All hope aside for any Houston Texans fans that believe Deshaun Watson will return under center, the selection of Davis Mills has completed the infamous trio of transactions to announce a “rebuild.”

With first-year general manager Nick Caserio and newly-minted head coach David Culley in place, Houston has found itself, somehow, in a worse position than they were just months, even weeks ago. It’s almost to the point now where as each day goes by, news and rumors appear out of the woodwork to where there is seemingly no return for an organization in ownership of four of the last six AFC South division titles.

The allegations surrounding the 25-year-old Watson are hard to ignore when attempting to project Houston’s success both in 2021 and down the road. One of the league’s top young gun-slingers, Watson’s future seems bleak—at best—in the NFL, let alone in Houston. The tandem of Caserio and Culley have shown their hand, and it doesn’t appear that No. 4 will be suiting up anytime soon for one of the league’s most underdeveloped rosters following a flurry of offseason moves under center.

Tyrod Taylor’s addition is window dressing to the inherent successor of the throne in Mills. Similar to his role in Los Angeles, where the 10-year veteran was set to start ahead of Justin Herbert, Taylor currently slots in at QB1 on Culley’s big board. Now, it’s a double-edged sword when discussing Herbert’s rise to fame due to a fluke injury to Taylor, but his situation in Houston is much, much different.

Enter Mills, one of the biggest risers in the evaluation process regardless of position. With just 14 games of collegiate experience, Mills now enters the fold with Taylor in what will be a trial by error process for Caserio to find his quarterback moving forward.

Ultimately, Caserio and the Texans took a shot on a quarterback they liked in Mills in the hopes he could present a Herbert-like jolt to stardom where much wasn’t expected heading into his 2020 rookie campaign. Given the possibility Watson never plays for Houston again, the best-case scenario is Mills develops into a starting quarterback over the next year or two.

“[Mills] has some of the attributes of a quarterback that we like who played well with his opportunities when he was on the field,” Caserio said. “So it was a situation where we like the player, we spent time with him before the draft, did our research, did our homework,” Caserio said.

For Mills, he was “surprised” when he got the call from Houston, saying he had minimal contact with Texans brass prior to his selection No. 67 overall on night two of the 2021 NFL Draft.

It’s a win-win scenario for Mills, Caserio, Culley, and the future of the Texans organization. Despite his inexperience, Mills thrived against top competition during his time under center for the Cardinal. His 92.8 total QBR in starts against ranked opponents over the last two years ranked him third-best of all Division-1 FBS signal-callers.

His skill set won’t jump off the page, but Mills tends to win games before the play begins. His football IQ is among the best in the class, and his decisiveness under center will immediately grab your attention.

At 6-foot-4, Mills touts an ideal frame to compete behind a Texans offensive line that finished tied for the second-most sacks allowed in the league in 2020. With limited help on the boundary, it’s not going to make life any easier for the former Stanford talent, but his vision, patience, and projection as an NFL starter down the road is a reason to be excited despite the current bubble of negativity swallowing the Texans organization.