NFL players putting Brady Quinn on blast over C.J. Stroud criticism

Brady Quinn is no stranger to ruffling a few feathers.

The polarizing former Cleveland Browns quarterback and current Fox Sports analyst poked a hornet’s nest on Wednesday when he criticized potential top-five draft prospect C.J. Stroud during an appearance on CBS Sports’ “Pick Six Podcast.”

“The Manning Passing Academy — I’d been told that he committed to it the night before and just ghosted them, didn’t show up. That’s football royalty, and when you do that, that’s going to kind of set off some alarms for people like, ‘Hey man, that’s not how you conduct yourself, especially around the Manning family or just in general if you’re going to be a franchise quarterback.’ 

“…I think he’ll be the No. 2 quarterback taken but I think there is some talk right now — and maybe it’s smokescreens, who knows — that some other teams are saying, ‘Wait a second, if (Anthony) Richardson has a higher ceiling (than Stroud), maybe he makes more sense for us to take if we can’t have a guy like Bryce Young that we feel more confident about.”

Former safety-turned-ESPN analyst Ryan Clark was among the first to defend Stroud, denying that the Ohio State QB gave any sort of commitment to the Manning Passing Academy and supporting his decision to instead workout with his Buckeyes teammates.