C.J. Stroud Wins AFC Offensive Player of the Week: Five Touchdowns and 384 Yards in the 44-22 Win at Los Angeles
The NFL announced the honor Wednesday morning. Stroud's five touchdown passes tied his career high and led the league for the week, Houston's 44 points tied the franchise road record - and the same box score carried Tank Dell's first 100-yard game since 2024.
Five touchdown passes come with hardware. The NFL announced Wednesday morning that Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in Sunday's 44-22 win over the Chargers in Los Angeles - a 125.5 passer rating on 60 percent completions, 384 yards and five touchdowns, the last figure tying his career high. Stroud led the entire league in both passing yards and touchdown passes for the week and was the only AFC quarterback to throw for 300 yards.
The game announced itself early. Houston opened with an eight-play, 73-yard drive on which Stroud completed all five of his passes for 53 yards, finishing with a touchdown throw to Xavier Hutchinson and a 7-0 lead. The 44 points tied the most the franchise has ever scored in a road game, and the performance was the second of Stroud's career with 350-plus yards and five scoring drives through the air - the first came against Tampa Bay in 2023, won on a late touchdown pass to Tank Dell.
Dell's name belongs in this file twice. In the same Los Angeles box score, the former University of Houston receiver - in his first start since the December 2024 injury that cost him a season - caught four passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, his fifth career 100-yard game and his first since October 31, 2024, according to the University of Houston's Cougars-in-the-NFL roundup published Wednesday. The award winner's favorite comeback story and the comeback story itself shared a huddle on Sunday.
The season line behind the award: through eight games Stroud has completed 64.2 percent of his passes for 2,251 yards and 16 touchdowns against two interceptions, a 104.8 rating and the AFC's best touchdown-to-interception ratio at 8.0. 'When you see a guy who is lighting it up like C.J. is, it grabs everyone's attention,' coach DeMeco Ryans said Monday, crediting the summer work Stroud organized with his receivers. The Texans now take the league's hottest quarterback on the road again, to Cleveland, with kickoff at noon on FOX.
