Andre Johnsonmight have caught the Houston Texans'fan base's attention for all the wrong reasons.
Then again, former All-Pro wide receiver once tweeted, 'When Dre speaks, you listen,' so maybe it's something worth discussing internally with the franchise and quarterback C.J. Stroud.
After a horrendous postseason that changed the way fans viewed Stroud entering contract negotiations, the former No. 2 overall pick bet on himself and didn't take an extension on the table. He wanted to prove he was worth top dollar and planned to deliver when the moment presented itself as the face of the franchise entering Year 4.
Stroud looked promising — for the most part — in Sunday's 36-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills, completing over 62 percent of his passes for 274
yards and two touchdowns. The lone downside was that he had two strip-sack fumbles that resulted in turnovers, including one on the final drive of the afternoon in the red zone.
Even if Stroud improved, one game won't change the stance of many around the city for his seven turnovers in the postseason, which resulted in Houston missing its best chance of making it to the Super Bowl.
Houston Texans Andre Johnson on @lgndtlk and what he dislikes about CJ Stroud...
— Kyle Leiblein (@KyleLeiblein) September 15, 2026
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/KpHiimlFN9
Even Johnson, Houston's lone Hall of Famer, has commented on Stroud's past. Most recently, he appeared on the “LGND TLK” podcast hosted by former NBA player Kendrick Perkins and Houston rapper Lil Keke and discussed Stroud's emotions, calling out his body language following the first-half blunders in New England last January.
“His body language is bad,” Johnson said. “Any time something happens, it’s like… He has bad body language. Me being a former player, your quarterback having that kind of body language is bad because other guys look at you as the quarterback, so when they see you feeling a certain way or your body language is a certain way, it kind of trickles down to the team. I’d say that’s the biggest thing that bothers me when I watch the team play.”
Now, the clip went viral on social media and people, as is tradition, overreacted to a snippet without looking more in detail. Johnson praised Stroud's ability to respond on Sunday after leading two lead-changing scoring drives and mentioned how his consistent passes put the Texans within range to win.
"I’m not going to lie, for me to see him take off running with the ball and jump up and beat his chest, I’m like [expletive] that’s what we need. I thought him doing that was positive," Johnson said. "You saw, he got up, hit his chest and the crowd went crazy because you’re seeing a different side of C.J. that you’ve never seen because you’ve never really seen that from him except maybe since his rookie year."
Of course, no one wants to hear negativity about their quarterback, but Johnson wasn't targeting the Texans' signal-caller. He also called out Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and former Texans starter Deshaun Watson. Perkins, a longtime critic of Stroud, asked Johnson is the Texans would have gone further in the postseason with Prescott leading the charge.
His response?
“What has Dak won?”
This article originally appeared on Texans Wire: Texans HOF WR Andre Johnson criticizes quarterback C.J. Stroud's body language in new podcast
