One of the quandaries of the Houston Texans’ 2022 preseason was the play of Davis Mills.
The second-year quarterback played tentative at times and didn’t take very many shots down the field, although he showed flashes throughout the three exhibition games.
Mills executed a very vanilla offensive scheme and rarely pushed the ball down the field under offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton’s conservative play-calling. It has led some fans and analysts to question whether Mills is more of a “checkdown artist” than the caliber of talent that can be a franchise quarterback.
Hamilton admitted they Mills back with the play-calling in preseason, but indicated things should open up for the former Stanford product in the regular season.
“I think we’ll find out once he goes out there and plays a regular season game,” Hamilton said. “I do think that we did somewhat have a governor on him in the preseason. Now we feel like we’re going to have to do whatever to go out there and score at least one more point than the opponent. That’s not in anyway saying we’re a run-first team, we’re a score-first team. However, we need to score the ball, that’s what we’re going to try and do.”
Most interesting quote from Pep Hamilton yesterday:
"I do think that we did somewhat have a governor on (Davis Mills) in the preseason. Now we feel like we’re going to have to do whatever to go out there and score at least one more point than the opponent"#WeAreTexans
— John Crumpler (@JohnHCrumpler) September 9, 2022
Fans should expect to see a different offense unveiled against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 1 at NRG Stadium. Hamilton will finally have a full cast of weapons available with Brandin Cooks and Laremy Tunsil returning in addition to increased snaps for running back Dameon Pierce, which should lead to a much higher level of trust in Mills to attack defenses vertically.
Mills ability to execute those plays in the game plan will play a huge role in whether or not he retains the starting quarterback role in 2023.
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