Author: /u/bingmyname

What were the main things we complained about last year that needed improving? 1. The secondary 2. The run game 3. Run defense. What are some of the things most improved on this team this year? The run game and the secondary. Didn’t get to do much addressing the run defense so we don’t really see improvements there. With that being said, Nick did a good job addressing some of the main issues and establishing a foundation for this team. Now what do we want to see fixed this off-season? The run defense and the passing attack. I’m sure Caserio will continue to fill in more talent in the other parts of this team but you can best believe next season those 2 aspects of our game will be much better. Front 7, IOL, and passing attack will all at least get touched. It won’t be all done in one season but let’s see how Caserio does given how depleted this team was last year in all areas. Let’s just hope he gets more aggressive and stops signing too many old heads.

I think this probably never happens but it might be the very best way to actually build the team and make them good quicker. It’s aggressive, risky and Caserio would look like the bad guy until it pays off but the upside is very very high. Like SB contending high.

First- fire Lovie Smith and hire Ken Dorsey and let him pick his own staff (maybe keep Frank Ross lol). It’s not that I don’t think this coaching staff can’t do better with more talent and be competitive, but some of the philosophies we’re seeing aren’t ideal or flexible enough and I don’t want to pass this stuff to a young team and especially not a young QB. They tried, it failed, let’s go with a fresh face. This is the move that is very bad for PR and really sets Pep Hamilton back in his career, making Caserio the bad guy but at the end of the day do what’s best for the team and not those guys.

Second- draft Bryce Young. I still believe in Mills’ ceiling but the likelihood of him reaching out here is very slim to none. I’d love to trade him to SF or somewhere like that where he can probably eventually win the job from Jimmy G and Lance. We get a pick and Mills gets a better environment. Bring in a vet QB to help Young. Young has less of a hill to climb than Mills and his talent is off the charts. Worth taking the risk imo. Think many people would like taking a new QB to match with a bright offensive mind.

Third- take a WR high. This is where Caserio might make some people mad because everyone wants front 7 fixed. However Young will need a number 1 option and you have to try for one. You’ll kill his development without one and there isn’t one on this team right now. You can not convince me we have one so don’t try it. I’m tired of gambling that guys who have shown certain a upside will somehow break that upside but then they don’t and our offense is a mess. The front 7 can still be fixed but you better make sure you have a WR for Bryce. You also need a C and RB2. This is simply non negotiable. Expect to see them taken regardless.

TLDR: FIRE LOVIE HIRE DORSEY TRADE MILLS DRAFT YOUNG AND SWING FOR A WR1 NICK BAD GUY TILL GOOD

Watching back snippets of the Eagles game and reflecting on the entire season, I’m actually on the bullish side for Davis’ growth. That may be a minority opinion but I don’t see anything in particular that should suggest otherwise. People might complain about his pocket presence and accuracy but he’s gotten a lot better at the former and the latter is more of a consistency issue and that usually corrects with more experience.

Now I’ll go over some of what I think was good and bad:

The bad – first off all I think it’s important to stop attributing some of these sacks to Mills because they’re not all his fault. I mean there was so many times where the C got beat like a drum or Green got bullied and there was no where for Mills to run to. Not many guys are slippery enough to duck and dodge instant pressure. However, Mills still has times where he tends to chop his feet way too much and gets way too busy as he’s going through his reads. He had a pretty senseless play where he backed into a sack, just being unaware of his surroundings. The thing is, it’s getting to the point where it’s less of Mills’ fault but when stuff like this happens he’s going to get crucified for it anyways because it happens SO MUCH. Every now and then it’s genuinely his fault and he’s letting it pile on. Kind of why we shouldn’t have drafted a QB into this turd situation in the first place but oh well.

The bad #2- Ball placement is all over the place. I’m not worried about this long term, as I said I think this is something he can get way better at this off season and QBs tend to get more accurate over time. But right now he’s leaving TDs off the board with his ball placement. This is on him. He does it both when there’s pressure and when there isn’t. But he doesn’t do that every game. It’s mostly those intermediate to deep passes but at least he’s connecting and there’s a real chance he improves.

