QB Davis Mills describes how Pep Hamilton changed the Texans’ offense

Some fo the Houston Texans’ offensive personnel may be the same as it was in 2021, but the offense is entirely different.

So says quarterback Davis Mills, who joined “In The Loop” on Sports Radio 610 [KILT-AM] Aug. 1 to talk about the differences in last year’s offense and the new scheme under offensive coordinator Tim Kelly.

According to Mills, last year’s offense ran by offensive coordinator Tim Kelly was based on the New England Patriots’ offense.

“Completely quarterback-driven pre-snap and the big focus from Pep when he stepped in this role was he wants to take as much off the quarterback as he can so we can play fast,” Mills said. “Obviously we have a lot of control in making sure we’re in the correct protection and the correct mike point, basically confirming or changing anything, but the center does the initial point and making the initial calls. So, that takes a lot off my plate, especially in the run game. We can go out there and play fast when the center is pointing it.”

Hamilton told reporters on Aug. 3 after the fifth day of training camp that part of Mills’ job is to make sure to limit the offense’s bad plays, and to try to score points at the end of drives.

“Big part of his job, big part of our quarterback’s job is to manage bad plays, and that’s going to happen throughout the course of the game,” Hamilton said. “We feel like if we’re not turning the ball over, we just give ourselves another opportunity to score the ball.”

The offense that Hamilton is deploying is from the David Shaw system, which Mills ran when he was quarterback at Stanford.

“I have a lot of familiarity with this system from what I did out at Stanford in my four years of college,” said Mills. “This is the old pro-style system where all the verbiage is the same from what I did in college. A lot of it looking back and installing these new plays was pretty easy going forward.”

So long as the Texans have a system that melds well with the quarterback’s skillset, Houston should be able to improve offensively in coach Lovie Smith’s first season.