
A narrative regarding Bobby Slowik’s draft conversation with quarterback C.J. Stroud, which described the “contentious” exchange, surfaced a few days after the Houston Texans fired their offensive coordinator.
Lance Zierlein of ESPN 97.5 told a story this week about how Stroud approached Slowik at a pre-draft meeting in 2023 and made comparisons between some of Houston’s playcalling and his at Ohio State. It was said that they both got in each other’s faces since Slowik didn’t like that.
Bobby Slowik just kind of jumped him and said ‘I don’t give a f— what you called at Ohio State, that’s college, this is pro football,’ and Bobby kind of got in his face about it,” Zierlein said.
“C.J.’s not one to back down at all. I don’t know if Bobby was testing him, I don’t know what the deal was, but C.J. jumped up and got back in his face. It was very contentious, had to be kind of broken up.”
The interaction made Stroud believe he wasn’t going to be drafted by the Texans.
“I asked this team, ‘Hey, did you hear anything this with C.J. Stroud?’ and they said ‘Oh, we asked C.J. how his last visit went,’ which was Houston, and he said ‘Terrible, terrible.

I don’t think I’ll be going there,'” Zierlein continued. “C.J.’s whole crew did not want him to go to Houston. And, they didn’t think he was going to Houston because he and Bobby got into it.”
They seemed to have worked things out O.K., though, since Stroud is thriving in Houston. In his rookie year, he was named the Offensive Rookie of the Year and led the team to its first playoff run in four years. The Texans reached the divisional round.
Now, Stroud will work with a new offensive coordinator in 2025, and hopefully they don’t get off on the wrong foot like he did with Slowik.