We're less than one month out from the November 4th trade deadline, and teams around the league have begun getting a little more active on the phones over the last week or two. Insiders around the NFL expect that this year's deadline will yield more deals than normal, and it remains to be seen whether the Houston Texans will be buyers, sellers or standing pat over the next handful of weeks.
But what we do know is that early on in Houston's bye week, they were on the receiving end of phone calls from the quarterback needy Cincinnati Bengals, who are hoping to get steady enough play from the league's most important position to stay alive in the AFC Playoff race until Joe Burrow is able to return.
According to NFL insider Ian Rapoport, the Bengals contacted numerous teams over the last week in search of a better option than Jake Browning. The Bengals gauged Houston's interest in a deal that would send Davis Mills to Cincinnati before ultimately settling on veteran Joe Flacco, who had already been demoted as the Cleveland Browns starter in favor of rookie Dillon Gabriel.
Ian Rapoport noted that the Bengals inquired with any teams that had three quarterbacks on their rosters, and even made a call to former Saints quarterback Derek Carr, who retired in the offseason but left the door cracked open for a possible return.
Rapoport didn't provide any information on whether the Texans were receptive in these talks, but considering the upside for trading Davis Mills would've only been a possible upgrade from a 6th Round pick to a 5th Round pick, it doesn't outweigh the potential downside of having to rely on rookie 6th-Rounder Graham Mertz in the disaster scenario where CJ Stroud went down for any period of time.
Although Mills is by no means a starter miscast in a backup role, he does have 25 career starts to his name. In those 25 games, Mills is 5-19-1, and he's thrown for 6,190 yards, 35 touchdowns and 25 interceptions.