[The Athletic] What the Houston Texans are getting in Stanford QB Davis Mills, an elite passer who shines in big moments By Stewart Mandel 2h Davis Mills had an abbreviated playing career at Stanford, making just 11 career starts over two seasons, but is seen as one of the draft’s more NFL-ready quarterbacks from playing in David Shaw’s complex, Bill Walsh-style NFL offense. Considered the nation’s No. 1 pro-style quarterback recruit in the class of 2017, the 6-foot-4, 217-pound Georgia native has a big arm, is extremely accurate on downfield throws and has impressed NFL evaluators with his athleticism. He lasted until the Texans drafted him in the third round with the No. 67 pick because of his inexperience, and because some teams were presumably scared off by the two knee injuries he suffered, one in high school and one in his first year of college. LIVE BLOG: The latest from the NFL Draft ROUND 2-3 PICK BY PICK: Dane Brugler’s analysis DRAFT GRADES: Sheil Kapadia’s report cards BIG BOARD: Best available players remaining ROUND 1: Brugler’s analysis | Kapadia’s grades While Stanford went just 6-5 in the games he started, Mills had his share of big moments, from passing for a school-record 504 yards against Washington State in 2019 to upsetting a Top 25 Washington team and leading a wild double-overtime comeback win against UCLA in 2020. Stanford did not have much of a running game the past couple of years and counted on Mills and his receivers to compensate with big-chunk plays. Shaw said he sees Mills best fitting in with a team that runs a similar offense to Stanford’s, which required him to check in and out of plays at the line of scrimmage but can succeed anywhere, as evidenced by how well he played in looser two-minute situations. Dane Brugler on Davis Mills (No. 6 QB, No. 87 overall prospect in The Beast) A loose, well-built passer, Mills shows the ability to scan, operate from various platforms and throw with touch/anticipation. He is one of the best middle-of-the-field passers in the draft, but needs time to grow and eliminate the “what are you doing?” plays from his tape. Top college highlight Mills’ last game was arguably his most memorable. Stanford trailed UCLA 34-20 with 5:39 left after a Mills pick-six, his third interception of the day. From that point, he went 15-for-22 passing for 169 yards and three TDs, including a game-tying 21-yard dart to Simi Fehoko with 18 seconds left and a go-ahead 14-yard fade to Fehoko in the second overtime to win 48-47. What you may have missed Mills spent most of his first three seasons waiting behind K.J. Costello, himself considered a high-round draft prospect at the time, finally getting his shot in 2019 only after Costello suffered a series of injuries. Mills played so well in his place amid an otherwise forgettable 4-8 season that Costello transferred to Mississippi State rather than have to compete to win his job back from Mills. Superlative Mills was impressive as a vertical passer last season. Per PFF, he completed 57.5 percent of passes thrown 15 or more yards downfield, best in the Pac-12 and No. 6 in FBS. His arm strength and ball placement are evident, but Shaw also credits Mills’ ability to buy himself time. “The NFL is being able to stand in the pocket with guys in your face and slide and find open windows to get the ball out of your hand,” the former Raiders and Ravens assistant said. “(Mills’) athleticism is impressive. This guy can run, he can move, he can slide and make big-time throws.”
