The reality is C.J. Stroud by no means let it get to him, at the same time as draft day neared and the questions began coming and the dialog round him shifted.
“Have a look at my perspective,” he’d say later. “I’m about to get drafted no matter that dang check.”
He was proper — Stroud, the Ohio State quarterback who was among the many high prospects in final 12 months’s NFL Draft, nonetheless went second to the Houston Texans, and in a matter of months, the 22-year-old would put collectively one of the vital prolific seasons by a rookie quarterback in league historical past, lifting a franchise from the league cellar to the divisional spherical of the playoffs.
However his ascent was much less assured final April, when Stroud’s on-field intelligence was being debated, even doubted. Most of this stemmed from his leaked rating on the S2, a pre-draft cognition check that has shortly gained credence across the NFL for its capacity to measure a quarterback’s psychological capability and, some consider, forecast his possibilities of future success.
Ten months later, it’s onerous to inform the story of Stroud’s record-setting rookie season with out not less than addressing the reliability of that dang check and what the following firestorm says concerning the draft course of and the veracity of the knowledge that trickles out alongside the best way. Too usually, in response to a number of high-ranking league executives granted anonymity by The Athletic so they may focus on Stroud and the check with out tampering expenses, very important context is lacking. Stroud’s case, they consider, is a main instance.
For starters, one exec questioned, why was his rating leaked to the media within the first place? And by whom?
“I believe it was thrown on the market by a group that had their very own objectives and needed to make use of it to place him down and gloat on what they needed seen,” mentioned one normal supervisor whose group was not within the operating for a high quarterback in final 12 months’s draft.
“It was full B.S. that it was leaked,” provided one other GM, “however folks in our league can’t assist themselves.”
Final spring, Stroud was recent off two stellar seasons because the Buckeyes’ starter and among the many most polished passers in a QB-heavy draft. Together with Alabama Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Younger, he was within the operating to be the primary total choice, owned by the Carolina Panthers. The Texans had the second decide. Each groups desperately wanted QBs.
Then, six days earlier than the draft, a purple flag: GoLong.com’s Bob McGinn, a veteran NFL reporter and former contributor to The Athletic who speaks yearly with league executives earlier than the draft, revealed the S2 outcomes of a number of quarterbacks, together with Stroud and Younger. The distinction between the 2 scores, per McGinn’s reporting, was jarring. Younger scored within the 98th percentile. Stroud scored within the 18th.
“That’s like a purple alert, purple alert, you may’t take a man like that,” McGinn quoted a league govt saying. “That’s why I’ve Stroud as a bust. That at the side of the truth that, title one Ohio State quarterback that’s ever finished it within the league.”
Earlier this month, Stroud earned 48 of a attainable 50 votes for Offensive Rookie of the 12 months. McGinn didn’t reply when requested about his reporting on the S2 check final 12 months.
GO DEEPER
What C.J. Stroud and his dad and mom noticed early, the world is seeing now
The S2 cognition check was first utilized by NFL groups earlier than the 2016 draft; the Nashville-based firm based by two neuroscientists and former faculty athletes is at present below contract with half of the league’s 32 groups, two in every division, who successfully pay for the exclusivity of the outcomes.
The check has risen in prominence lately, touted for its capacity to measure a participant’s cognitive capacity — particularly, in quarterbacks.
A placing instance, detailed final 12 months in The Athletic, was that of Brock Purdy, the missed, undersized remaining decide of the 2022 draft who stepped in for an injured Jimmy Garoppolo midway by means of his rookie season and led the San Francisco 49ers to eight straight wins and a berth within the NFC Championship Sport. This 12 months, Purdy went 12-4 as a starter, was certainly one of 5 finalists for MVP and led the 49ers to Tremendous Bowl LVIII.
When The Athletic revealed that Purdy had aced the S2, it additional validated the check’s credibility. And it didn’t harm that two of the most effective quarterbacks within the league, the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow, had been additionally reported to have scored extraordinarily effectively. (Certainly, Burrow disclosed his personal rating as being within the 97th percentile.)
