Once Bryce Young became the Panthers’ expected choice with the first overall pick in the draft, many people installed quarterback C.J. Stroud as the likely choice for the Texans at No. 2 but those odds have shifted in recent days.
Stroud is now ranked behind Will Levis and Will Anderson at sportsbooks around the country and one reason cited for the change of opinion is the leak of scores players received after taking the S2 Cognition test. Those unverified leaks put Stroud behind the other top quarterback prospects with a low score — the cofounder of the test said on The Pat McAfee Show this week that the leaked scores are inaccurate for at least two quarterbacks — but Stroud pushed back on the notion that any test would reflect how he’ll fare on the field.
“It’s football, I’m not a test taker. . . . The people making the picks know what I can do,” Stroud said, via Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press.
Stroud is still expected to come off the board early in the draft and the narrative that’s cropped up around him will make his landing spot one of the most closely watched storylines on Thursday night.
