Most NFL-caliber QBs can physically make most of the necessary throws most of the time. The difference between the successful ones and the bad ones are who can make the right reads combined with the throws in super short amount of time, with sophisticated defenses trying to bait them into the wrong throws. You don't have to go any further than Sam Darnold to find a guy who has all the physical ability but is routinely criticized for not getting the mental aspects up to speed and "seeing ghosts". Even Cam, who is not stupid by any means, had trouble with the mental side of the game.
tOSU QBs in the Meyer/Day offense are notorious dumbasses. They run the play that the coaching staff tells them to run and make the throw that their coaching staff tells them to make to their superior teammate behind their superior Oline and march down the field. There is no autonomy. Tyrelle Prior, Cardale Jones, Dwayne Haskins, Justin Fields - they didn't all suck at the NFL level because of a lack of physical ability, they sucked because they are dumbasses who couldn't keep up mentally. You don't need to be a rocket scientist, but you need to have some brainpower. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, Mahomes - all pretty damn smart guys though maybe a bit eccentric in certain ways.
CJ Stroud is, by all accounts and his own media presence to date, a dumbass. "Room to grow" and "upside" does not translate to "getting smarter". Once a dumbass, always a dumbass. Obviously he can learn new things, but he isn't going to increase his "processing" speed, as the millennials would say.
As much as I equally dislike Bama QBs historically, at least Young has been calling the shots in that offense for years. His biggest attribute is his mental capacity and decision-making. That is what is needed to succeed as a QB at the NFL level between guys who already have the general physical ability. I would take his proven mental ability over Stroud's (and obviously AR's) potential physical room for improvement but low IQ any day. You can't fix stupid.