[The Athletic] Texans draft Davis Mills: With Stanford QB, Houston prepares for life without Deshaun Watson By Aaron Reiss With uncertainty surrounding Deshaun Watson’s future in Houston, Nick Caserio selected a quarterback with his first pick as Texans general manager, drafting Stanford’s Davis Mills 67th in the 2021 NFL Draft. Big Board ranking: Mills was No. 87 on Dane Brugler’s list of the top 300 prospects. He was the sixth-ranked quarterback in the class. Introduction: Mills, who grew up in the Atlanta area, was the No. 1-ranked pro-style QB coming out of high school. He started 11 games for Stanford across two seasons after redshirting his freshman year while recovering from a left knee injury he sustained during high school — something Brugler flagged as a concern. He still wears a bulky brace on the knee. Mills has prototypical size (6-foot-3, 217 pounds) and enough mobility to capably throw from various positions. Brugler considers him one of the best middle-of-the-field throwers in this draft, but he’ll need to rid his game of unnecessary throws when pressured and learn to get rid of the ball. How he fits: Mills is the newest part of the Texans’ plan for life without Watson. And unlike signing Tyrod Taylor to a one-year deal, this move is more about planning for the long term than the short term. If Watson doesn’t receive any punishment from the NFL for the sexual misconduct and sexual assault allegations he faces and returns to play for the Texans, then wasting a third-round pick on Mills to be an inexpensive backup would not be a career-defining mistake by Caserio. But it’s hard to imagine that was the Texans’ thinking. Rather, this looks like the Texans’ first attempt at finding their next franchise quarterback. Second guess? The Texans have needs everywhere and at least have a temporary replacement for Watson in Taylor, so it’s fair to argue they could’ve used this pick to bolster their terrible secondary, dip into a deep receiver class or add an interior lineman who could potentially start right away. But before the draft, the Texans viewed Mills as a likely second-round pick who could’ve gone in the first next year had he returned to school and proved his durability. Rookie impact: Mills is a developmental quarterback, so the Texans shouldn’t be in a rush to play him. They would have to be without Watson and Taylor to be put in a position where they need to rely on Mills in 2021. Assuming Watson doesn’t play for the Texans again, maybe Mills receives some starts at the end of the 2021 season so the Texans can evaluate him before heading into next offseason with more draft ammunition to acquire a quarterback. Depth chart impact: If Watson isn’t around, Taylor will start, and Mills will compete with Ryan Finley for the backup job. Fast evaluation: From 2000 to 2020, 178 quarterbacks have been picked in the third round or later. Just five have made a Pro Bowl and spent at least three seasons as a team’s primary starter: Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, Kirk Cousins, Nick Foles and Taylor. So history is not on Mills’ and the Texans’ side. Assuming Houston is one of the NFL’s worst teams next year and trades Watson at a reduced but still significant price, it’ll have plenty of draft capital to take a quarterback early in the 2022 draft. Should that happen, Mills would look like a waste of a pick. But given the importance of QBs, Mills carries outsized upside compared with anyone else Houston could’ve drafted at this spot. Chances are he won’t become a franchise quarterback, but if he shows signs of one as a rookie, that would give the Texans a lot of options in next year’s draft, which doesn’t currently look like a strong one for QBs. Houston could potentially trade back and acquire more picks to rebuild a roster in need of talent everywhere.
[The Athletic] Could Davis Mills be the Texans’ starting QB in Week 1 of the 2021 season? By Tim Graham, Dan Pompei, and Mike Sando After the Patriots drafted Alabama quarterback Mac Jones with the No. 15 pick in Round 1 of the 2021 NFL Draft, zero quarterbacks came off the board until the last pick of Round 2. Then, three came off in four picks, with the Buccaneers picking Florida QB Kyle Trask, the Vikings picking Texas A&M’s Kellen Mond and the Texans using their first pick of the draft on Stanford’s Davis Mills. So, who has the most potential of this group of second-tier QBs? And what does this mean for Houston? Our national NFL writers discuss that and more below: LIVE BLOG: The latest from the NFL Draft BRUGLER’S Day 2 MOCK: Second- and third-round projections ROUND 1 PICK BY PICK: Dane Brugler’s analysis DRAFT GRADES: Sheil Kapadia’s report cards BIG BOARD: Best available players remaining Of the three Day 2 quarterbacks who went (almost) in a row, Kyle Trask, Kellen Mond and Davis Mills, which one has the highest ceiling? Graham: While still a gamble, Mills seems to have his stuff together most of all. Trask and Mond don’t possess the playmaking pizzazz to make their throwing inconsistencies worth the trouble, whereas Mills is the best passer of the group and possesses credible mobility. Pompei: The one who was chosen last, Mills, has the highest ceiling. He also might carry the most significant risk because of significant knee problems, which explains why he was chosen last in the group. Sando: I’ll lean toward Mills without pretending to be an evaluator who has studied these guys in close detail. A quarterbacks coach I was speaking with during the first round thought Mills would be the next player selected at the position. Mills was actually the third QB taken after the first round, but all these guys went in rapid succession. Sometimes the evaluation of these prospects says as much about what the evaluators value as anything. The Texans used their first pick of the entire draft on Stanford quarterback Mills. Considering everything that has happened this offseason in Houston, is there a chance he’s the Week 1 starter for the Texans in 2021? Graham: A chance? I’d love to see the Vegas odds on this. Deshaun Watson is the NFL’s biggest question mark. Tyrod Taylor is a survivor, but he has yet to play for a team that isn’t eager to try the next-best option. Pompei: Anything is possible given what’s happening in Houston, but if that happens you know neither general manager Nick Caserio nor head coach David Culley will be very happy about it. The plan has to be for Mills to enter the season as a backup. The likely starter is Tyrod Taylor if Deshaun Watson is unable to play. Sando: That would be a little surprising to me, given the presence of Tyrod Taylor on the roster.