The S2 is a nine-part battery of exams that, not like its Wonderlic predecessor, doesn’t got down to measure an athlete’s intelligence. As an alternative, its objectives are quantifying processing pace, response time and the power to digest info and reply below duress.
“Traditionally, the NFL has been utilizing totally different IQ exams to evaluate how ‘sensible’ a participant is,” one exec mentioned. “However to be sincere, whether or not or not you may clear up a trigonometry query or if you understand how many presidents we’ve had … that doesn’t equate to soccer.”
The S2 lasts round 45 minutes, accomplished utilizing a specifically designed gaming laptop computer and response pad that tracks sample recognition and impulse management. In concept, it will probably reliably forecast how shortly a quarterback’s thoughts can tick by means of his progressions, or predict if the sport will ever really feel “too quick,” a phrase regularly utilized by coaches and evaluators.
“I did my homework on it, and I believe the science behind it’s actually sound,” mentioned one league govt. “It provides you a snapshot of how shortly a person can course of info, and I don’t assume there’s a greater software in the marketplace for that. I really feel actually snug with the information we get again from S2.
“Is it foolproof? Completely not. Nothing’s foolproof. Nevertheless it does offer you a way of how shortly a participant could make split-second selections.”
Each govt contacted for this story careworn that the S2 is merely one software amongst many used all through the draft course of. Precise recreation tape is much extra necessary, they mentioned, as are in-person interviews.
“It’s not the final word decision-maker,” one exec mentioned of the S2. “It permits you to affirm what you see on movie, or it tells you to ask extra questions.”
“You’re not sitting there saying, ‘Oh, inform me what his S2 is,’ then placing him within the second spherical,” one other mentioned. “There’s some positions the place I don’t even take a look at their rating in any respect.”
Houston coach DeMeco Ryans downplayed the S2’s weight within the Texans’ decision-making course of final spring. “You don’t decide a man primarily based on a check,” Ryans mentioned in October. “It’s foolish to say, ‘Take one metric,’ when there are such a lot of totally different variables that go into drafting a man.”
In his rookie season, Stroud led the Texans to a 10-7 document, an AFC South crown and a wild-card playoff win. (Carmen Mandato / Getty Photographs)
The luster the S2 loved as a recent, modern new software within the all-important quarterback analysis has rubbed off largely as a consequence of Stroud’s leaked rating, the following season and the questions that adopted. “They Created a Take a look at to Determine Star QBs,” a latest Wall Road Journal headline learn. “How Did It Miss the Finest One in Years?”
The league executives contacted for this story made it clear they didn’t put a lot inventory in Stroud’s consequence final spring, believing from the start that the rating was suspect. A number of confirmed that S2 flagged the consequence after it got here in and that groups had been knowledgeable it was “unreliable.” (As a part of its confidentiality settlement with groups, S2 doesn’t publicly launch scores and wouldn’t touch upon Stroud’s consequence for this story.)
“From my understanding, the S2 folks had loads of questions when his rating got here again in,” one exec mentioned. “It obtained leaked by a membership, they usually needed to know why.”
The sense across the league: Stroud didn’t give full effort. It’s extra believable than it sounds. For high prospects like Stroud, the draft course of is a day-in, day-out grind — 4 lengthy months full of on-field coaching, bodily exams, written exams, a media gauntlet, the Senior Bowl in Cellular, the scouting mix in Indianapolis, non-public exercises with groups and top-30 visits.
Gamers typically find yourself taking the S2 on the finish of 12- or 14-hour days, the execs identified. Others merely don’t check effectively or don’t consider it’s all that necessary.
“Should you solely give 80 p.c on this check, you’ll bomb it,” one league supply identified, “Interval.”
“If I had been to wager {dollars} to donuts, I might be surprised if Stroud gave 100% on the evaluation,” mentioned one other. “When he took it, was he drained? Was he selecting to not give it his finest? Was he nervous? Had he taken 1,000,000 different exams that day? There’s an entire host of things.”
