Texans: What Can We Expect From Davis Mills This Season?

The Houston Texans have named Davis Mills their starting quarterback for week one. Not that there was much competition, but it is now all but official. So in that, we have to take a step back and ask ourselves what should our expectations be for the season? Well, there are a couple things we need to breakdown in order to determine that.

The first thing that we need to ask ourselves is what is different from this past season. The first thing that will come to mind is the coaching change. Going from David Culley last season to Lovie Smith this season definitely will be a change for Mills.

Last season under Culley was quite the experiment. It’s been reported before that the Texans front office had other people telling Culley what plays to run. Whether or not that’s true, I’m not sure. What I do know is that this season will be different.

With Lovie Smith now at the head coach position, and Pep Hamilton as the Texans offensive coordinator, Mills will have a completely different environment around him. Additionally, he’ll be under a new offensive system. That being said, how he’ll adjust to Hamilton’s system is still yet to be seen. But I also feel that Mills will have a lot more to work with this season which brings me too my second point.

The second thing that will change is how the Texans opening 53-man roster looks. After drafting Kenyon Green in the first-round, the Texans will have a much improved right side of the line. But to go further on that, he’ll also be starting the season with a much better receiving core than he had last season.

Going into last season Mills had Brandin Cooks, Danny Amendola, Jalen Camp, Nico Collins, and a couple other names. But the thing that stands out to me the most is that they didn’t have the offensive opportunity to really let Collins get reps with the first-team offense. Additionally, he battled injuries.  This year I expect that Nico Collins will be a huge part to the Texans offense.

I recently wrote about how the Texans have done a lot of good in the last couple years with drafting, but I feel that Collins could be the biggest hit out of all the prospects they’ve drafted.

Out of Michigan, Collins was projected to be a top pick in the draft. But, after electing to opt out and declare for the draft early, his draft stock dropped due to other receivers making a jump. But, let’s not forget, he is a elite receiver with a lot of talent and great hands.

This year, I expect Nico Collins to become a huge part of this Texans offense especially after last season.

Brandin Cooks is coming off a season with 90 receptions and six touchdowns. Teams will start to put some pressure on him if they realize he can play with the best of them. That will inevitably open up the other side of the field for Collins to do what he does best- go downfield and come down with the ball. The only thing Mills needs to worry about is making sure he puts the ball in a spot that makes it hard for the cornerback to adjust too. If he does that, Collins will come down with it. But that’s not his only weapon.

This season the Texans will open the season with Brevin Jordan as their tight end one which last year at this time, he wasn’t. Going into this season, Jordan will for sure be taking on a bigger role on both the blocking side of things as well as the receiving.

So that brings us now to, with all these changes, what could we see from him this season?

Well, here’s my prediction for his stats in the coming year:

Passing yards: 4,150

Touchdowns: 28

Interceptions: 13