Seemingly every year, a high NFL draft prospect sees his profile slip for reasons unrelated to football.
The lucky winner this year is CJ Stroud, a former Ohio State quarterback who was once the frontrunner for first overall and now faces questions about his cognitive ability due to an allegedly false test result report.
The controversy began on Friday when former Green Bay Packers writer Bob McGinn reported on the results of the S2 cognition test, which has apparently replaced the longtime insidious Wonderlic test as the way NFL teams rate prospects’ mental abilities.
The results, reportedly, did not reflect favorably on Stroud. Where Alabama’s Bryce Young scored 98% and Florida’s Anthony Richardson scored 79%, Stroud’s least contextual number was 18%. That number was low enough to scare off a bunch of people, including one NFL executive who told McGinn it was “absolutely awful. He’s going to be off the boards of (some teams). He’s not going to get picked by those teams.”
Stroud, a two-time Heisman Finalist who has thrown for 81 touchdowns in two seasons, got a chance to respond Wednesday while speaking with reporters through the Kansas City area NFL Service Draft. As you might expect, people suddenly wondering if he’s the dumbest quarterback in his draft class haven’t seen it, via The Charlotte Observer’s Scott Fowler.
Stroud’s answer:
I’m not subject to testing, I play soccer. At the end of the day, I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, so I’m not going to sit here and explain how I approach football. The people who make the choices know what I can do, so that’s all I care about. There’s a whole bunch of people who know how to coach better, who know how to play quarterback better, who know how to do everything on social media, but man in the square-That’s what’s difficult.
I know what I can do, and I know what I can handle. If I’m not the smartest quarterback in this draft, I know I’m one of the smartest quarterbacks in the NFL when I step in there tomorrow, so I have faith in myself. I don’t think you can play for Ohio State and not be smart. I don’t have anything to prove to anyone, man. At the end of the day, if you don’t trust and believe in me, all I can say is watch this.
Stroud has one more reason to blast the report, because it may not be accurate.
S2 Cognition co-founder: CJ Stroud’s reported test results ‘incorrect’
Brandon Alley, Co-Founder, S2 Cognition He appeared on the Pro Football Focus podcast To address leaked test results and point out that what was simply reported was not accurate:
“Just to address the quarterback, I’d like to say we’re obviously aware of the grade leaks and we’re not sure where that comes from, but I will say some of those have a little bit of hope. and “So-and-so got low scores.” this is not true.
With that being said, I will say that this class as a whole, all of the guys in the discussion scored really well. “
So both CJ Stroud and the man behind S2 Cognition are telling you to ignore CJ Stroud’s reported S2 Cognition test results.
It all makes for an allegory for the worst aspects of pre-draft rhetoric, as a test that 99% of NFL fans had never heard of last week was allowed to sink two years of elite quarterback play into one of its most notorious stories. Programs in the country, while the results of this test, which no one really understands, are reported wrongly.
The 2023 NFL Draft is scheduled to take place Thursday at 6 p.m. in Kansas City. It can’t come soon enough.
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