A round of applause is in order for Davis Mills. He’s playing better than anyone could have expected. Well, almost anyone.
I remember hearing a draft podcast with David Shaw, who coached Mills at Stanford. Shaw said that while he was admittedly biased, he thought Mills was right there with the quarterbacks who were going to be selected in the first round. Mills (who didn’t have a distinguished college career) ended up being selected by the Texans early in the third round.
As the 2021 season comes to a close, Mills has held up well relative to the five quarterbacks selected in the first round.
That group was started 61 games. If we order those 61 games by passer rating, Mills shows up six times in the top 18.
Not that this is proof that Mills will have a better career than Trevor Lawrence, Justin Fields, Trey Lance or even Zach Wilson. But he’s hanging in there so far. And it’s reasonable to wonder if the Texans might stand pat at quarterback for now – maybe pairing Mills with a veteran in 2022 rather than using another high pick on a quarterback.
Mills in his last seven starts has averaged 256 passing yards, with 10 TDs versus 4 interceptions.
These rookie quarterbacks have 15 games so far with multiple touchdown passes. Mills has four of them – more than all of them except for Mac Jones. Lawrence and Fields each have only one such game, while Lance doesn’t have any.
| DAVIS MILLS VS. FIRST-ROUND QUARTERBACKS (by passer rating) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Opp | Result | Com | Att | Pct | Yards | TD | Int | Rate |
| M.Jones | CLE | W 45-7 | 19 | 23 | 83% | 198 | 3 | 0 | 142.1 |
| D.Mills | NWE | L 22-25 | 21 | 29 | 72% | 312 | 3 | 0 | 141.7 |
| D.Mills | LAC | W 41-29 | 21 | 27 | 78% | 254 | 2 | 0 | 130.6 |
| M.Jones | TEN | W 36-13 | 23 | 32 | 72% | 310 | 2 | 0 | 123.2 |
| M.Jones | DAL | L 29-35 | 15 | 21 | 71% | 229 | 2 | 1 | 118.9 |
| M.Jones | NYJ | W 54-13 | 24 | 36 | 67% | 307 | 2 | 0 | 111.7 |
| D.Mills | LAR | L 22-38 | 29 | 38 | 76% | 310 | 2 | 1 | 106.2 |
| M.Jones | MIA | L 16-17 | 29 | 39 | 74% | 281 | 1 | 0 | 102.6 |
| M.Jones | TAM | L 17-19 | 31 | 40 | 78% | 275 | 2 | 1 | 101.6 |
| Wilson | TEN | W 27-24 | 21 | 34 | 62% | 297 | 2 | 1 | 97.3 |
| Fields | MIN | L 9-17 | 26 | 39 | 67% | 285 | 1 | 0 | 96.6 |
| M.Jones | at ATL | W 25-0 | 22 | 26 | 85% | 207 | 1 | 1 | 96.6 |
| Lawrence | at CIN | L 21-24 | 17 | 24 | 71% | 204 | 0 | 0 | 96.5 |
| D.Mills | CAR | L 9-24 | 19 | 28 | 68% | 168 | 1 | 0 | 95.5 |
| M.Jones | at HOU | W 25-22 | 23 | 30 | 77% | 231 | 1 | 1 | 95.3 |
| Lawrence | MIA | W 23-20 | 25 | 41 | 61% | 319 | 1 | 0 | 93.4 |
| D.Mills | SEA | L 13-33 | 33 | 49 | 67% | 331 | 1 | 0 | 93.2 |
| D.Mills | at JAX | W 30-16 | 19 | 30 | 63% | 209 | 2 | 1 | 92.2 |
| Lawrence | TEN | L 19-37 | 23 | 33 | 70% | 273 | 1 | 1 | 92.1 |
