Texans GM Nick Caserio emphasizes C.J. Stroud’s body of work after postseason flop, says QB’s been ‘damn good’

During a nine-game win streak to end the regular season, the Houston Texans committed only five turnovers.

In two playoff games, they were responsible for a total of eight giveaways. Third-year quarterback C.J. Stroud accounted for all but one of those, throwing five interceptions and losing two fumbles.

Stroud coughed up the ball three times in a 30-6 wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, but his four picks in the Foxborough snow, rain and cold ultimately proved insurmountable in a 28-16 divisional-round loss to the New England Patriots.

Stroud has owned up to his uncharacteristic ball-security issues. His head coach, DeMeco Ryans, has stood by him in the aftermath of a disappointing playoff exit.

As for general manager Nick Caserio, he’s looking at the body of work more than anything.

“Look, he’ll be the first to tell you: He didn’t play well on Sunday, alright. I’m not going to sit here and tell you he played well, either. He knows that,” Caserio said of Stroud.

“In the end, you got to learn from it. What can we do better? And then we’re moving forward. You look at his body of work, this guy’s been a damn good quarterback in this league for three years. I mean, it’s the truth.”

During his end-of-season news conference Wednesday, Caserio, who just finished his third season with the Texans, repeatedly emphasized the importance of examining “everything in totality.”

Caserio and Ryans came in 2023, and they’ve authored the most successful three-season stretch in the young franchise’s history. They placed their faith in Stroud when they drafted him No. 2 overall out of Ohio State before the regime’s first season.

Stroud starred immediately, winning NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year, earning a Pro Bowl nod and guiding the Texans back to the playoffs after a three-season postseason drought. But in the two seasons since, he hasn’t achieved the same explosiveness and efficiency through the air.

That said, this season he kept his turnover numbers down.

Although his 1.9% interception rate was still higher than the 1.0% mark he registered in that category as a first-year NFL quarterback, it was lower than the one he posted during his sophomore campaign. He threw just eight picks and didn’t lose either of his fumbles in the regular season.

Plus, he completed a career-high 64.5% of his passes.

It’s also important to note that he didn’t have to take as many chances, given that the Texans boasted the second-ranked scoring defense and top-ranked total defense in the league.

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“C.J. had a really good season,” Caserio said. “He’s done a lot of great things, done a lot of great things for his team, a lot of great things for this organization.”

Against the Patriots, however, Stroud was too careless with the football. It didn’t help that he was without wide receiver Nico Collins, and that tight end Dalton Schultz got hurt — and that Houston’s run game was ineffective. But his first half was undeniably abysmal.

“When you go back and look at the game the other day, you can’t turn the ball over five times,” Caserio said of the Texans’ latest divisional-round face-plant.

“We control that. I’d say the three touchdowns that New England scored, we didn’t play the coverage or the technique the right way on calls that we’ve done countless times. So in the end, we’ve proven that we could do it, but in games of that magnitude, the margins are as small as any, and you either make the plays and do the right thing or you don’t.”

The Texans are now 0-7 all-time in the divisional round. That’s where each of their past three campaigns have ended.

Caserio told reporters that he anticipates first-year offensive coordinator Nick Caley returning next season after the positive signs he saw down the stretch of the regular season.

Now 24 years old and entering his fourth offseason, Stroud is eligible for a contract extension for the first time in his career. He’s signed through 2026, and Houston has a team option for 2027 it can pick up.

Caserio was asked Wednesday if signing Stroud to an extension is a front-office goal at the moment. He declined to talk about players’ contracts and gave similar answer when a reporter inquired about defensive end Will Anderson Jr., whom the Texans took a pick after Stroud in the 2023 draft.

“Every year you kind of start from scratch. So everybody is focused on individual improvement,” Caserio said later in the news conference.

“C.J.’s played a lot of good football, won a lot of games … and I think all of us are excited about the opportunity in front of us for the ’26 season. It’s a year-to-year league. We’re focused on the 2026 season, trying to put the best team together and hopefully put ourselves into position so that we can go out there and play pretty good football and win a bunch of games.”