
Houston Texans third-year quarterback C.J. Stroud endured a nightmare outing in his club's 28-16 divisional-round playoff loss at the New England Patriots.
Shortly after, retired quarterback Troy Aikman said that Texans general manager Nick Caserio and head coach DeMeco Ryans would soon face "some tough decisions they gotta make about this team on the offensive side of the ball."
Aikman isn't the only Hall of Famer concerned about how Stroud looked in back-to-back postseason games. During a Wednesday appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show," Hall of Fame quarterback and current NFL analyst Kurt Warner sounded alarms regarding Stroud's playoff performances.
"I called the game on Monday night against the Steelers and broke it down on our show just how many times he made a bad play worse," Warner said about miscues made by Stroud during Houston's 30-6 wild-card win at the Pittsburgh Steelers and against the Patriots. "In that Pittsburgh game, where, flea-flicker, and all of a sudden, there's bodies around him, and he decides to try to throw a 50-yard pass with bodies around him. And obviously, he gets hit. Or, the interception on the naked bootleg this past week, where...he was oblivious to how close that guy was to him as he turned and tried to flip his hips and make a throw while the guy's hitting him, and the ball goes up in the air, and it becomes a pick-six."
Fumble on the flea flicker! Steelers ball ‼️
— NFL (@NFL) January 13, 2026
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MARCUS JONES PICK-6!
— NFL (@NFL) January 18, 2026
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Stroud lost two fumbles and threw an interception in the victory at Pittsburgh's Acrisure Stadium. On Jan. 18, he tossed four first-half interceptions in the loss at the Patriots.
While Ryans has voiced his support for Stroud, Caserio curiously neither confirmed nor denied on Wednesday that the club will pick up the fifth-year option for 2027 attached to Stroud's rookie contract. Some have wondered if Caserio could look for an advertised upgrade at the position this offseason, but ESPN's Brooke Pryor shared on Thursday that "the Texans haven't given any indication that" Stroud will be made available this spring or summer.
"When he was a rookie, I thought he played like a top-five quarterback in the league," Warner added about Stroud's performances throughout the 2023 season. "He was that good that I was so excited about, my gosh, this guy could be one of those really special guys after his rookie year. In the last two years, I feel like he's really regressed. ...It's been frustrating to watch."
It sounds like Warner thinks the Texans shouldn't make a long-term commitment to Stroud beyond the previously mentioned fifth-year option. Even if Houston picks that option up, as expected, Stroud's future with the organization could become a significant talking point unless he signs an extension before the 2026 season gets underway.
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