'I Don't Make The Picks!' Texans Cal McNair Denies Rumor of Forced C.J. Stroud Pick
While pre-draft rumors are just rumors and often worth dismissing as smokescreens, the ones that circulated surrounding the possibility of the Houston Texans passing on a quarterback at No. 2 overall for defense picked up a ton of steam leading into the draft.
Of course, they ultimately took Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud with the second pick before trading up from No. 12 to No. 3 with the Arizona Cardinals for Alabama outside linebacker Will Anderson Jr.
Even though the Texans are seen by many as draft winners for the haul of Stroud and Anderson alone more rumors have cropped up that CEO Cal McNair forced the pick of Stroud. However, McNair made sure to shut down those rumors at the Houston Texans Charity Golf Classic.
“Hannah (McNair) and I don’t make the picks. We’ll make it clear there,” McNair told ESPN. “We have a great group of scouts led by Nick [Caserio] and James Lippert, and they did a lot of work on the draft board, and then they followed that on draft day, and they moved up when they saw the value was there and moved back.”
The pre-draft rumors that the Texans were worried about Stroud's S2 Test results led some to believe the only reason he was the pick was McNair - when in reality there is a lot to like about Stroud simply as a prospect on his own.
In his two seasons starting at Ohio State Stroud lit up opposing defenses regularly as he threw for 8,123 yards with 85 touchdowns and just 12 interceptions while completing an astounding 69.3 percent of his passes.
It can be easy to get lost in the rumors and speculation of why the Texans ultimately drafted Stroud with the second pick - but the answer is that they needed a franchise quarterback and selected arguably the best quarterback in the draft to fill that need.
You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98
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