Buffalo Rumblings
The Houston Texans will be hosting the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football this week, but the AFC South team could be missing a key part of their roster.
Quarterback C.J. Stroud suffered a concussion before halftime back in Week 9 as the Texans fell to the Denver Broncos. The concussion is the second of the third-year quarterback’s career with the first coming in his rookie season. Stroud has failed to make much progress in moving through the NFL’s concussion protocol and, as a result, has been not participated in a practice since the injury.
The league requires players to pass through five specific steps before returning to play after having suffered a concussion. While we don’t know where Stroud is specifically, we do know that he is somewhere in the first three stages: Symptom Limited Activity, Aerobic Exercise, Football Specific Exercise.
We won’t actually see Stroud at a practice until he reaches the fourth step: Non Contact Training Drills. Until then, all we will have to go on is what head coach DeMeco Ryans tells us. And right now, he’s saying he doesn’t know if Stroud will be cleared to play by Thursday.
In order for Stroud to play Thursday night, he will need to participate in a limited practice and have no symptoms after. Then the quarterback will need to participate in a full – including contact – practice and, again, experience no concussion symptoms after the practice. Finally, Stroud will have to be cleared by an independent neurological consultant.
It’s possible that the third-year quarterback could line up against the Buffalo defense. It’s possible that a Texans trainer could have stayed in Houston this weekend and conducted a limited practice for Stroud. He could also participate in Monday’s walkthrough. If none of that happens, Stroud could be looking at a third inactive week on his resume.
If it’s not Stroud under center on Thursday night, it will be Davis Mills. The Texans have won two straight games with Mills as the signal caller. Mills went 17 for 31 and 137 yards while taking two sacks in the second half of the Week 9 game after Stroud’s exit. However, in the past two weeks, he’s thrown for 292 and 274 yards respectively while recording three touchdowns as the Texans got a pair of wins.
Monday will give us an idea of whether or not Stroud is progressing, and Tuesday will be the real tell as to which quarterback the Bills can expect to see Thursday night.