[The Athletic] Davis Mills could be ‘the calm in the storm’ for an NFL team, just like he was for Stanford By Molly Knight Apr 25, 2021 The second the ball left Davis Mills’ big right hand, he knew he wanted it back. It landed in the arms of UCLA defender Jay Shaw, who returned it for a 39-yard touchdown to give the Bruins a 14-point lead with 5:39 left to play. The interception was Mills’ third of the game, and he jogged back to the sideline and picked up the phone to talk to Tavita Pritchard in the press box. Pritchard, Stanford’s young offensive coordinator, is the former Cardinal quarterback who famously engineered an improbable victory over an undefeated USC team in 2007. It still ranks as one of the biggest upsets in college football history because Pete Carroll’s Trojans were favored by 41 points. But in that moment, Pritchard wanted to talk to his redshirt junior QB about another USC game. He reminded Mills that a guy named Andrew Luck once threw three picks in a game against the Trojans in 2011 before leading Stanford to a thrilling overtime victory. “You ready?” Pritchard asked. Mills said he was. Head coach David Shaw heard their conversation in his headset and later said he didn’t have any doubt that a comeback was about to happen. Mills displayed the same quiet confidence he showed as a teenager at a Stanford camp for top high school players around the country; by the end of the first day of camp, all the other stud recruits were like baby ducklings following Mills, the No. 1 pro style quarterback recruit in 2017. Mills got the ball back and threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Simi Fehoko with 2:34 left in regulation to cut UCLA’s lead to seven. Then with 18 seconds remaining, he found Fehoko again with a seed down the middle of the field for a 21-yard TD to tie the game. One person involved heavily in the Stanford football program told The Athletic that Mills is probably one of Shaw’s all-time favorites of the players he’s coached. When asked this question, Shaw demurs like a proud papa who loves the hundreds if not thousands of kids who have come under his wing equally. He does admit the two do have eerily similar even-keeled personalities, which can lead to anti-climactic conversations even in the most tense moments. Take that UCLA game, for instance. “After all this craziness,” Shaw said, “we’re headed toward overtime and I turned to Davis and just said, ‘Hey, Davis, how you doing?’ And he looks at me and says, ‘Great Coach, how are you?’ And I said, “Good man, you ready?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s go.’” The question of whether Mills should stay in school or go pro figured largely in another way as well. Mills redshirted his freshman year because of a knee injury he sustained during his final high school game. Just as he was finished rehabbing that knee at the end of his freshman season at Stanford, he injured it again. Fully healthy entering his third year, he initially sat behind senior starter K.J. Costello and took over when Costello got injured. Going into the 2020 season, Mills had just six collegiate starts. Before the season began, Shaw started meeting with pro scouts over Zoom to talk about prospective NFL players on Stanford’s roster. He said he let them know that if four or five guys on his team played well during the Pac-12’s pandemic-shortened, six-game schedule they would probably declare early. Shaw began the conversations talking about Mills. He told the scouts that Mills had all the ability in the world and that he was one of the top quarterbacks in the country. “I was met with blank stares,” Shaw said with a chuckle. “It’s one thing to get blank stares live. But to get blank stares on Zoom from a bunch of NFL scouts was something else.” The scouts knew of Mills’ pedigree, and they had seen flashes of his brilliance, like when he pump-faked a Notre Dame pass rusher, got drilled and still got the ball to his receiver for a 30-yard touchdown pass while falling on his back. Or how in the same game he somehow escaped from a backfield pummeling to scamper down the sideline for 25 yards. Upside was never the issue. Shaw said scouts stared at him blankly because they did not think Mills could possibly put enough of a highlight reel together in six Pac-12 games to warrant his leaving early. That assessment was fair. Shaw said Mills is a lot like Luck, the first pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, in that he’s got a cannon for an arm but doesn’t feel the need to air it out on every play. “I’ve seen Davis throw a ball 72 yards flat-footed,” Shaw said. “From day one in the NFL, this guy is gonna be in the upper 20 percent of arm strength. But people might not know that because he doesn’t throw his fastball every time.” One of Stanford’s receivers, Fehoko, raved about the touch on Mills’ passes. “The guy can throw 70 yards on a rope, but he still understands how to put the ball to where you can actually catch it,” he said. “But honestly, the thing people need to know about Davis is that he might be the best player on the team but he’s still just one of the dudes.” Fehoko said Mills was always one of the most popular guys on Stanford’s squad. Before COVID-19 changed everyone’s social plans, Fehoko said Mills would take the receiving corps to the local Wing Stop every Thursday and treat his boys. Fehoko would often find Mills working with younger quarterbacks long after practice ended. And rather than freak out and pout after a false positive coronavirus test threatened to derail the most crucial football season of his life, Mills texted constantly with backups Jack West and Tanner McKee to help them prepare for Stanford’s