The only Houston Texans quarterback who has a contact that won’t expire at 3:00 p.m. Central Time on March 16 is Davis Mills. However, that doesn’t mean the Texans are going to go the entire offseason without adding to the quarterback room.
One veteran quarterback who may be hitting either the open market or the trade market is the Indianapolis Colts’ Carson Wentz.
According to Cody Benjamin from CBS Sports, who broke down the tiers of teams that would be interested in Wentz as “unlikely but possible” and “the favorites,” Houston would be a team that could be a dark horse to acquire Wentz.
Texans: Would they be better off giving second-year man Davis Mills a fuller crack at the top job? Sure. But with Deshaun Watson done here, they could afford competition, even if just to set up a bigger reset in 2023. The Colts might not prefer to keep Wentz in the division, but then again, if they’re willing to dump him after just one year, what do they care?
Adding Wentz would flow with what general manager Nick Caserio has said about the Texans wanting to see more from Mills in his second year.
“When you look at him relative to some of the other rookie quarterbacks that played last season, you can make an argument that he was just as good or better than any one of them,” Caserio told reporters on Jan. 14. “What does that mean for next year? That doesn’t really mean anything. We felt Davis was a good player when we drafted him and some of the things that you saw from him this season were confirmation of that. He’s got a long way to go as well and he’d be the first to tell you that.”
New coach Lovie Smith has also made similar statements after being hired.
The Texans do need to add quarterback depth, and it would be prudent to add a signal caller who can effectively challenge Mills in camp for the starting job. Wentz could fit the bill, but it would come down to whether or not he could accept being a backup, should the competition not play out in his favor.