Expectations had grown disproportionately out of hand for Houston Texans rookie quarterback Davis Mills leading into Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.
Just a few playays later, Mills has reminded everyone of his former status as a project quarterback.
Following a pseudo-impressive, although limited, performance against the Carolina Panthers the public was generally impressed. The young signal caller held his own and he was playing amongst a cast of rookie quarterbacks who, across the board, have had a difficult transition to the NFL with an 0-9 record leading into Week 4.
Needless to say, Mills came crashing back to earth against the Buffalo Bills. The game started with horrendous weather, the first drive featured Mills actually losing grip of the football during his wind up and fumbling backwards (one he was luckily able to recover.) Unfortunately, that served as an omen for how the rest of the game would go.
Rookie Passer Rating
1. Davis Mills 80.9
2. Mac Jones 79.1
3. Trevor Lawrence 60.3
4. Zach Wilson 51.6
5. Justin Fields 39.9*minimum 35 pass attempts pic.twitter.com/hpFQYXQeoz
— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) September 30, 2021
As a team, the Texans had eight yards going into the first half. Mills was able to complete one pass to Brandin Cooks and took multiple sacks.
Things did not improve substantially in the second half. The rookie from Stanford would end his day with four interceptions and 51 passing yards while barely completing over 50% of his passes (11 of 21). The offense’s inability to run to ball and the rain did no help to what was most likely the worst day of football in Mills’ life up to this point.
Texans offense has been BRUTAL vs. Buffalo.
1st half:
🔘 QB Davis Mills: 1/7, 2 INT
🔘 -20 net passing yards
🔘 11 total yards pic.twitter.com/oA1YrczQoi— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) October 3, 2021
It was the worst game in Texans history, ultimately losing the game 40-0. Those who were quick to compare Mills’ to more polished talents in Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, and Zach Wilson had to watch while those higher level prospects all put up excellent games against Cincinnati, Detroit, and Tennessee respectively.
The consensus was that the third round rookie was a huge project coming into the season. He only played 14 games in college and was drafted with the explicit intent of sitting behind Tyrod Taylor and developing for a season before re-evaluating the position going into the 2022 off-season.
This was an excellent reminder of what reality looks like for No. 10 and was not the plan for Houston. Mills’ is not ready to play quarterback in the NFL and as a whole the team is suffering because of it. Playing one of the best defenses in the league in horrific weather was simply adding insult to injury.
What was, before garbage time, a relatively strong outing from the defense was completely wasted due to the offense’s inability to stay on the field. The game felt like one of the most meaningless outings in Houston history.
It will be interesting to see how the coaching staff and front office responds to this nightmare-level performance. More likely than not, Mills will be allowed to start his third game next week at home against the New England Patriots. Nothing about that feels inspiring right now for Houston fans.