opener at Oregon. The Cardinal got crushed without Mills, who was then forced to sit out practice the following week until his situation was resolved. Looking rusty early in the Week 2 tilt against Colorado, he nearly brought Stanford back from a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit in a 35-32 loss. The Cardinal were 0-2 and, to make matters even more frustrating, were forced out of Santa Clara County for the remainder of the season due to the pandemic. With Mills at the helm, Stanford rattled off three straight wins, but after living out of suitcases and practicing in public parks, an exhausted Cardinal team decided it would not participate in a bowl game even if invited. The UCLA game would mark the end of perhaps the craziest season in Stanford football history. Mills, who hails from the Atlanta area, has two older sisters who both played tennis in college. His father, Steve, said he and his wife, Dawn, tried to raise all three kids to be as resilient as possible. “I’d tell Davis that life is full of uncertainty,” Steve said. “You can’t control a lot of things that happen to you and around you, but you can be the calm in the storm. To be a great quarterback, you want to be the one people look to to lead them.” Mills admitted that, in some of his first high school games, his stoicism on the field was misinterpreted as a bit robotic. So he worked at staying calm but also showing emotion to help fire up his teammates as needed. Fehoko said Mills’ cool head under pressure made everyone better. “His maturity and poise rubbed off on all of us,” Fehoko said. “There’s a reason why he was voted team captain.” In fact, Mills received the most captain votes in team history. “I don’t know if that’s public knowledge,” Mills said. “I really worked my butt off to get into the position I was in after my injuries, so to gain that kind of respect from my teammates meant everything to me.” When it came time to talk with Mills about whether he thought his quarterback should declare for the NFL or stay another year, Shaw said he had no doubt Mills was ready for the next level. “My only hesitation was balancing him maybe being a late first round or early second round pick this year with being a top 15 pick next year,” the head coach said. Mills, who graduated over the winter with a degree in science, technology and society with a focus in innovation and organization, calls his decision to leave early “a combination of a lot of things,” including the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic. “Ultimately, what it boiled down to was I felt I put enough on tape this past season to go to the next level,” Mills said. “I graduated. There weren’t many things holding me back at Stanford other than the hypothetical question of if you play another year you might be the top quarterback off the board or a guaranteed first-rounder. But when I was weighing that out, there was still a lot of uncertainty with the COVID situation. Stanford was still pretty much on lockdown. We didn’t know if we’d have an offseason. I just felt like my best option was declaring.”
continued... Scouts believe he made the right decision. Mills finished his redshirt junior season having thrown 1,508 yards and seven touchdowns in five games. They might not seem like gaudy numbers, but as scouts started to watch and rewatch Mills’ tape, Shaw started to get calls telling him his preseason assessment was right. The video showed Mills making plays going to his left and going to his right. It showed him throwing lasers between defenders and making effortless over-the-top throws from the far hash to the other sideline. It showed him running two-minute drills with clinical precision, getting better each week and leading Stanford to four tight victories in a row to salvage what could have been a disaster of a season. Mills will not be a top-10 draft pick because an early-career knee injury and a late-career pandemic limited his collegiate experience to just 11 games. But that lack of Saturday exposure also means some lucky team could wind up with a future Sunday star at a selection way lower than his talent dictates. “The same guys who had blank stares before are now calling me up saying, ‘Wow, this guy’s a late first, early second round pick,’” Shaw said. “And you could even talk yourself into taking him in the middle of the first because of his feel and his readiness to play. If you’ve got an aging quarterback on the last year or two on his contract, this is the perfect guy to come in for a year, teach him what to do, then let him take over.” On the final pass of his college career against UCLA at the Rose Bowl last December, Mills hit Fehoko on a gorgeous 14-yard fade right over the defensive back’s shoulder in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown that sealed the Cardinal’s 48-47 victory in double overtime. “So we go to the sidelines and I go, ‘Yo, that was one of the best throws that I’ve ever seen you throw,” said Fehoko, laughing at the memory. “And he looks at me so nonchalant and smiles and goes, ‘Yeah, I know.’ And everybody around us just starts busting up laughing because he throws this crazy dime to win a game and is just so matter-of-fact about it. But that’s Davis. He has that confidence about him, and you love to have that in a teammate.” When asked what he wants his legacy to be, Mills pauses and considers the question. “(My teammate) Connor Wedington said something that’s always stuck with me, and it’s that people aren’t gonna remember your name or your face but they’re gonna remember how you made them feel,” he said. “And then obviously on the football field, I want to be one of the best quarterbacks of all time.”
