Houston Texans: The best and worst of the 2021 NFL Draft

The Worst, Part 2

2. The Davis Mills pick

After signing 34 players from other teams in free agency, including a potential starter at quarterback for 2021 in Tyrod Taylor, the Houston Texans made the odd decision to use their only top-100 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft on…Davis Mills?

Yes, they acquired another top-100 pick with the aforementioned Nico Collins trade.

This was a wild move by Houston, even as valuable as the quarterback position is.

Davis Mills was a big-time high school recruit who had to deal with injuries in his first couple of college seasons before starting 11 games over the course of 2019 and 2020. He looked solid in his limited time on the field, but an 11-game sample is not enough to know whether a guy is going to be able to play consistently against NFL defenses.

Although the Houston Texans were hardly the only ones who had Mills in the top-100 picks (heck, we pegged him as a possible first-round dart throw for the Buccaneers), the landing spot here makes little sense.

Houston doesn’t seem to merely be building contingencies for Deshaun Watson, they seem to be bracing for his departure.

Although it seems like ancient history given all that has transpired since, Watson was trying to force his way out of town.

Taking Mills at pick 67 overall signifies that the Texans would undoubtedly move on given the presence of both he and Tyrod Taylor and perhaps that they even intend to do so.

I didn’t like this process, I didn’t like this fit for Mills, and I think Houston’s overall offseason process has been poor.