C.J. Stroud is heading into the kind of season where every rough patch will get magnified, and NFL Insider John Frascella is already wondering how long Houston will wait before giving Davis Mills another real chance.
In an informal one-on-one interview, Frascella floated the blunt question that hangs over the Texans if Stroud shows any signs of carrying over last season’s collapse: "When does Davis Mills [backup quarterback] get his final long look?"
That’s the conversation swirling around Houston right now. Frascella said he’s only saying out loud what plenty of fans and local media members have already been asking: is any version of "rookie C.J.
Stroud" going to walk through that door anytime soon? He also tied that uncertainty to the Texans’ choice not to re-sign him, and suggested the pressure only gets heavier if Stroud doesn’t answer the bell this season.
Frascella laid out the concern this way:
"At the end of the day, the entire Texans season is going come down to C.J. Stroud finding the blind confidence he had as a rookie.
Right now, those days seem long gone, and things seemed to start going south the moment he lost Tank Dell [wide receiver] initially. Now, Tank is back, and the Texans have a fully competent receiving corps, top to bottom.
But, if that doesn't do it for C.J., that brings the hard question for Coach Ryans [head coach] -- when does Davis Mills [backup quarterback] get his final, long look? We know the texans have the defense.
It all comes down to quality quarterback play in the key moments."
Mills has already given Houston a reason to believe he can steady things if called upon. When Stroud missed time with a concussion, Mills went 3-0 as a starter and helped keep the season alive. Over that stretch, he completed 69 of 116 passes for 719 yards, five touchdowns and one interception, with an average passer rating of 88.5 against AFC contenders like the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The numbers weren’t flashy, but the results mattered. Mills took care of the ball, handled the situation well and helped Nico Collins post his best offensive output of the season. In that stretch, Collins caught seven passes on 15 targets for 136 yards, a 19.4-yard average.
That’s part of why the Texans’ AFC Divisional Round loss to the New England Patriots still lingers. After Stroud’s four-interception first half in the 28-16 collapse, many fans wondered whether Houston should have gone to Mills after halftime.
The question remains unresolved: if Mills had gotten that chance, could he have sparked a comeback like the one he helped engineer against the Jaguars in Week 10? Nobody knows, and plenty of fans will keep that against Stroud until Houston finally gets over the hump.
Still, Stroud will have every chance to quiet the noise when the 2026 regular season opens. He’ll be working under offensive coordinator Nick Caley for another year, and he’ll have an improved offensive line, a fully healthy rushing attack and a mix of new and returning receiving options around him. By the source’s account, this is the most support Stroud has had since the Texans drafted him out of Ohio State in 2023.
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National attention is beginning to follow the same logic. Ted Nguyen has put Houston among his top breakout offenses for the coming season, pointing to the upgraded support around Stroud and the chance for the unit to look more complete than it did a year ago. The bigger question now is whether those changes can translate from offseason optimism into the kind of weekly production that gets the Texans back on track. [Read more 🡒]