The Houston Texans had to rely on rookie quarterback Davis Mills from Weeks 3-8 as Tyrod Taylor recovered from a strained hamstring and was on injured reserve.
Behind the scenes, Mills was relying on the former Pro Bowler to help him through the nuances of playing quarterback in the NFL, and Taylor was happy to oblige the third-rounder from Stanford.
“We talked about coverages, talked about certain things that we’ve seen in the game, just film study,” Taylor said. “Just tried to help him as much as possible. Sometimes the best experience is actually going through it so something you have to learn from. That was more so my message to him was win, loss or draw make sure you learn from it.”
Taylor was giving to Mills the way that Super Bowl MVP quarterback Joe Flacco gave to him when he was with the Baltimore Ravens from 2011-14. Taylor, a 2011 sixth-round pick from Virginia Tech, was able to learn behind Flacco, who led the Ravens to their second franchise Super Bowl win at the end of the 2012 season.
“I was able to obviously watch my first four years in the league, watching Joe Flacco: the goods, the bads, the in betweens, but I think I was able to learn from that to get me to the point that I am at today and even taking that to my first opportunity with Buffalo.”
Taylor comes back under center to lead the 1-7 Texans against the equally hard luck Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium Sunday at 12:00 p.m. Central Time. Texans fans are hopeful that Mills can still learn from Taylor through observation and enculturation now as opposed to trial and error.