The Houston Texans are handing over the keys of the offense to rookie Davis Mills for the remainder of the 2021 season. Head coach David Culley made the announcement on Friday, noting that Mils will start Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks and going forward as he looks to help his team end the year on a more promising note.
This decision comes after Houston benched veteran quarterback Tyrod Taylor in the third quarter of last week's blowout loss to the Indianapolis Colts. In that 31-0 defeat that dropped the Texans to 2-10 on the season, Taylor completed just five of his 13 pass attempts for 45 yards and an interception. After slotting in for Taylor, Mills didn't fare much better, completing six of his 14 throws for 49 yards. Culley noted Friday that Taylor "didn't like the decision" that the team would be going with Mills down the stretch.
"I wouldn't have liked it either, but this is a production business," said Culley, via Aaron Reiss of The Athletic. "We needed a spark. We needed a change."
Taylor signed as one-year deal with the Texans back in March and was eventually named the team's Week 1 starter. He suffered a hamstring injury in Week 2, however, which forced him to land on injured reserve and opened the door for Mills -- a third round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Stanford -- to see game action. Houston went 0-6 over Mills' six starts and the first-year quarterback completed 69.1% of his passes over that stretch while averaging 209.1 passing yards per game to go along with six touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Upon being activated off of IR on Nov. 6, Taylor was back in as the starting quarterback, but the Texans continued to struggle. Since his return, Taylor has averaged 137.5 passing yards per game and has thrown two touchdowns to go along with five interceptions while completing 56.6% of his passes. That lack of high-level production was enough for Culley to pull the plug and try his luck with the young rookie for the remainder of the year.
In his latest mock draft, CBS Sports NFL Draft expert Ryan Wilson has the Texans selecting Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral with the No. 3 overall pick later this spring.