One other exec mentioned the identical questions had been requested within the draft room he sat in final April.
“It made us all say, ‘Wait a minute, what?’ You watch his tape, and his tape is superior. He’s processing. He’s taking part in quick. He’s making good selections. Possibly that is simply an anomaly? Possibly he didn’t strive?
“When it’s an outlier like this, you ask your self, when and the place did he take it? Was it his fourth check that day and he’d simply had sufficient? Then you definately name the agent and say, ‘Hey, he scored actually low on this. Can we get him to take it once more?’”
It’s unclear if Stroud retook the check final spring, and solely the quarterback himself is aware of if he gave full effort. However throughout an interview with The Athletic final fall, he appeared to point the check was not a high precedence in the course of the draft course of.
“Some issues I apply myself to, some issues I don’t,” Stroud mentioned, requested particularly concerning the S2. “Look, I can present you my highschool report card — I’m not a dumb child. I’m not gonna lie, at school, I used to be lazy. I might get what I might get so I might play soccer. And I at all times had a 3.0 (GPA). That was the usual in my family. That was my mother’s rule.”
After the leak, the dialog round him shifted dramatically. Few — and nearly nobody in media — stopped to think about if the rating was correct or not.
“As a result of folks don’t care,” Stroud mentioned. “Folks like negativity today … however I’m not mad at these (S2) folks. It’s what it’s. I obtained all the way down to how (the leak) occurred, so I obtained some heads to bust within the offseason.”
With that, Stroud laughed. Requested to make clear what he’d realized concerning the leak, he shook his head. He was wonderful letting his play do the speaking.
The fallout angered lots across the league. It nonetheless does.
“It paints the image of the child that’s a false narrative,” one exec mentioned.
In Indianapolis, Colts normal supervisor Chris Ballard went on a post-draft rant on the topic. Ballard’s Colts had the fourth decide, and he studied Stroud extensively, understanding each him and Younger privately in California. (With Younger and Stroud off the board, the Colts took Florida quarterback Anthony Richardson.)
“I’m gonna go off on a sidebar right here,” Ballard mentioned on draft weekend. “All of the crap that comes out about these children … it’s bullsh–. I’m sorry, nevertheless it’s bullsh–. Like, folks leak these tales, these damaging tales on children, and I don’t agree with it. It’s bullsh–.
“They work their ass off to the place they must be, after which all week you gotta learn (this) they usually gotta reply questions on it. They’re good children, and I assumed (Stroud) needed to take a beating he didn’t should take.”
Earlier this month, The Athletic reported that not less than one company, Athletes First, which represents practically 30 draft-eligible prospects — together with a handful of projected first-round picks — has suggested its gamers in opposition to taking any type of cognitive examination forward of this 12 months’s draft, a transparent response to the state of affairs Stroud discovered himself in final spring.
GO DEEPER
Sports activities company directing NFL Draft prospects to skip cognitive exams
After selecting Younger first total, the Panthers maintained he was their choice all alongside. Former normal supervisor Scott Fitterer mentioned Younger’s S2 rating performed a small position within the analysis.
“It’s a pleasant piece,” Fitterer mentioned on draft night time. “It reaffirms issues.”
However Younger, and his 98th percentile, staggered by means of a disappointing rookie season. The talent-thin Panthers completed a league-worst 2-15. The highest decide threw simply 11 touchdowns.
Together with two playoff begins, Stroud completed with 4,557 passing yards, second-most in NFL historical past for a rookie passer — and 1,680 greater than Younger. He opened the season with 192 consecutive go makes an attempt with out an interception, essentially the most ever by a participant to start a profession.
He additionally led the league in passing yards per recreation (273.9) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.6). Solely Joe Montana and Tom Brady have had seasons by which they completed first in each classes.
Any doubt that Stroud couldn’t see the sphere, or couldn’t course of on the NFL stage, was put to relaxation shortly and definitively. Maybe it by no means ought to have been a query within the first place.
(Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / The Athletic; picture: Michael Owens / Related Press)