(SportsRadio 610) - The last time Davis Mills started a game for the Houston Texans, most fans wanted him to lose.
It was Week 18 of the 2022 regular season, the Texans preparing to play the finale of what was a third straight season of dreadful football in Houston. All the Texans needed to do was lose the game and they'd have the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL Draft sewed up.
Of course, as it turned out, Mills threw for 298 yards, completed 22 of his 38 attempts and threw for three touchdowns, including the go-ahead touchdown to tight end Jordan Akins with 50 seconds remaining to lead the Texans to a 32-31 victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
The rest, of course, is history.
Now, 11 months later, the Texans are preparing Mills to start in a pivotal must win game. While they haven't officially ruled out rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, who remains in concussion protocol, ahead of their week 14 clash with the Tennessee Titans, it certainly looks like Mills will be the starter.
While offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik faces his biggest challenge yet with a depleted core of receivers and an offensive line that has allowed 18 sacks over the last four games, he must find a way to get the best version of his maligned backup quarterback to show up on Sunday.
"He's really adapted well to our system," Slowik said. "He's done really good on kind of our movement stuff, our keeper stuff. And then, play pass - I think guys typically kind of figure out pretty quick. It's more adapting to the drop back. And then the nomenclature and being able to use the verbiage, he's really picked that up pretty quick, which I think is a testament to kind of how smart he is and how he's been doing the whole time."
While Mills won't have near the full arsenal of weapons available to him in Tennessee, with star rookie wide receiver Tank Dell lost for the season, the team's leading receiver Nico Collins (calf) in doubt for Sunday and tight end Dalton Schultz still working his way back from a hamstring injury, the third-year pro will have to trust some seldom-used receivers to get the job done.
Veteran Robert Woods figures to be a top target Sunday, despite his precipitous drop off since the first month of the season. After commanding 19 targets the first two weeks of the season, the 11-year veteran has just 17 targets the previous five games combined.
However, given that rookies Xavier Hutchinson and John Metchie III have been mere afterthoughts in the game plan all season and both struggled mightily last week against the Jets, Woods will need to step up and play a significant role Sunday. He was Stroud's most reliable receiver through the first five games of the season
As Mills prepares to start Sunday, having taken just 11 snaps all season, Slowik said they've been purposeful in how they've prepared all of their quarterbacks to develop at least some on-field rapport with all receivers.
"We really mix it up," Slowik said. "We're very intentional when we try to mix it up and Davis, after practice, being able to connect with these guys at any time, making sure we're always on the same page. We can field guys out of the breaks. As a quarterback, that's usually the biggest thing in this offense because we're so aggressive in how much we trust letting it go."
There will of course be adjustments made to the game plan on Sunday, as Mills and Stroud have very different strengths and skill sets. However, Mills seemed confident that he'll be prepared for whatever Slowik and the Texans ask him to execute this weekend.
"We're still running our offense," Mills said. "I've been able to visualize and kind of see them do things all year long so it's pretty easy to jump in and get on the same page as those guys and make sure everything is clicking."
A tale of two very different scenarios and just 11 months of separation between them, Mills faces a tall task Sunday.
"The amount of opportunity that I've had, the experience that I've been able to build over these past couple of years has made me a better player and I'm looking forward to displaying that," Mills said.
