‘I’m not a test taker’: C.J. Stroud pushes back on idea he’s not a smart quarterback
Former Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud pushed back on the idea that he’s not a smart quarterback Wednesday, saying that he is an accomplished football player but not as good at taking tests.
“I’m not a test taker,” Stroud said in response to a question about his reportedly low score on the S2 test. “I play football. ... At the end of the day, man, I don’t got nothing to prove to nobody. I’m not going to sit here and explain how I process football. The people who are making the picks know what I can do.”
The S2 cognitive test measures how quickly a player can process information and make quick decisions and is used by many NFL teams, including the Carolina Panthers, as one piece of their scouting regimen. Journalist Bob McGinn of the Substack “Go Long” recently reported that Stroud bombed the test, scoring in the 18th percentile. Former Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, by contrast, scored 98%, according to McGinn’s report.
Stroud was available to the media as part of an NFL service project and football participation day held at a local high school in the Kansas City area. The NFL draft is Thursday night, and Stroud will be one of the top players chosen.
At one point, Stroud was considered the betting favorite to be chosen by the Panthers at No. 1, but now Young is the overwhelming betting favorite. Stroud alluded to that in a group interview, saying he might have had a different answer to the question as to whether he thought the Panthers would pick him at No. 1 “a couple of months ago.”
Now, Stroud said: “I have no idea.”
Stroud also suggested in his media availability Wednesday that perhaps his S2 score had been leaked and said more than once: “I’m not dumb.”
As for his football capabilities, Stroud said: “I know what I can do. I know I can process well. If I’m not the smartest quarterback in the draft, I know I’m one of the smartest quarterbacks in the NFL when I step in there tomorrow. I don’t think you can play at Ohio State and not be smart... If you don’t trust and believe in me, all I can tell you is, ‘Watch this.’”
This story was originally published April 26, 2023 at 1:53 PM.
