Education
Strong attended West Catholic Preparatory High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he played football and ran track.
Strong attended West Catholic Preparatory High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he played football and ran track.
He played college football at Arizona State. Strong"s father, John Rankin, played college basketball at Drexel and died of leukemia in 2003 when Strong was 9. As a junior, he caught 24 passes for 385 yards with four touchdowns.
As a senior, he had 17 receptions for 318 yards and four touchdowns.
He had scholarship offers from Eastern Michigan, Villanova and Virginia Military Institute before opting to attend Pierce College. In track & field, Strong posted personal-bests of 6.42 meters (20-115) in the long jump and 12.42 meters (40-65) in the triple jump.
Strong attended Los Angeles Pierce College for two years before transferring to Arizona State University. At Pierce in 2012, he had 67 receptions for 1,263 yards and 15 touchdowns in 10 games.
In his first season at Arizona State in 2013, he had 75 receptions for 1,122 yards and seven touchdowns.
In 2014, he had 82 receptions for 1,165 yards and 10 touchdowns. After his junior season, Strong entered the 2015 NFL Draft. Coming in to the draft, Strong was ranked by some analysts as a late first-round prospect.
He had been criticized for his lack of vertical speed, but surprised many with a 4.44 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine.
His vertical jump of 42 inches was the 4th best among wide receivers over the past ten years. Strong was selected by the Houston Texans with the 70th overall pick in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft.
The Texans traded with the New York Jets for the pick, giving away their own third round pick (82nd overall, Jets picked Lorenzo Mauldin), their fifth round pick (152nd overall, Jets picked Jarvis Harrison), a seventh round pick via the Cleveland Browns (229th overall, Jets traded pick to Jacksonville Jaguars), and wide receiver DeVier Posey. Against the Indianapolis Colts on 8 October, 2015, he made his first two career receptions, both for touchdowns.
The first was on a 42 yard Hail Mary pass to end the first half.
On February 28 2016, Strong was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona for marijuana possession. He was later released.