As the Fantasy Football season and the NFL regular season wraps up, it’s hard to ignore some of the young talented players who are standing out at the end of the season. These are players who could be prime targets to acquire this offseason dynasty leagues. One of these players that has been looking good over the last few weeks is Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills.
Mills’ landing spot with the Houston Texans was far from ideal. Initially, it was thought that Mills was drafted as a backup. The Texans brought it Tyrod Taylor and then of course there was the uncertainty regarding the Deshaun Watson situation. Additionally, it’s no secret that the Texans are in a rebuild and severely lack talent. It would not have surprised anybody if the Texans went 0-17.
In a quarterback class that included Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Mac Jones, Mills was sort of an afterthought. It didn’t take long for Mills to get his shot as the Texans starter. Taylor went down in an injury against the Browns. However, Mills’ first start came against a top-5 defense in the Carolina Panthers.
Mills only threw for 168 against Carolina, but had a passer rating of 95.5 and didn’t throw an interception.
Things took a dark turn the following week, facing the Bills who also had one of the best defenses in the NFL. Mills threw for just 87 yards and the Texans ran just 39 plays in a 40-0 blowout. To say it was a humbling “welcome to the NFL” experience for Mills is an understatement.
Mills bounced back against the New England Patriots the next week. The rookie went toe-to-toe with Mac Jones and Bill Belichick in a game that went down to the wire. Mills went from having one of the worst games that he’ll have in his career to one of his best. In fact, Davis Mills is just the second rookie quarterback to throw three touchdowns against the Patriots since Bill Belichick took over as coach. The other was Russell Wilson in 2012.
The positive momentum continued for Mills in Week 8 against the Rams. Against another playoff team, Mills threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns. Despite his occasional and expected rookie struggles, it can be argued that Mills has been the second-most impressive rookie quarterback behind only Jones.
This offseason, the Texans could move on from Watson and the play of Mills has made that option a possibility. Houston wouldn’t be moving on with no backup option in place. The Texans don’t have Super Bowl aspirations. It made the most sense for them to see what they have in Mills before they either had to make a decision with Watson or draft another rookie quarterback in the first round.
Mills has shown that he has potential and can be someone that the Texans can build around. Since his early struggles, he’s only continued to play better. Against the Seahawks, Mills got a chance to start again and ended up throwing for 331 yards. Houston lost the game, but it’s clear that Mills has talent.
Last week, Mills went toe-to-toe with Justin Herbert. Again, Mills was an efficient 21/21 for 254 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Taking out the disastrous Bills game, Mills has throws 12 touchdowns to just five interceptions this season.
Over the last two weeks Mills has been QB15 and that’s above quarterbacks that probably got team to the playoffs like Tom Brady, Matthew Stafford, and Kirk Cousins. This fantasy football season has been crazy, but even that was certainly unexpected.
As it stands, Mills leads the NFL with a 113.3 passer rating in the red zone. That’s higher than Tom Brady who ranks third and Dak Prescott who’s fifth. Mills has thrown six red zone touchdowns to no interceptions.
Overall Mills has a bright future ahead of him for fantasy football and real-life football. If the Texans get some high-value picks in return for Watson, they’ll have the opportunity to build a true team around Mills. As it stands, Mills is having success with a limited roster. Get him a solid running back and more talent and he’ll only continue to get better.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Texans stick with Mills in 2022. He has QB3 potential in SuperFlex fantasy football leagues and is certainly a potential target in dynasty leagues.
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