Seahawks target number 2: C.J. Stroud, Ohio State
I could very easily rank Stroud as number 1 on this list but one thing that hurts him isn’t even his fault. He plays at Ohio State. OSU has produced lots of great players for the NFL but how many great quarterbacks have they recently put out? If zero is your answer, you’d likely be correct. Sure, the jury is still out on Bears quarterback Justin Fields but Fields certainly didn’t look ready in his rookie season of 2021.
Stroud appears to have all the physical attributes to make him the best Ohio State quarterback in a long time but he also could simply be a product of the Buckeyes system. And I mean no disrespect to Stroud. He just has no predecessors from OSU at QB that make a person think OSU is a quarterback factory.
C.J. Stroud dropped a dime to Marvin Harrison Jr. 🎯 pic.twitter.com/j6uxSJljfU
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 1, 2022
But all that said, Stroud has great arm strength, pocket presence and the ability to run around some. He is more of a prototypical passer than Fields or others that came before him at OSU. While Stroud’s receiving group in 2021 was ridiculous, Stroud also made that group look a lot better with very accurate passing and the ability to throw receivers open.
If Stroud once again looks fantastic in 2022 with a group of talented but unproven and less experienced receivers, he will prove he wasn’t just a by-product of receiving greatness and more about his own immense talent.