. It should slow down a little for him Sunday night, even on a prime-time stage.
“Be yourself, understand whatever got you here is just good enough,” Stroud told Houston media on Wednesday when asked what advice he would have for Williams. “You don’t have to be a superhero. You don’t have to try to make all the plays. Sometimes, the boring plays are good.
“Being a rookie quarterback is hard and something I don’t miss but definitely something that I appreciated while I was in it. It’s an honor to see those guys like try to catch me and try to do what I did last year and better because I think that’s what makes football so special is one year somebody will break those records, somebody will do something more special than I did my rookie year. And I’m chasing after guys’ second records and so forth. So it’s a never-ending cycle of just competitive nature, and I love it. That’s what football is all about.”
The Bears believe they’re in the chase now with a quarterback who can make them a challenger, and the development of Williams will be intertwined with Stroud’s career as a storyline — one the Bears have to hope is a relevant conversation.
You can always play the “what-if” game when it comes to Stroud and the Bears’ No. 1 pick in 2023. That assumes, of course, they wouldn’t have opted for Young.
Scouting report
Will Anderson, Texans defensive end
Information for this report was obtained from NFL scouts.
Will Anderson, 6-foot-4, 243 pounds, is in his second season after the Texans made a shrewd gamble in the 2023 draft. They held the second and 12th picks in the first round and traded No. 12, No. 33 and first- and third-round picks in 2024 to the Arizona Cardinals for the No. 3 pick, which they used to select Anderson.
It proved to be a wise move after Anderson performed well as a rookie. In the deal, the Texans traded their own first-round pick and kept one that came from the Cleveland Browns in the Deshaun Watson deal. It proved to be genius by Texans GM Nick Cesario as the Browns had the 23rd pick and the Texans’ pick wasn’t until No. 27.
Anderson was the Defensive Rookie of the Year, giving the Texans a sweep of the rookie awards, after finishing with seven sacks, 45 tackles, 10 tackles for a loss, 22 quarterback hits and 64 QB pressures. His 17.3% pressure rate was No. 1 among rookies.
“He doesn’t have the numbers of the top-tier pass rushers but he was impressive because he has traits in terms of his get-off, upper-body power and ability to attack edges,” the scout said. “But I was really impressed with his counter moves. Usually young defensive ends don’t have a deep toolbox of counters. They want to attack edges and run around or dip inside. They don’t have as much and they get stonewalled a lot because they’re not playing against college kids anymore.
“Anderson had counters when he got started last season and then developed as the year went on. He forces the offensive tackle to open his hips and sink, and that creates an inside path to the football. His effort level is really high and he’s good with his hands. He’s only going to get better.”
