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Mills completed one of two pass attempts for seven yards and lost two yards on two carries in Sunday's 44-22 win over the Chargers.
Since the Texans had built their lead to 19 with less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, head coach DeMeco Ryans opted to pull starting quarterback C.J. Stroud from the game and handed the offense over to Mills. In what marked his first playing time of the season, Mills directed two possessions. He led the Texans to a field goal with 2:20 remaining, then knelt the ball twice to run out the clock when Houston got the ball back with 1:07 left. With Stroud enjoying a bounce-back campaign, Mills' opportunities will likely be limited to garbage-time situations so long as Stroud stays healthy.
Mills is expected to reprise his role as the Texans' backup quarterback behind C.J. Stroud and ahead of Graham Mertz for the 2026 season, Jared Koch of SI.com reports.
Mills has served as the Texans' QB2 for each of the past two seasons, but he started in three games during the 2025 season while Stroud was sidelined due to a concussion. Mills led the Texans to wins in all three of his starts, completing 59.5 percent of his passes for 719 yards, five touchdowns and one interception while turning seven carries into 38 yards and a score in that span. Stroud hasn't had the same kind of production over the past two years as he did in his rookie campaign in 2023, and he committed seven turnovers across Houston's two playoff games. If Stroud has a slow start to the 2026 season, then that could be enough for head coach DeMeco Ryans to turn the keys to the offense over to Mills.
