Watch NBC4 anchor Jerod Smalley speak one-on-one with C.J. Stroud after the Texans selected the former Buckeye QB #2 overall.

KANSAS CITY (WCMH) — For the first time since 1982, an Ohio State quarterback has been taken in the top ten of the NFL Draft.

Quarterback C.J. Stroud was taken by the Houston Texans with the No. 2 pick in Thursday night’s NFL Draft in Kansas City. The ex-Ohio State starter will head to Houston to begin his NFL career and will likely become the new starter for the Texans.

As the No. 2 selection, Stroud is now the highest-picked OSU quarterback in NFL Draft history.

Stroud is the third consecutive starting QB for Ohio State to be drafted in the top-15 of the NFL Draft. In 2021, Justin Fields was selected 11th overall by the Chicago Bears while his OSU predecessor Dwayne Haskins was taken 15th overall by Washington.

The Texans also traded up with the Arizona Cardinals for the No. 3 pick to draft Alabama linebacker Will Anderson Jr.

This is the eighth consecutive year an Ohio State player was taken in the first round of the NFL Draft and the fifth time in the last six years a former Buckeye was a top-ten selection. The 21-year-old from California led the Buckeyes in back-to-back 11-2 seasons in which he won the Rose Bowl in 2021 and fell to Georgia in the College Football Playoff semifinal at the Peach Bowl in 2022.

In two seasons as the Buckeye starter, Stroud played 25 games, broke 13 passing records, and threw for 8,121 yards and 85 touchdowns, second only to J.T. Barrett. Stroud put up monster numbers in the two bowl games he started. He followed a six-touchdown, 573-yard game against Utah in the Rose Bowl with a four-touchdown, 348-yard stat line in the Peach Bowl loss to Georgia. That Peach Bowl performance earned Stroud high praise from NFL scouts.

Stroud is the only Buckeye player to be named a Heisman finalist twice since the award committee began inviting more than just the winner to the New York ceremony in 1982. He placed third in voting this season and fourth last season.

Now, Stroud will trade his scarlet and gray for blue and red. The Houston Texans are restarting its franchise after winning only 11 games in the past three seasons with four different head coaches.

In 2023, the Texans will have yet another new coaching staff with former star defender DeMeco Ryans as the new head coach. For Stroud, he will be under the guidance of the team’s new offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, who has never been an NFL offensive coordinator prior to this season.

Last season, Houston struggled and limped to a 3-13-1 record with two of those wins coming in the last three weeks of the 2022 season. The Texans’ three consecutive losing seasons come after consistent success where they won four AFC South titles in five seasons, but never made it past the AFC divisional round.

Stroud is the first quarterback the Texans have taken in the first round of the draft since Deshaun Watson in 2017. Watson helped lead Houston to multiple division titles before sitting out the 2021 season amidst several sexual misconduct civil lawsuits. Watson was traded to the Cleveland Browns in 2022.

It will be a year to learn for Stroud and the Texans in an AFC South division where the Jacksonville Jaguars enter as the favorites. Barring injury, Stroud will make a return trip to Ohio when the Texans visit the Cincinnati Bengals. The NFL schedule will be released in May.