Sooner than desired, it’s Mills’ turn
Another stroke of bad luck for Taylor puts rookie on spot
Will Davis Mills be better than, or at least comparable to, former No. 3 overall pick Sam Darnold on prime-time national television during the Texans’ most important game in more than 600 days?
Will the quarterback taken one pick behind former Texas A&M QB Kellen Mond during the 2021 NFL draft be able to trade spirals, darts, lasers and bombs with MVP candidate Josh Allen as a follow-up at Buffalo?
Who will be better come Week 5 inside NRG Stadium: Mills or Mac Jones, who fell to Bill Belichick at No. 15 overall last April and now has post-Tom Brady New England with the same 1-1 record as the rebuilding Texans?
Welcome to the NFL, Mills.
Most importantly,
that could have been an opportunity for Mills to show them what he’s got.
Now the timetable has been moved up because of Taylor’s hamstring injury, which could keep him out a month. After coming off the bench in Sunday’s 31-21 loss at Cleveland, Mills starts against unbeaten Carolina on Thursday night at NRG Stadium.
Because the NFL and its television and streaming partners had such low expectations for the Texans, Thursday is their only prime-time game of the season. It’s been pointed out Watson made his first start in a 2017 prime-time game at Cincinnati and won, and that’s where the comparisons should end.
It’s grossly unfair to compare Mills to Watson in any way. Watson was a first-round pick coming off a national championship at Clemson. General manager Rick Smith traded up in the first round to draft him.
Mills was a third-round draft choice — Caserio’s first as a general manager — with a minimum of starting experience at Stanford. The plan was to give him plenty of time to learn behind Taylor and see how much he absorbed from offensive coordinator Tim Kelly and passing game coordinator/ quarterback coach Pep Hamilton.
Unfortunately, Mills’ time is now.
Taylor is such a hard-luck story. This is the third time in four years he’s been injured early in the season and replaced by a rookie. If Taylor hadn’t been injured, he could have showed the national television audience how well he was playing and how well the Texans were playing with him.
Now it’s Mills who has an opportunity to show he’s making progress.
Perhaps Taylor could have helped the Texans defeat the Panthers. Expecting Mills to engineer an upset just isn’t fair.
Coaches dream about finding a Russell Wilson in the third round, a Dak Prescott in the fourth or a Tom Brady in the sixth, but finding those kinds of nuggets is rare. They had something over Mills going into the NFL — starting experience.
Mills started 11 games at Stanford. Andrew Luck and Prescott started three years in college and Brady two.
Of the seven quarterbacks drafted ahead of Mills this year, Trevor Lawrence (36), Zach Wilson (28), Trey Lance (17), Justin Fields (22), Mac Jones (17), Kyle Trask (22) and Kellen Mond (46) entered the NFL with more starts than Mills.
Playing quarterback in the NFL is difficult, especially for rookies. Lawrence ( Jaguars) and Wilson ( Jets) are off to bad starts for 0-2 teams.
Lawrence, the best prospect
since Luck in 2012, is completing 50 percent with four touchdown passes, five interceptions and a 57.1 rating.
Wilson has two touchdowns, five interceptions and a 56.1 rating.
Lance (49ers) is learning behind Jimmy Garoppolo. He’s thrown one pass for a touchdown.
Fields has come off the bench two times behind Andy Dalton. He has no touchdowns, one interception and a 38.2 rating.
Jones (Patriots), the fifth quarterback selected in the first round, is playing the best. The Patriots are 1-1, losing to the
Dolphins and beating the Jets in a game in which Wilson completed four passes and threw four interceptions.
Jones has one touchdown, no interceptions and a 96.7 rating. He also has a tremendous advantage in that his head coach, Bill Belichick, is the greatest in history.
When discussing the Texans’ situation at quarterback Monday, running back Phillip Lindsay had an interesting observation. He pointed out how the Texans are a veteran team with players who’ve experienced just about every situation, including a rookie quarterback being forced into starting duty because of an injury.
“You have to understand, this team is an older team, so we’ve been in the league for a while,” said Lindsay, who played his first three seasons with the Broncos. “It’s about being even-keeled. When you’re doing well and you’re winning, you’ve got to stay the same. When you’re losing sometimes, you’ve got to stay the same.”
Lindsay liked what he saw of Mills under difficult circumstances.
“You guys (media) see how it is to be a rookie quarterback that has to get thrown into the fire right away in a hostile environment,” he said. “But as he got more comfortable as things went on, he looked sharp.
“Being in Denver, we had different quarterbacks all the time and young ones. You’ve got to get your feet wet and get used to it. Davis wasn’t the one taking all the reps (as the starter) at the beginning of the week, so I’m excited to see what he does as time goes on. And he’ll get better as time goes on. That’s how it goes when you have a young quarterback.”
Receiver Brandin Cooks, who caught Mills’ first touchdown pass to pull the Texans within 24-21 in the fourth quarter, agrees with Lindsay’s assessment.
“Absolutely, having a bunch of vets behind him that he can trust and lean on,” he said. “You talk about the O-line, bunch of vets. Receiver room, running back room. I think that goes a long way.”
Mills is in a different situation preparing to start for the first time on a short week.
“I think he did a great job,” Cooks said. “Obviously, when you get put in a situation like that, one of the things you want to show is toughness. He took a couple to the face and bounced right back up. When you see that from a rookie, you get a lot of respect for him. He showed he can handle hits in the pocket.”
And now Mills has to show he can handle the pressure of making his first start against an undefeated team on national television.