It felt like an unspoken certainty the Houston Texans were going to be searching for a new coaching staff come January.]
Just two weeks ago, Houston was 2-11 and coming off of consecutive embarrassing losses to the New York Jets, Indianapolis Colts, and Seattle Seahawks. The defense was hemorrhaging to just about any offensive scheme and the offense was floundering in space.
Then the tide began to turn.
Last week Houston had a huge victory over the Urban Meyer-less Jacksonville Jaguars 30-16 and essentially guaranteed they wouldn’t finish last in the NFL. A small moral victory, but never the less an important one for a team that constantly preaches the importance of culture and building both momentum and structure.
If the Jacksonville game represented a turning of the tide in general Houston sentiment, then Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers represented a tidal wave.
The Texans’ were a 13-point underdog to the playoff hungry Chargers and missing 20 players due to COVID-19 related testing. Chargers fans, Houston fans, fantasy footballers, and the national media were all ready for what was expected to be one of the biggest blowouts of the season.
Justin Herbert vs the Texans 🤤 pic.twitter.com/COIf28vqKc
— PFF Fantasy Football (@PFF_Fantasy) December 25, 2021
Instead, Houston turned in their best game of the season. The defense forced 3-turnovers including an impressive Pick-6 from Tavierre Thomas and Rex Burkhead had a career day on the ground with over 100 yards and two touchdowns. Despite several standouts, however, there was really only one guy for everyone to talk about: Davis Mills.
The often criticized third-round draft pick from Stanford, who had seemingly been doomed to fail from the start, played the best game of his young career against Los Angeles. He finished 21-of-27 for 254 yards and two touchdowns while engineering an offense that turned the ball over zero times. It brought his season total up to 2,200 yards, 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions despite playing with a cast that nobody recognized because of COVID.
This was the kind of performance that has Houston wondering if their “mistake” of a draft selection had stumbled into becoming their next franchise quarterback. Many pundits in the national media are pointing out that Mills has realistically outplayed his rookie contemporaries in Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, and Mac Jones despite their significantly higher draft capital.
"If only Trevor Lawrence & Zach Wilson were showing the flashes of elite play that Davis Mills is" is a sentence that would get you drug tested 4 months ago but is 100% true in late December.
— Sam Monson (@PFF_Sam) December 27, 2021
The emergence of “Money Mills” couldn’t be coming at a better time. Houston has a top-5 draft pick and will certainly have decisions to make as to what selection can best improve their roster. These kinds of performances will allow general manager Nick Caserio to sleep much easier at night should he choose to pass on what is considered a weaker quarterback draft and opt for one of the elite defensive talents at the top.
— necrodank (@_necrodank_) December 27, 2021
They also raise another question: Does Davis Mills’ development lend credit to Coach David Culley?
A staff that was totally written off deserves their fair credit for getting a rookie quarterback to this point and there’s no question how important continuity is for a young player.
It’s possible that Mills has earned Culley another year. Offensive coordinator Tim Kelly’s offense feels the most likely to take the blame should Culley be retained and it isn’t difficult to imagine a scenario where quarterbacks coach Pep Hamilton is elevated into that role after his excellent work with Mills. Additionally, Culley could sell the front office on recruiting any of the bright young offensive talent around the league to come in and take a position that will hold little to no expectations on a rebuilding Houston team.
The win against the Tennessee Titans earlier this year and the two wins against Jacksonville can be written off as a wash generally. The Jaguars are the most talent deficient roster in the league and the Titans turned the ball over five times to lose. However, there’s no denying the positive momentum and energy that was present in the victory over Los Angeles and Mills’ progression as a passer.
Win or lose, two more games like this from Mills to end 2022 will create a compelling argument for Caserio and the front office to give Culley and his staff a second year. It would be up to Culley what that staff would look like but the opportunity suddenly appears that it may be there.
This could be an incredible development if the staff has helped Houston find their next franchise quarterback. It could totally burn Houston if they end up wasting 2022 on Culley because of a few fluky games from their third-round quarterback. Regardless, there’s no denying that future appears to be in Mills’ hands now.
The following fortnight will reveal how the rookie responds to the first positive press of his young career. Houston plays at San Francisco next Sunday in yet another contest they project to be heavy underdogs.