It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Texans fans since their season came to an inglorious end at New England. Watching the Patriots get slapped around in a beating worse than the 29-13 score indicated did little to allievate some of that pain. The team had a lot go right for it. A franchise-best 10-game winning streak, the best defense in franchise history, a somewhat favorable AFC. It seems like it was all there for Houston. Even having to play on the road, an AFC title matchup seemed more likely than not. Then the game. Yeah, it still hurts.
In particular, the worst part of that game centered on the performance of QB CJ Stroud. His four 1st-half INTs did much to set the tone for Houston, along with one of his more inaccurate days throwing the football. All in all, it was not a very good day for the franchise QB. Throw in a sloppy performance at Pittsburgh, and the narrative around this QB has completely changed in Houston. After a rookie season for the ages, Stroud has put together two rather uneven seasons, culuminated with one of the worst playoff runs in recent memory for a QB.
Granted, it is not all on Stroud. The inconsistent-at-best offensive line has been an issue for the team these past two seasons. In 2024, Stroud got sacked over 50 times and while that number went down considerably in 2025 (24), he still faced signficant pressure on most of his dropbacks. While Nico Collins is a legit #1 WR, he hasn’t had as consistent a performer in the receiver room. Tank Dell could provide some firewpower, but Dell missed a good bit of 2024 and all of 2025 with injury. Other receivers and TE has had their moments, but they haven’t offered the consistency of Collins. The running game has also been hit or miss. Joe Mixon offered that game-controlling ability at RB in 2024, but he missed 2025, with the other backs on the roster providing solid but far from spectacular performances. Thus, a lot has been thrown at the potential franchise savior, with mixed results.
Yet, most of the attention and blame now falls to Stroud. That this will be his longest off-season as a pro is a given. Perhaps even a bit more jarring, Stroud now faces a Houston fanbase that when they historically turn on a QB, they really turn on a QB. While social media is not the end-all/be-all for fan analysis, a vast majority of the comments about Stroud since that New England game have been in the negative. His playoff performance offered fodder for content creators to tear down the QB they once uplifted. The hot take industry does not lack for content associated with Stroud, with all the suggestions from Bryce Young actually being the better pick from 2023 to Davis Mills being a better starting option to a validation of the results of the Wonderlic Test just to name a few examples.
Setting aside all of that, Stroud now finds himself where many a Texans franchise savior lands: franchise heel. Go back to David Carr, the first great franchise QB hope. The good looks, the rocket arm, the glowing profiles seen in places like Texas Monthly. He seemed straight out of central casting for Texas franchise QB…until he got broken by one of the worst offensive lines in recent memory. By his fifth season in Houston, the masses seemed to excoriate then coach Kubiak for not jettisioning him sooner than he did.
Then you have the fate that befell his successor Matt Schaub. At his peak, Schuab could run the Kubiak offense as effectively as any QB out there. Granted, signficant defensive limitations knee-capped the team, but Schaub had the makings of at least a solid playoff-tier QB. Yet, injury and a collapse in confidence/ability saw the Houston fanbase out for blood. By the end, the Houston fans cheered Schaub’s injury and booed so loudly when he returned to a home game that the Texans’ offense, at home, had to go to a silent snap count. It almost became a right of passage to burn a Schaub jersey in the parking lot of NRG.
The most recent great franchise hope, Deshaun Watson, well, his fall was not so much from on-field drop off, but more form off-field issues. Arguably the best of the Houston franchise QB hopefuls when he was at his best, Watson grew tired of the direction of the Houston franchise and wanted out. Initially, the fans backed his stance, but then some major accusations of sexual harassment/assault ended that vibe. Few in Houston cried when Watson left for Cleveland, but many joined in the condemnation as Browns fans turned on Watson with a sharp decline in on-field performance to match his off-field collapse.
Now, Stroud faces such a situation. While he hasn’t had the off-field issues of Watson, on-field struggles are making him a target for Houston fan vitriol. Not that Texans fans want to loathe Stroud per se. They want him , or at least any QB in Battle Red to play well. Yet, the impatience to have a championship-caliber QB does not abate in Houston. The promise shown in his rookie season only makes Stroud’s struggle more pronounced and painful. The fans will cheer his touchdowns and the big plays he can make with his arm and feet. However, that first stretch of bad passes or that first bad INT, and the boo-birds at NRG will be among the loudest Stroud will ever hear in his football career.
Thus, all of us, from Stroud to the fanbase, must wait to see how he responds after a horrid playoffs. When Stroud declined a Pro Bowl invitation, it generated a fair amount of positive support, as most noted that he was focused on improvement and not distractions. Still, until the snaps count for real, meaning 8 or so months from now, we’ll won’t know if Stroud’s arch continues down the path of Texans heel/pariah, or if the Texans set Stroud rebound to become the QB that we not only saw his rookie season, but one that evolves into the best in franchise history.