With Deshaun Watson, it was identifiable that he kept plays alive with his feet and was as much a threat to run as he was to run. Tyrod Taylor used his mobility in his first two starts to keep his eyes downfield to make bigger plays.

Rookie quarterback Davis Mills hasn’t really displayed an outstanding skillset that suggests he can generate wins immediately for the rebuilding Houston Texans. However, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything to work with.

According to Adam Carter from the 33rd Team, the website founded by former NFL general managers Mike Tannenbaum and Joe Banner, Mills has demonstrated over his 10 career games with eight starts that third downs are his money downs.

Mills has been at his best on third down, where he’s thrown two touchdowns and has a 69.2 adjusted completion percentage. On their opening drive against Jacksonville, Mills converted four third downs and capped it off with a touchdown to Brandin Cooks. He’s faced pressure 11 times on third down and has turned that into three conversions, just one sack, and had an impressive conversion versus the Jaguars to recently extended wideout Phillip Dorsett. He exhibits the ability to quickly make a decision as Marc Trestman said of him pre-draft, “When he’s made a decision…it’s 1-on-1 he feels pressure here and he immediately makes a decision. I put that on poise, process, and quick decision making.” 

A throw that highlighted one of Mill’s best traits, his anticipation, was on a drive extending play in Jacksonville where he hit Cooks on a 3rd-and-4. Mills quickly dropped back against the blitz, began his throwing motion as Cooks was one step across the line of scrimmage, and hit him in stride for a 6-yard completion. Trestman’s pre-draft evaluation of Mills discussed how his anticipation was more NFL ready than most college QBs, saying “The ball is already up and out..he has the anticipation and the trajectory to get the ball in.”

Part of what has helped Mills’ development is working after practice with receiver Brandin Cooks, who encourages the third-rounder from Stanford to trust his reads.

“I think that’s just him trusting his reads, you know, and just being able to watch film, you know, that extra time after practice, you know, together just kind of continue to build,” Cooks told reporters after the 30-16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 15. “But at the end of the day, like I always tell him, trust his read, trust what he see. And it just happened today that we connected on a few.”

If Mills can continue his development while the Texans also add more weapons around him, future iterations of the offense might be able to sustain drives that end in touchdowns.

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