Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud hadn’t had a moment to reflect as they sat in the corner of a lavish downtown L.A. hotel minutes after chatting with Michael Vick and hours after a meet-and-greet lunch with Tom Brady, hip-hop artist Travis Scott and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin.
Stroud isn’t one to look back, and Young avoids looking ahead. They’re also uncomfortable discussing their Oct. 29 game between Stroud’s Texans and Young’s Panthers—potentially the first time the two quarterbacks will face each other since the eighth grade.
“We still don’t have starting positions yet,” Stroud told on Thursday. “There’s a lot of work to be done. A lot of camaraderie to get. That’s just way down the line. We’re locked in on OTAs next week.
“I’m looking forward to just the jersey swap.”
Jersey swaps are guaranteed, because Young and Stroud were selected Nos. 1 and 2 last month, becoming the first pair of Black quarterbacks to be picked back to back at the top of the NFL draft. They also happen to be childhood friends, and they were together again for their first NFL business trip in their hometown while rubbing elbows with billionaires and legendary quarterbacks.
After an eventful first day of networking at the NFLPA Rookie Premiere, Stroud and Young didn’t need a reminder of their accomplishments, but time stopped for just a few seconds.
“I don’t want to sound desensitized to it, but we’re used to doing a lot of things together,” Stroud says. “Honestly, since the process started, we were training together. We got to play basketball together. We got to do a lot of things together, [NFL scouting] combine, drafted one and two. That’s a blessing to see somebody from the same place and the same skin color to be able to prosper even better than you.
“I think that’s something that’s a testament to both of us, that we care about each other. We want to see each other succeed more than ourselves, honestly. Always check up on each other, make sure we’re straight. It’s a blessing because that’s very rare. You don’t get that a lot to where two people are from similar areas, similar backgrounds. Usually they collide. Me and Bryce are kinda like yin and yang.”
Stroud went on to say he meshes well with Young, despite having a different personality. He referred to himself as an extrovert and Young as an introvert.
“We play off each other like Shaq and Kobe,” Stroud says.
