Julian Edelman admits to being totally wrong about 1 NFL QB

Oct 10, 2019; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman (11) smiles during warmups before a game against the New York Giants at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Former New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman offered up a public apology to one quarterback on Thursday.

In an appearance on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd,” Edelman admitted he was wrong about Houston Texans quarterback CJ Stroud coming out of the NFL Draft. Edelman said he held Stroud’s status as an Ohio State quarterback against him given the program’s previous failures to produce leading NFL signal-callers.

"I want to apologize to C.J. Stroud… It seems like he always knows where to go with the football."

— @Edelman11 praises Texans' QB1 pic.twitter.com/fko14Hw1si

— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) November 16, 2023

“I want to apologize to CJ Stroud because as soon as he got drafted I was sitting there like, oh, another Ohio State quarterback, we’ve already seen this a few times,” Edelman said. “When you play at a school like that, you have the best players, so it’s hard to evaluate that position. … It was very surprising to me, but they’ve done a good job of keeping things simple. They’ve done a good job of playcaller-to-quarterback relationship where it seems like he always knows where to go with the football.”

Edelman was hardly the only Stroud skeptic prior to the draft. The Texans rookie was the subject of some negative reports and faced questions about poor test scores.

So far, Stroud has quite thoroughly proved his critics wrong. Through nine games, he has thrown for 2,626 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, and just two interceptions, and the Texans are a surprising 5-4 because of it.