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Based on what’s at stake in the NFL Draft, it’s only natural franchises across the league exert a ton of time and effort to gather as much intel as possible on the players who are up for grabs.
The rising college prospects who declare for the draft are subjected to a ton of different evaluations ahead of the event, which include the various drills and workouts designed to measure their physical prowess as well as those fashioned to get a read on their mental abilities.
The NFL may have moved on from the fairly controversial Wonderlic test, but teams wasted no time finding an alternative in the form of the S2 Cognition evaluation that has become all the rage.
People familiar with the S2 test say a high score isn’t necessarily indicative of success at the NFL level but assert a low score tends to be a major red flag. As a result, CJ Stroud appeared to suffer a major blow when he reportedly scored 18 out of a possible 100 points during his assessment.
It’s worth noting the cofounder of the company behind the S2 test disputed some of the scores that surfaced ahead of this year’s NFL Draft (although he declined to specify if he was referring to the one posted by the former Ohio State quarterback).
Stroud had the chance to address those concerns while speaking with the media on Wednesday during a press huddle where he seem to acknowledge the report was accurate but disputed it was a major issue.
CJ Stroud says he is a football player and “not a test taker” in reference to an S2 question. pic.twitter.com/G72Eaqtwgc
— Scott Fowler (@scott_fowler) April 26, 2023
Here’s what he had to say:
“I’m not a test-taker. I play football.
At the end of the day, I don’t got nothing to prove to nobody. I’m not going to sit here and explain how I process football. The people who are making the picks know what I can do. That’s all that matters to me…
I know what I can do. I know what I can process. If I’m not the smartest quarterback in this draft, I know I’m one of the smartest quarterbacks in the NFL when I step in there tomorrow. I have confidence in myself. I don’t think you can play at Ohio State and not be smart.”
Stroud is obviously confident in his abilities, so we’ll just have to wait and see if NFL teams feel the same way.