| Fields | at LVR | W 20-9 | 12 | 20 | 60% | 111 | 1 | 0 | 91.9 |
| Fields | at PIT | L 27-29 | 17 | 29 | 59% | 291 | 1 | 1 | 89.9 |
| Wilson | JAX | W 26-21 | 14 | 22 | 64% | 102 | 1 | 0 | 89.6 |
| M.Jones | at NYJ | W 25-6 | 22 | 30 | 73% | 186 | 0 | 0 | 89.0 |
| Lawrence | at NYJ | L 21-26 | 26 | 39 | 67% | 280 | 0 | 0 | 87.6 |
| M.Jones | at CAR | W 24-6 | 12 | 18 | 67% | 139 | 1 | 1 | 85.2 |
| Fields | SFO | L 22-33 | 19 | 27 | 70% | 175 | 1 | 1 | 84.6 |
| M.Jones | at BUF | W 14-10 | 2 | 3 | 67% | 19 | 0 | 0 | 84.0 |
| Wilson | PHI | L 18-33 | 23 | 38 | 61% | 226 | 2 | 1 | 83.9 |
| Wilson | at CAR | L 14-19 | 20 | 37 | 54% | 258 | 2 | 1 | 82.9 |
| Fields | DET | W 24-14 | 11 | 17 | 65% | 209 | 0 | 1 | 82.7 |
| Lawrence | SFO | L 10-30 | 16 | 25 | 64% | 158 | 0 | 0 | 81.7 |
| Wilson | at MIA | L 24-31 | 13 | 23 | 57% | 170 | 0 | 0 | 80.0 |
| D.Mills | at ARI | L 5-31 | 23 | 32 | 72% | 135 | 0 | 0 | 79.6 |
| Fields | GNB | L 14-24 | 16 | 27 | 59% | 174 | 1 | 1 | 75.2 |
| M.Jones | at IND | L 17-27 | 26 | 45 | 58% | 299 | 2 | 2 | 74.2 |
| Lawrence | HOU | L 16-30 | 22 | 38 | 58% | 210 | 0 | 0 | 73.4 |
| Wilson | at NWE | L 13-54 | 6 | 10 | 60% | 51 | 0 | 0 | 73.3 |
| Lawrence | at LAR | L 7-37 | 16 | 28 | 57% | 145 | 0 | 0 | 71.3 |
| Fields | at GNB | L 30-45 | 18 | 33 | 55% | 224 | 2 | 2 | 70.8 |
| M.Jones | at LAC | W 27-24 | 18 | 35 | 51% | 217 | 0 | 0 | 70.8 |
| Lawrence | at HOU | L 21-37 | 28 | 51 | 55% | 332 | 3 | 3 | 70.1 |
| Lawrence | BUF | W 9-6 | 15 | 26 | 58% | 118 | 0 | 0 | 69.1 |
| Lawrence | ATL | L 14-21 | 23 | 42 | 55% | 228 | 1 | 1 | 68.4 |
| Lawrence | at SEA | L 7-31 | 32 | 54 | 59% | 238 | 1 | 1 | 68.3 |
| Lawrence | ARI | L 19-31 | 22 | 34 | 65% | 219 | 1 | 2 | 68.1 |
| Wilson | at ATL | L 20-27 | 19 | 32 | 59% | 192 | 0 | 1 | 63.5 |
| D.Mills | at IND | L 3-31 | 29 | 43 | 67% | 243 | 0 | 2 | 62.5 |
| Fields | BAL | L 13-16 | 4 | 11 | 36% | 79 | 0 | 0 | 62.3 |
| Wilson | NOR | L 9-30 | 19 | 42 | 45% | 202 | 0 | 0 | 59.8 |
| Lawrence | at IND | L 17-23 | 16 | 35 | 46% | 162 | 0 | 0 | 59.5 |
| Wilson | at HOU | W 21-14 | 14 | 24 | 58% | 145 | 0 | 1 | 58.5 |
| Lance | at ARI | L 10-17 | 15 | 29 | 52% | 192 | 0 | 1 | 58.4 |
| M.Jones | NOR | L 13-28 | 30 | 51 | 59% | 270 | 1 | 3 | 55.2 |
| Fields | at TAM | L 3-38 | 22 | 32 | 69% | 184 | 0 | 3 | 44.3 |
| Wilson | at DEN | L 0-26 | 19 | 35 | 54% | 160 | 0 | 2 | 42.6 |
| Fields | at CLE | L 6-26 | 6 | 20 | 30% | 68 | 0 | 0 | 41.2 |
| Lawrence | DEN | L 13-23 | 14 | 33 | 42% | 118 | 1 | 2 | 37.2 |
| Wilson | NWE | L 6-25 | 19 | 33 | 58% | 210 | 0 | 4 | 37.0 |
| Lawrence | at TEN | L 0-20 | 24 | 40 | 60% | 221 | 0 | 4 | 35.5 |
| M.Jones | BUF | L 21-33 | 14 | 32 | 44% | 145 | 0 | 2 | 31.4 |
| D.Mills | at BUF | L 0-40 | 11 | 21 | 52% | 87 | 0 | 4 | 23.4 |
—Ian Allan