It's been a frustrating few weeks for Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud.
Once seen as a surefire Top-5 pick, the two-time Heisman finalist has seen his draft stock falter after results of his S2 Cognition test were leaked. Multiple outlets reported that Stroud scored in the 18th percentile of respondents, the worst mark of all quarterback prospects.
That's led some to believe that the 21-year old could fall down the draft board a bit. NBC Sports' Peter King expects Stroud to "go somewhere between maybe like three and eight", slightly beneath his projected position at the end of the college season.
Rumors of Stroud's demise have swirled on social media since the leaks. But the former Buckeyes star is taking it all in stride. Speaking to reporters at a pre-draft event in Kansas City, Stroud batted away concerns about his ability to process things at the next level.
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"I'm not a test taker, I play football," Stroud said. "At the end of the day, I got nothing to prove to nobody. I'm not finna sit here and explain how I process football. The people who are making the picks know what I can do."
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
Stroud's rumored S2 score pales in comparison to that of Alabama hurler Bryce Young (98th percentile) and Kentucky signal-caller Will Levis (93th percentile). The test's co-founder, Brandon Ally, recently told various outlets that any leaked scores should be taken with a grain of salt.
"What I will say is the list of scores that I have seen, two of those scores are not accurate. They're not accurate at all," Ally said on the Pat McAfee Show earlier in the week. "Some of the reason could be for narrative purposes. The other reason is that they don't have context, so somebody could have gotten a list of very early scores."
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Nevertheless, social media turned into something a cesspool against Stroud when his rumored scores came out. Stroud got his get back on the keyboard warriors during his interview.
"There's a whole bunch of people who know how to coach better, people who know how to play quarterback better, know how to do everything on social media," Stroud said. "But the man in the arena, that's what's tough, is standing in the arena ten toes. And I'll stand on that."
What is S2 in the NFL?
Touted as the only sports evaluation tool capable of synthesizing an athlete's cognition "down to a millisecond level," S2 is the en vogue test used to measure prospects' ability to process and act on split-second information.
MORE: Explaining Bryce Young, Will Levis' scores on S2 cognition test
Per S2's website:
S2 Cognition helps athletes better understand why they excel and struggle in certain areas of their game by revealing how their brain is wired to perform. The S2 Eval is the only sports evaluation that scientifically measures an athlete’s game-speed cognitive abilities down to a millisecond level — and provides tailored, on-field drills designed by top-level coaches to measurably improve performance.
Evaluations takes 40 to 45 minutes administer, per The Athletic, with S2 tracking various parts of a participant's processing speed. Three tasks weigh heavily in evaluating a quarterback's S2 score: tracking multiple objects; decision complexity; and improvisation. Those skills are weighted separately, then plugged into a formula with the results of the remaining six tests to determine a player's overall score.
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C.J. Stroud S2 score
Stroud is rumored to have posted an S2 score in the 18th percentile, the lowest mark among QB prospects.
Although it's possible Stroud did score this lowly, the results of the S2 tests don't mean much without context, said Ally. For example, he cited an athlete being forced to take the test late after a period of much flux. He scored lower than he would've liked, but performed better when he had the test re-administered during his Pro Day. So it's an imperfect science.
Stroud, for his part, made it clear that he had full faith in his football IQ when speaking with the media on Wednesday.
"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," Stroud said.