With Matthew Stafford currently listed as day-to-day with a thumb injury, the Rams have been calling around for some quarterback help. Brett Rypien is the current backup but he could be called into service if Stafford isn’t good to go. With rookie backup Stetson Bennett being away from the team and former Rams quarterback John Wolford electing to stay with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Rams need a new quarterback. With the NFL’s trade deadline coming at day’s end, it’s time Les Snead makes an eleventh-hour move for Texans QB Davis Mills.
Mills is a victim of time and circumstance. A five-star prospect coming out of Georgia, he beat out K.J. Costello for the starting job at Stanford in his redshirt sophomore year. The problem was that he played during the worst era of David Shaw’s tenure and thus he wasn’t exposed to the nation like Cardinal players in years past.
He decided to not extend his time in college because of this and some other factors, opting to enter the 2020 NFL Draft. The QB-loaded draft saw Mills fall to the third round. Had he gone the following year, not only could Mills have been the highest-selected QB in the 2021 NFL Draft, but he might’ve gone first overall.
However, that is then and this is now. The Texans decided that with a new head coach in DeMeco Ryans, they would also reset the clock on their QB with C.J. Stroud. Stroud is off to a hot start this year and when he eventually breaks all of the Texans’ rookie QB records, you will find that some of those records belong to Mills.
Mills shocked people in his first two years in the league. With two different head coaches and a front office oozing dysfunction, Mills put up a career completion percentage of 63.6, over 5,700 passing yards and 33 touchdowns. He did throw 25 interceptions but since he consistently had to play hero ball in an offense full of average players, it’s bound to happen.
Now, Mills is in the third year of his rookie deal, wasting away on the Houston bench. Two things have become evident for the Rams: Stafford’s time in the NFL may be running out faster than we would have hoped and the Rams have no true backup/replacement for him. Mills could be that guy.
Mills possesses the arm talent, intelligence and resume to be a star in Sean McVay’s offense. He is cheap to acquire and to have on the books contract-wise. He’s healthy, he wants to play and he has overachieved since the moment he came into the league. If the Rams want to get serious in 2023, Mills is the perfect place to start.
