Being the starting quarterback of a team that can only win four games in each of its past two seasons can affect public perception.
According to Cody Benjamin from CBS Sports, the Houston Texans’ Davis Mills is the worst starting quarterback in the AFC, and Benjamin fully admits part of the problem has been the talent Mills has worked with, not so much the signal caller himself.
This is perhaps more an indictment of the situation in which Mills finds himself, as Houston looks as if it’ll struggle to improve upon its 4-13 finish from 2021, turning to 64-year-old Lovie Smith, who hasn’t posted a winning record since 2012, as the latest figurehead of a curious rebuild. To be fair, the Stanford product stood tall despite a bad supporting cast as a rookie, and his size and requisite arm talent offer promise. But to what end, when his lineup is again littered with replacement-level veterans?
The Texans made investments to upgrade their offense, which would have been the case regardless of how Houston viewed Mills. The Texans signed free agent guard A.J. Cann and drafted first-round guard Kenyon Green from Texas A&M. The Texans also drafted a second-round receiver in John Metchie, although he is rehabbing from a torn ACL sustained last December. Houston’s most subtle contribution to giving Mills more weapons is the selection of fourth-round running back Dameon Pierce, who averaged 5.7 yards and per carry and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in his final year at Florida.
Across the rest of the AFC South, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence placed No. 12. The Indianapolis Colts’ Matt Ryan was No. 10. The Tennessee Titans’ Ryan Tannehill was just a notch ahead at No. 9. The highest-ranked quarterback from the 2021 draft class was the New England Patriots’ Mac Jones at No. 11.
