Davis Mills getting an NFL start before Justin Fields

The Houston Texans are rolling Davis Mills out as their starting QB on Thursday Night Football. He’ll make his starting debut before Justin Fields.

Situations are obviously very different, but the fact still cannot be ignored. Houston Texans rookie Davis Mills, their top pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, is going to make his starting debut before Chicago Bears rookie Justin Fields.

Who could have seen that coming?

Davis Mills was drafted to an extremely weird situation in Houston, maybe unprecedented at least as far as I have been covering the NFL.

The Texans’ best player — Deshaun Watson — is still with the team and reporting for work but is inactive on gamedays as he is in the middle of a trade demand as well as an off-field investigation that has caused some significant issues with anyone really knowing anything at all about his future in the league.

Houston signed Tyrod Taylor in free agency after Watson’s request and they approached the entire 2021 offseason as though he’d be their starter for the entire 2021 season. That was actually going shockingly well through 1.5 games before Taylor’s latest injury, proving that he might have the worst luck of any NFL player since the start of the 2018 season.

With Taylor injured, Davis Mills will start for the Houston Texans against the Carolina Panthers on Thursday Night Football.

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1439672538095779841

Mills only appeared in 14 games as a college quarterback at Stanford before being selected in the early portion of the third round by the Texans.

He showed some nice pro-style skills in his limited action at Stanford, but he was undoubtedly one of the 2021 NFL Draft’s dart throws, to say the least.

Now, he’ll be starting in prime time against a 2-0 team, and he will make his starting debut before…Justin Fields?

Everyone has been taking shots at the Chicago Bears for their handling of Fields so far this season. The Bears were obviously destroyed in week one against the Los Angeles Rams but bounced back in week two with a victory in which Andy Dalton was injured.

Bears head coach Matt Nagy has been very strange with the handling of Justin Fields and very bullish on Andy Dalton despite, at the very least, no clear separation between the two if not an advantage for the Bears when Fields is out there on the field.

Although both Fields and Davis Mills might make their NFL starting debut in the same week, it’s crazy that Mills is going to see a start before Fields, even if only by way of a technicality.

Mills, for his part, was out there chucking the ball downfield in the Texans’ week two loss to the Cleveland Browns.

He completed just eight passes in this game but finished with 102 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.

It’s going to be fascinating to see how Davis Mills responds against an aggressive Carolina Panthers defense and for Fields, who has also completed eight passes in two games this season (with an interception and rushing TD), it will likely be a start against those same Cleveland Browns who just beat Mills.

It’s a brutal first test for Fields but he’s likely getting on the field, which is all Bears fans want, right?