The NFL is built around one position: quarterback.
The rule changes and player safety emphasis have been geared in the last 20 years to give quarterbacks advantages to control the game and lead their teams to victory.
Very rarely have “quarterback-less” teams won the Super Bowl, a la the 2000 Baltimore Ravens or to some extent the ’85 Chicago Bears. All of the Houston Texans’ playoff-winning seasons featured elite quarterback play, or in the case of 2011 and 2016, vastly inferior quarterback play from the opposition.
In order to truly rebuild from the 2020 debacle, Houston must solidify the quarterback position, and coach David Culley knows it.
“It’s extremely important for the entire football team to know that when you go out there, that particular guy is going to do his job and give you a chance to win,” Culley said.
The rookie coach is unabashed in his support for third-round rookie Davis Mills, but also has a tempered approach, realizing the Stanford product wasn’t exactly meant to take over the starting job so soon.
“I feel like in Davis, we have a guy like that, in the future could be that kind of guy,” said Culley.
Even though the future can’t get here fast enough for Texans fans, who have had to see their team go on a six-game losing streak with Mills starting in the absence of an injured Tyrod Taylor, who strained his hamstring in Week 2, the coaching staff has their eyes on the present.
Said Culley: “Obviously, we’ve got Tyrod here for a reason, and he’s been there and done that, also. Unfortunately, the injury kept him from being able to do what we feel like we’re going to do and take us to where we need to be going right now. But that’s very, very important to have that.”
The Texans take on a team in Week 8 that finally figured out their quarterback situation in the Los Angeles Rams, who traded with the Detroit Lions for Pro Bowler Matthew Stafford in the offseason.