After the worst three season run in franchise history, from 2020 through 2022, a period in which the Texans won a total of eleven football games, the Houston Texans have been building this thing back up pretty quickly in 2023 and 2024. Two consecutive AFC South championships, and another influx of young talent in the 2025 draft, have the city hungry for ascension to greater heights than any other time in franchise history.
There is only one thing that can truly derail the season before it even starts — any sort of debilitating injury to quarterback C.J. Stroud. So forgive me if I'm at least somewhat nervous over the fact that Stroud, three practices in, has yet to throw a pass in the involuntary offseason workouts that most of the team has attended over the last week.
Following the first practice, last Wednesday, head coach DeMeco Ryans did that annoying thing that coaches seem to do more and more — play coy by not even acknowledging, by name, the player about whom he was asked (in this case, Stroud.):
“For all the guys you see here, there will be guys on different schedules, different routine, so you’ll see some guys out and some guys won’t be out. Some guys will be, some guys will be on different snap count, different pitch count, so there is nothing going on right now with any of our guys. Everyone is just on their own schedule.”
Friday's practice also came and went with no Stroud passes, and so finally, on Tuesday, DeMeco Ryans addressed the concerns up front at his press conference, following the Texans' practice:
“There's no concerns with C.J.,” said Texans HC DeMeco Ryans. “It's just general soreness. We're taking extra precaution with him, but he’ll be good to go. No concerns on my end there.”
Here is the video, if you need proof of this momentous occasion, a head coach acknowledging an injury issue, as minimized and slightly nagging as he makes this sound:
#Texans HC DeMeco Ryans opened with a comment about C.J. Stroud’s health, why he’s not throwing. “General soreness, extra precaution. No concern.” pic.twitter.com/RAXLeYO5Ih
— Adam Wexler (@AdamJWexler) June 3, 2025
I don't know exactly what was so hard about this that it took Ryans' second press conference of OTA's to address this, unless there is enough there, in terms of severity, that Ryans felt like kicking the can down the road would somehow throw people off the scent. The fact of the matter is that Stroud has dealt with shoulder issues before, most notably, winning 2023 Offensive Rookie of the Year while dealing with shoulder pain for most of the season.
So, for now, I'll choose to take Ryans' word for it, that this isn't a concern to him. If DeMeco is cool, I'm cool. Until I'm given a reason not to trust Ryans, I'll trust him, as much as I can trust anyone in an authority position in a league where lying to the media, to some degree, feels like a prerequisite for the job.
If Stroud is still held back when the lights go on at training camp, in about seven weeks, then I'll start to take my "freak out" factor into the healthy 7 to 8 (on a scale of 1 to 10) range. Keep in mind, there is a massive contract extension potentially looming a year from now, too, for Stroud. This shoulder stuff becomes a much bigger issue at $60 million per year, as opposed to $9 million in cap space, like this season.
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