Before he was a No. 2 overall NFL pick and the offensive rookie of the year, C.J. Stroud was an under-the-radar quarterback prospect looking for an edge. The Athletic traced how a chess-based approach to decision-making became part of that climb — the same approach Poison Pawn founder Seth Makowsky has built into a training system for elite athletes.
The premise is simple: every move in chess is a decision made under time and pressure, with an opponent answering back. Concentrate enough of those reps and you build a repeatable process for reading patterns, staying composed after a mistake, and controlling tempo — the exact skills a quarterback leans on when the pocket collapses and the play breaks down.
The story details how that work helped reframe the position as a thinking position first: not just arm talent, but the discipline to take the right answer over the spectacular one, snap after snap.
Summary of The Athletic’s coverage of Poison Pawn, prepared for poisonpawn.com.
Read the original at The Athletic →