Trevor Lawrence just made things very awkward for the Houston Texans and CJ Stroud

The Houston Texans have one of the best young quarterbacks in the league in CJ Stroud. With that reality comes a lot of good things for the team and fans to enjoy. Dynamic play, come-from-behind victories and, if we’re lucky, Super Bowl victories. This also comes with a pretty daunting reality; Stroud is going to get paid. Now, quarterbacks are the face of the league, so it’s understandable that they get paid more than most, but the extent to which we see quarterbacks getting paid is off the charts.

It’s so out of the ordinary that it seems unsustainable, at least if you’re trying to build a winner. Many very mediocre and older quarterbacks enter into contracts that bog down and limit team resources. This is how things are happening now. So if mediocre quarterbacks are getting paid, you better believe younger, better quarterbacks are too.

The Jacksonville Jaguars just made Trevor Lawrence one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league, tied with Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals. Burrow is a top-three quarterback in the league, but Lawrence is not. So the salary increase seems to suggest that Lawrence will improve considerably.

Lawrence hasn’t been terrible, but he’s a very average quarterback over three years. That’s not to take away from his upside and potential, but over the course of three seasons, Lawrence has done nothing to make us believe he’s that good, that fast.

So if Lawrence, someone with serious holes in his game, makes $55 million per year, then the Houston Texans are going to break the bank to sign CJ Stroud to an extension. Assuming Stroud continues to play as well in 2024 and beyond as he did in 2023, then he will have the largest contract in NFL history by 2026.

Texans have already prepared for this and have taken steps that will allow them to lose part of their salary in about two years. Stroud could very well be worth every penny he’s given if he can win a Super Bowl. After all, the NFL’s best quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, has proven his worth. However, asking anyone to repeat the kind of success Mahomes has had thus far, especially this early in Stroud’s career, is a tall order.

Lawrence’s new deal just put pressure on the Houston Texans to win now, simply because we don’t know what kind of contract Stroud will get once all is said and done.