HOUSTON — Texans coach DeMeco Ryans announced Friday that quarterback C.J. Stroud has cleared the concussion protocol and will start Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts.
Ryans is happy his starting quarterback is back under center. He doesn’t want Stroud pressing and just wants him playing within the offense.
“Who’s playing for us,” Ryans said, “whatever the position is, just asking everybody to go out and do their job to the best of their ability on offense. Play as efficiently as possible.”
Stroud was close to playing last week but the Texans played on Thursday. He said if the Texans’ Week 12 game against the Buffalo Bills was Sunday, he would have played.
“I’m just grateful to be back finally,” Stroud said. “I’m grateful for all the prayers. To the Broncos‘ defense, hearing them praying for me, I really appreciated that… [Being out] wasn’t fun, I wanted to play really bad. I wanted to be back out there, but we put ourselves in a great position.”
Stroud suffered a concussion against Denver in Week 9 and has missed three games. The Texans lost only the Broncos game during Stroud’s absence while going undefeated in backup quarterback Davis Mills‘ three starts, which included two game-winning drives against the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans. Mills threw for 879 passing yards with five touchdowns and only one interception in his stint.
The Texans going 3-0 in Stroud’s absence put them squarely in the AFC playoff race. Houston (6-5) is the No. 8 seed trailing the Bills (7-4), who they beat 23-19 in Week 12, for the final AFC wild-card spot. The Texans are only two games behind the Colts (8-3) and one behind the Jaguars (7-4) in the AFC South.
Last week’s win over the Bills could be vital down the stretch as Houston has the head-to-head tiebreaker in the wild-card race over Buffalo, which trails the New England Patriots by 2.5 games in the AFC East.
The Texans still don’t have much room for error as they have only a 38% chance to make the playoffs, per ESPN Analytics. Making the playoffs would take a historic feat to defy the odds.
Since the NFL expanded to a 14-team playoff format, 19 teams started 0-3 and only one made the playoffs. Ironically, the 2018 Texans were the only team to ever do it, and it was before the expansion to 14 teams.
The Texans also will have their high-paid safety Jalen Pitre back, who missed three games with a concussion. Pitre’s return will boost a Houston defense that is already one of the league’s best. The Texans have allowed the fewest yards per game (264.3) and the second-fewest points per game (16.5) this season.