Why are the Texans so trash..after a run on QBs hey lets draft one from whoever is left...just when you think it can't get any worse. We went from Deshaun and Nuk to Mills and Nico and then you have this pic so much for Jack not being involved in personnel decisions
What a dumbass franchise. Refuse to trade a disgruntled qb. Then proceeds to waste the very few draft capital we have to draft the potential qb replacement
Going into the day he was literally the best QB on the board at the time...was a projected 2nd rounder from plenty of draft gurus. All these people hating the pick I really expect a breakdown of why he's a bad pick, not an emotional response of "Easterby Bad, McNair Bad." but an actual breakdown of his skills and judging his potential and as a player. I've yet to hear from anyone why he's a bad pick other than also mentioning that he's picked under this regime. In the end, that might not matter much. Watson was picked under a trash regime too and he turned out to be an amazing QB.
Yeah, and I don't mind them using a third on a QB and taking a shot on a guy with high upside now. Worst case scenario, you end up with a competent backup or another bridge QB to get you to the next true franchise QB. Best case scenario, maybe he becomes a decent starter. There are no sure things in the third round, and as bad as the Texans are and as many postitions as they need help, "wasting" a third rounder on a QB with upside when you needed another competent backup QB anyway isn't a bad strategy. This pick was never going to fix all the personnel problems they have. It's going to take many years of drafting well and making good personnel decisions before they're playoff contenders again. Bottom line, I don't think you draft Mills because you necessarily think he's Watson's replacement. You do it because you're taking a player with upside who was decent value at a position of need.
Using your logic, there are more pressing matters than a qb. Our defense 1. corner back 2. defensive end 3. tight ends? 4. Center? (we running a dude who just came back from an ACL) Like hell even if this dude becomes our starter, u are just setting him up for failure. But ya we got our potential "starter/backup qb"
The upside here is IMMENSE if Davis Mills can continue his rapid development. The talent and brains are obviously there. Very intriguing selection that could be a bust (but hey, it's a 3rd round pick), OR could be the steal of the 2021 NFL draft. I like the odds. Caserio is a "deep value" and a "buy at the bottom" guy. Like Deshaun, but in a very different way.
And tell me which CB is a sure thing in the 3rd round? DE? TE? Center? It’s a 3rd round pick man...it is not gonna make or break this franchise. A team is lucky if it gets gets 2 quality starters out of a draft. Without a 1st or a 2nd the Texans will be lucky to get 1 good starter out of the bunch. Might as well swing for the fences.
I would have preferred we just until next year to draft a QB at the top of the first round. But, I’ll be rooting for this kid for sure. We all know it’s usually a crap shoot with QB’s. So, I guess this is step one. I’m just hoping we get a good return for Watson. We need Miami to really struggle this next season, and for Watson to quickly settle his cases. I want Mills to start from day one. We need to find out what he can do before we go into the next draft. I feel kinda bad for mills. He’s coming to a franchise that is primed to lose 17 straight games.
Look, I'm not saying I loved the pick. I probably would have preferred them to take a shot at a corner or pass rusher or a position they were more likely to draft a quality starter in the third round than QB. I'm just saying I don't hate the pick and I get the logic behind it. I remember reading an article a few years ago that made a case for using mulitple picks every year on QBs until a team found their franchise guy based on the significance of the position to a team's success. I think I'd rather the Texans actually have a few decent cornerstone players and not have a roster that looked like an expansion team before they implemented that strategy, but you get my point. Taking Mills isn't going to make or break the rebuild. This draft was always going to be a crapshoot, and they have a massive hole to climb out of before they can be competitive again. I'm not going to overreact to every mid-round draft pick.
