Thread by @NFLDraftStudy

The C.J. Stroud 2022 thread begins here. #Buckeyes

His first touchdown pass highlights his accuracy and solid arm strength. Fits this one past the defender and Egbuka can turn upfield quickly

Sees his target come open late and delivers an inaccurate pass that costs the Buckeyes a touchdown

Notre Dame has played fantastic defense throughout this game, making a miss like this crucial. Stroud has played uptight for much of the game

Fantastic throw on the run while under pressure from Stroud to Egbuka

Great job to read the blitzing safeties and attack their vacated space on the slot post. Textbook.

Amazing throw rolling weakside and similarly great catch

Week 2 vs. Arkansas State. Stroud played much better from the jump against lower competition. Third down, finds Marvin Harrison on the dig with great timing for the TD

Drops this pass over Harrison's shoulder with great touch as pressure nears.

Easy pitch and catch from deep for Harrison's 2nd TD (should've had 3 but Harrison dropped an easy one)

Nice little pocket management to avoid his blocker entering his lap. Touch pass also allows Egbuka to overcome looking over the wrong shoulder without breaking stride.

Third down, he seems to get stuck on his read and misses the slot corner route that was going to come open. Instead, he double-clutched and took the sack.

Fantastic touchdown pass to close out the third quarter. Makes the adjustments he needs to at the line, then delivers a perfect ball to Harrison. Capped off a solid game for Stroud.

On to Toledo, where Stroud was almost perfect. We'll just hit the highlights since there's not a lot to take away from this game.

Being able to LEAD the receiver upfield is difficult. Does a great job doing that on play 1.
Then a TD to Harrison that shows off how good he is.

The confidence and touch it takes to hit this throw can't be overstated.

One thing that transcends competition is accuracy. Stroud doesn't run often but his accuracy is always stellar even when he gets out of the pocket

This one for a TD. Looked like Harrison would've had it if Fleming didn't catch it.

He's REALLY quick and consistent against zone matchups. Sees it, knows where to go, and consistently attacks it.

Great 3-play sequence against Wisconsin.

His first interception of the year was a slight miss, and was his third interceptable pass of the year.

His arm talent is undeniable. What happens when you need to rifle a throw into a tight space?

On to Rutgers. Nice first touchdown throw

Understanding leverage is so, so important for the timing and placement of passes. He does a good job seeing when Ebuka will be open and getting rid of the ball before he's fully into space.

Stroud is mobile but he's more of someone you want improvising when the pocket is set and there's a big amount of green space in front of him. He's faster than quick, so I don't think he'll be a major rushing threat at the next level.

Throws an interception as the safety just kind of rolls over the top. Not sure if he didn't expect the safety to be there or if he thought he'd beat him, but misjudged something.

Hits Harrison in the chest on third down for a TD

Michigan State, Stroud throws his first TD to Harrison, trusting his man to win the jump ball. Nice placement from the far hash.

He threw a pick-six right to the defender but this is just a miscommunication. It's hard to take anything away from this. Ebuka was running a go against Cover 1

Ebuka pays him back on a busted coverage on the following drive, going 69 yards from the slot. Slot corner looked like he expected a pick route or though he was playing the flat in zone.

The pre-snap motion does a good job showing Stroud to expect man coverage. As soon as the safety doesn't carry Fleming, that's the read. Easy throw.

Having Harrison is a cheat code but this touch while under pressure is fantastic

His 4th TD is to an open Harrison over the middle on a dig route. Defenses just couldn't hold up in man coverage.

This is an audacious attempt, to begin with. I hope Stroud continues to throw these passes even without Harrison at his disposal because these are throws so few college QBs even try.

His final TD is a nice rollout on 4th down. He has enough speed to get into space until a window emerges.

On to Iowa. The first drive had a couple of miscues. Most notable was this miscommunication and dropped INT. Feels like he should've led Ebuka into space more than throwing a high pass.

Next play he gets sacked and coughs up the ball for a scoop and score. Pretty rare for him to be loose with the ball, he took a helluva hit though

Good, clear example of a full field read while under pressure, and excellent accuracy.

A couple of misses that stall a drive, including an easy missed touchdown pass when he rolls out to his weak side. The second play he's blitzed and fails to give Harrison a shot. Have to see the creeping safety and be ready for the blitz.

His bad day continued into the first play of the second half. He failed to read the underneath defender, Campbell, who makes a fantastic catch.

Everything looks good until the ball comes out. Nice sidestep. But he had the slot against a safety deep vs. 3 defenders vs his WR.

One of the loud complaints OSU fans have had about CJ has been his unwillingness to run. He's stated it's because he can do more damage from the pocket. He's usually right.

But there are a lot of examples of where an earlier decision to run would've moved the chains.

