The Houston Texans will be a better football team in 2022, and here are ways they will show that improvement.
On July 29, the Houston Texans are scheduled to open their 2022 training camp. What can we expect from the team this year?
When thinking about the upcoming 2022 NFL season for the Houston Texans, there’s excitement for the start of another phase of rebuilding the franchise, and all that can happen this year. Some feel the Texans will be the worst team in the NFL. That shouldn’t be the case, while others believe that Houston can be a surprise team, and even battle for a division championship.
That’s a tough one to believe right now too, as Houston still has to prove they can play better defense, run the football much better, and be an overall more consistent team when it comes to finishing games and being competitive for all four quarters … especially in the third quarter.
This is when the start of training camp comes into play, because for every team in the NFL — whether it be the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, or the last-place Jacksonville Jaguars — all 32 teams need to have an organized and solid training camp to at least get off on the right foot in the early stages of the regular season.
Houston’s season can go a number of ways as the past two seasons have shown that with consecutive four-win seasons, but before all of that happens, let’s have a little fun and make some predictions … in fact, let’s make some BOLD predictions before training camp begins.
Next are three bold predictions for the Texans, one for offense, one for defense, and then a random prediction for either offense or defense.
Houston Texans: 3 Bold Predictions for 2022 before training camp starts
3. Texans QB Davis Mills will lead the NFL in passing yardage in 2022
Here is the deal with Texans quarterback Davis Mills … he is going to be better than many believe. Mills showed a lot of progression from the start of the 2021 season to the end of the same season that it is easy to trust him under center for the ’22 season, and hopefully beyond that, too.
One thing going into training camp and thinking about last season is Houston needs to throw the football to win games. If they can make their opponents respect their rushing game more than last season — OK, much more than last season — this is where Mills being the passing leader comes into play.
Houston doesn’t have to be the best running team in the NFL in ’22, but for Mills to have the opportunity to shine this upcoming season, Houston needs more first downs with their running game, and that will give the Texans’ offense more plays offensively.
The Texans averaged 59.4 plays of offense per game last season, putting them 30th overall in the NFL. In comparison, the Baltimore Ravens were first in the league in plays per game on offense with an average of 69.7.
Houston did improve their number of plays average in the final three games of the season to 60.7 plays per game, and that’s when the overall play of Mills was better. Mills can be a very nice quarterback for the Texans if given the time to throw passes.
He has an undervalued wide receiving trio with Brandin Cooks, Nico Collins and rookie John Metchie III, plus two tight ends working to be better players as well (Brevin Jordan and Pharaoh Brown), so if they get better, and the receivers play solid football, then Mills will get the passing yards needed to compete to lead the NFL in passing yards for the 2022 season.