Rookie quarterback Davis Mills recorded his first career victory on Sunday when the Houston Texans took a 30-16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field. Mills completed 63.2% of his passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns amidst outshining his draft mate Trevor Lawrence in the process.
Mills’ play against Lawrence marked the second time this season the Stanford prodigy outperformed his rookie counterpart from the 2021 NFL Draft.
Lawrence threw one extra yard than Mills (210 yards) while completing 57.9% of his passes in the loss. He did not connect with a target in the end zone, which marked the sixth game out of the last seven the top pick of the draft failed to throw a touchdown pass.
Following the win, Mills said it felt “awesome” to record his first career victory as an NFL starting quarterback.
“That’s pretty cool, but when it boils down, it’s still a team game,” Mills said during his post-game press conference. “Trevor is an extremely talented quarterback. He was able to go out there and make some plays and lead his team down the field in a lot of cases. But ultimately, I think it just falls back on our team. We had a really good team win today.”
Week 5 against the New England Patriots stood the first time Mills out-dueled his rookie affiliate in Mac Jones.
Despite the Texans losing 25-22 at NRG Stadium, Mills had arguably his best game of the season, as he threw for a then-career-high 312 yards while completing 72.4% of his pass attempts and three touchdowns. Jones, the likely offensive rookie of the year, recorded 231 passing yards and one touchdown.
For his play to exceed both Lawrence and Jones as a third-round selection (No. 67) demonstrated the potential Mills has to become a quality quarterback for the Texans — both now and in the future.
And as he continues his growth, there is a small chance Mills could affirm himself as the most promising rookie quarterback of the class of 2021 with three games remaining in the season.
“Other than the one bad throw today, his decision making. He’s making quick decisions,” coach David Culley said. “He’s not back there holding the ball, and when he is holding the ball, he’s stepping up in the pocket and finding his check-downs.”
“That’s something he wasn’t doing as well earlier when he was playing, and we made a conscious effort to make sure we get that ball out of his hands. There’s a clock when that guy is back there on the drop-back game and when that clock goes off, that ball has got to get out of your hand. His clock is starting to tick a lot better now than it was earlier in the year.”