He comes back with this excellent pass on 4th and 1 for the TD. This speed out can't be defended with this pass.

Stroud may not have a Harrison to rely upon in the NFL but I love the confidence and accuracy he shows here.

And the next play is another fantastic display of accuracy and timing. His touch is so, so good.

Hits the deep touchdown pass to Fleming right before the defender breaks it up. Play action had the safety freeze enough to help Fleming get wide open. Impressive the corner almost undercut it.

He adds a touchdown on a play-action rollout on third down

On to Penn State. 1st half was pretty quiet due to some conservative playcalling. But this back-shoulder throw right before halftime was a nice change-of-pace throw from Stroud.

3rd down, he rolls out to buy time and finds Harrison. Great throw under pressure and somewhat across his body.

His first TD pass had everything to do with design and an amazing effort from Stover.

He left no doubt about his arm talent in this game. He was accurate on all six of his intermediate throws over the middle

He hits the dagger late in the 4th to seal the big win. Great touch over the top to Ebuka.

Northwestern, which was played in terrible weather. 40+ MPH winds and rain but it wasn't cold. Some throws were affected but velocity wasn't the biggest issue for OSU. They were disjointed, sloppy.

I had OSU down for 5 drops entering this game. This was their 4th drop thru 2+ Q

Full-field read on third down

I think this 44-yard run shocked everyone who had ever watched Stroud be tentative to run in the past.

Indiana. Some good wind and a little snow in this one.

His first TD is a simple leverage and timing read and he fires it in there to Ebuka.

2nd TD is an open deep shot to Harrison as the safety takes the bite

Notice the placement on the back-side shoulder here. Protects Harrison and the ball from the defense.

I think the big question around Stroud is how well he'll perform against pressure in his face. He has the tendency to short-arm passes and is not generally strong at creating outside of structure.

He has some of the best touch throws we've seen from a prospect. There's enough velocity to get this ball into the breadbasket.

Dropped INT under pressure and out of structure.

Just me continuing to show every TD from every prospect lol

Back-to-back plays here with a TD on the second. First one is a nice pot shot between two levels of defenders but also an expected completion.

Nice touchdown pass on the run to the sideline. His mechanics while on the move have been solid in a small sample.

Maryland. First throw is a great one to a well-covered Harrison. Doesn't matter

Sees the blitz and throws into the blitz for a TD

3rd down, you have to be able to create. This is a risky cross-body throw but it's accurate and sets OSU up for a short 4th down. Unfortunately for Stroud, he missed the next throw.

Michigan game. Fantastic back-shoulder throw from the far-hash to Harrison.

First TD is a nice third-down throw under pressure to Ebuka

The ability to hit big throws in high-stakes moments is so important, but one Stroud has struggled in. He gets Stover up the seam with leverage but overthrows him on 4th down. Would've been a massive momentum builder

But if you keep him clean, he will crush defenses with his precision.

Drops this in Harrison's bread basket for a TD

Such a tough drop by Stover and great play by the defender to break this up. Stroud may have needed to get this one out earlier but it was in the right spot

This is probably the worst play of Stroud's career. A recklessly late toss to the back, while he's on the move, leads to an INT and seals the loss.

Follows it up with a second interception that was just out of the reach of Stover.

Overall, Stroud was 1/4 on third downs beyond 10 yards and threw 2 INTs. He was accurate on only 7 of 13 throws beyond 10 yards.

It justifiably raised questions about whether he's a gamer

But then the Georgia game came and CJ had a great game.

I'd say his pocket management is "good" for a prospect but far from great. It's not consistently buying him time or extending plays. But this was a good example of what he can build on

This TD pass was legitimately shocking.

Entering this game, Stroud had 3 (!!!) throws attempted outside of the pocket that went 20 yards or beyond in 2022.

Side steps the pressure and delivers a dart to Fleming on the sideline. Scouts like to believe that if you can do it once, it can be repeated. We didn't see this often from Stroud so it'll be interesting to see if he can do this more often.

As good as any play you'll see from Stroud's collegiate career. This is just awesome.

This play call and design from Ryan Day was so, so good and missing from the offense most of the year. Nice lob from Stroud to help lead Johnson upfield too.

I don't think it's an accident that Stroud responded so well to a game plan that got him outside of the pocket more often and incorporated more traditional concepts. This was his third passing TD to the right while outside of the pocket

Unfortunately for Stroud and OSU, this play swung the game and title outcome. I still can't believe it wasn't called targeting. If it is, or if Harrison somehow lands the catch, OSU gets another TD and likely wins the title.

It's crazy Stroud even gets the ball to Harrison.

I'll tally all of Stroud's catchable passes and compare them to the rest of the class after I'm done. Thanks for following along. I'll add to this thread after I can put Stroud's accuracy numbers and situational play into more context.