Going into the college bowl season last year, no one was talking about Davis Mills.
The Stanford quarterback wasn’t in Mel Kiper Jr.’s top 10 at the position and there was zero hype with him. Fast forward roughly four months, Mills is generating a ton of buzz ahead of the NFL Draft and is drastically climbing draft boards. In fact, many have him as the sixth quarterback in the draft and first in the second wave.
How did his stock climb so much?
It’s easy to see once you get to know him and what his career trajectory has been like.
Due to injuries, Mills appeared in just 14 career games (11 starts) at Stanford. He entered the school in 2017 as the No. 1 QB in that class nationwide, ahead of Tua Tagovailoa, Jake Fromm, Mac Jones and more.
His injuries began before he stepped foot on the Stanford campus. After dealing with some knee injuries in high school, he suffered another injury in the Georgia state high school championship game when he was at Greater Atlanta Christian. He red-shirted his freshman year (2017) at Stanford, like many quarterbacks do, but re-injured the same knee he needed surgery on the year prior.
In 2018, Mills was behind K.J. Costello on the depth chart, but then in 2019 he took over when Costello was injured. Mills finished the year as the starter and then was under center in 2020 for the COVID-shortened season.
“It was a long path, obviously,” Mills said at Stanford’s pro day. “Got hurt senior year in the state championship and then again out here freshman year at Stanford. A little long journey. Started off at Stanford a little later than I wanted to. But I mean, really overcoming that adversity, it just taught me the life lesson of really just putting your head down. The harder you work and take time to develop things and get better over time, the more the results will come down the road.”
In his limited time as a starter, Mills completed 65.5% of his passes for 3,468 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions on just 491 career drop backs.
But, what stands out most to his offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard and now NFL scouts as well as executives is how he carries himself.
“One thing that sticks out about Davis is I would say his demeanor,” Pritchard said. “I think there are a lot of quarterbacks that carry themselves a certain way — Davis, he’s a unique personality. The way it manifests on the field at his position is he’s very even-keeled. It’s really hard to rattle him up or down. I think that’s definitely something I will always remember — his very steady demeanor.”
He added: “When you think about the injuries he went through, both before he got here and then that he sustained when he was here, and then when you think about in games -- the last game against UCLA when he throws the pick-6 to go down 14 with six minutes left, all those situations and even the game-winner that he threw later that game, you don’t see any different reaction. I remember calling him after his injury and I was like, ‘How are you doing?’ He was like, ‘I’m good.’ He approaches it objectively and he is such a smart guy that I think he understands his response to things is just as important as anything.”
Stanford’s West Coast style offense puts a ton of weight on its quarterbacks shoulders, which is something that will certainly help Mills at the next level. This is something that could put him ahead of other players at his position on draft boards.
“We put a lot on our quarterbacks,” Pritchard said. “We ask them to do a lot. We don’t look to the sideline for them to get a call. We don’t have a headset like you have in the NFL. He is learning and preparing during the week and in our system, I would venture to say upwards of 90% of the time he has a decision he has to make, whether it’s changing a play, changing a protection, getting to a completely different play, he generally has a lever to pull at the line of scrimmage.
“We run a West Coast style system and that is more the vernacular then anything. Just in terms of him calling plays, calling multiple plays in the huddle, checking at the line of scrimmage, recognizing fronts — he’s going to do a lot of that stuff pretty seamlessly having done it here.”
And the biggest thing that has allowed him to climb just boards of late is while it is a limited sample size and not much game film to go through, it’s evident he has the ability to make all the throws and is one of the better passing quarterbacks in the class.
Mills was able to showcase that at his pro day, which he crushed even though it was held in the rain on the Stanford campus.
“I feel that I put together a comprehensive script - 53 throws where I was kind of doing a little bit of everything,” he said. “I felt I showed what I can do. Really, it was just nice to get out here in front of some coaches and perform.
“I think I have the ability to make all the throws needed at the next level. I’ve been one of those guys who just shows consistency and shows that I can do that throw in and throw out and not have those off throws.”
While some may look at his lack of experience as a negative, some have looked at it as a positive. It’s a sign his best football is ahead of him, which some NFL team could be lucky enough to see first hand.
“To be honest, I think he’s still growing,” Pritchard said. “That is what is being talked about a lot, rightfully so. The ceiling for this guy is extremely high. He started a limited number of games here with the injury and everything else. I am excited to see where he goes from here because he’s only going to continue to progress and improve.
“… I absolutely think that guy’s ceiling is a long-time starter in the NFL.”
A number of scouts and NFL draft analysts agree, which is why he’s generated so much buzz in recent weeks. Some might let that get to their head, but not Mills.
“He is staying very even-keeled, level-headed about it because he knows a lot of the stuff that happens, he knows stuff can get talked about and until something happens on draft day, it’s just talk,” Pritchard said. “He is staying level-headed about it. He knows going into this thing that wherever he’s drafted it’s going to an opportunity for him to go in and learn and progress and make a name for himself.”
But, in order to be a successful NFL quarterback, you have to have confidence and the ability to not back down to anyone or anything.
That is Mills.
“I think I can compete with those top guys,” he said. “I have full confidence in my ability to go out there and win games and compete at the next level. It's something I bring to the table is really just the mental side of football. Getting prepared each and every week and attacking the weaknesses in the opponents and really having a high level of understanding of
defenses and even running my own offense.”
While Mills didn’t generate a lot of chatter a few months ago because of the lack of experience, that appears to be changing and he could make one team very lucky come next week.