The bad #3- The turnovers/interceptions. First of all, I’ll credit that he hasn’t fumbled from his blind side recently. There was a play where Kenyon got bullied by HG and sacked Mills but Mills seemed to sense the pressure last second and as he was about to throw the ball he pulled it down. (There was no where for him to run so don’t tell me why didn’t he just run it.) However the interceptions have switched from being bad luck to blatantly his fault. The first couple interceptions felt like genuinely bad luck with tipped passes, etc. However the Raiders game was his worst interception yet. Just didn’t see the defender and was one of the first genuinely bad decisions he’s made in terms of where to go with the ball. This past Eagles game he threw 2. The first one was the fault of him and the OL. They again gave up instant pressure, just BAD- but Mills compounded on it. First he actually does a good job dodging the defender and stepping into space to throw and I think he was trying to put it in the dirt which is the right thing to do there BUT he needs to be more aware of what he’s doing. He panicked a bit and didn’t note CGJG who made a great play. The second interception was between him and the receiver. Again not on the same page (happening way too much) but also it was a forced ball. Even though the game was basically over I’d still prefer him not to turn it over. It just feeds the idea that he can’t be clutch which I don’t think is the case.

The good- many of you probably already stopped reading because some of you seem to want to crucify Mills for the sake of drafting Young or Stroud no matter what. Regardless of that, Mills has undeniably made progress in his pocket presence and ability to deliver the ball to all parts of the field. While ball placement is inconsistent, he has been overall sharp in decision making and execution, particularly in first halves. While this isn’t good enough, he’s also still surrounded by a flaming pile of garbage so I don’t attribute all the negative to him. To me he’s been the same Mills, just circumstances changes things in the second half. Anyways, he’s been a good decision maker, executing Pep’s offense with good timing. He could play faster on some plays for sure but as he gets more experience that’ll also work itself out I believe. Either way the fact remains that he’s outperformed lately given what he’s surrounded by and he needs to stack games like this. The Titans game was particularly rough because he didn’t have much help that game so it looked like pure regression. He needs to stack good performances here out and eliminate the turnovers, inconsistency narratives and narratives about inability to close games.

What really will be tested is his leadership. He needs to rally those guys to play for 4 quarters every game despite the lack of talent and guys checking out on the team.

Tldr- Mills gets a lot of blame for things that aren’t even his fault but he occasionally compounds things (albeit less so each week) which is setting up a narrative that he sucks. All his issues as an individual are realistically fixable and he’s already gotten better at some of them. He’s a solid decision maker and executing the offense better each week despite the talent around him. I think getting more weapons, Pep being a more consistent play caller, would actually sponsor the growth we want to see in Mills. There’s not really anything in his game to suggest otherwise to me.

Ok now bring on the hate comments. I’m not getting my blood pressure up arguing with you though. Just actually point out weaknesses in his game other than just saying he sucks and will never get better at things all QBs get better at.

First off all, I don’t care who’s the QB next year, this argument still holds, whether it be Mills or a rookie. With that being said, as I was watching the QB School’s breakdown on Mills’ game vs the Eagles (you can watch it here https://youtu.be/6SYCadqgCR0), I realized that some of these minute details are something a veteran would be able to point out before it ever gets to the field on GameDay. We knew Mills had a lot to learn, moreso than your average rookie given his lack of experience. I think an older vet who’s BEEN A STARTER can help with these small details that have a big impact. I’m not talking about a Kyle Allen or Driskel. I’m talking a Matt Schuab, Joe Flacco type of guy… Or McCown ducks. But in all seriousness Pep and Ted can only do so much. A veteran QB coaching up our young guys would actually give more detail from a perspective of actually being on the field. Hope we can find that guy this off season. As far as roster moves, you can either drop Driskel or find another QB coach with the same qualifications I mentioned before. I’ve seen some people complain about Ted White getting the job already.

TLDR; Texans should find an older vet who’s started and had some success to help our young QB/s progress as it helps to have relevant perspective.

I know it’s been frustrating watching some aspects of the Texans this year but stepping back and looking at the picture, we’re still in a good spot. As of now we’re picking #1 overall and it’s almost IMPOSSIBLE for us to blow it. It doesn’t matter if you’re backing Mills or hoping for a new QB, Caserio has so many ways he can play this. He could give Mills another year, trade back (or take Anderson/Carter etc.) and build the team further, he could take Young, which is risky because of his size but ultimately he’s going to be a baller when healthy, or he could take Stroud. I’ve been a bit hard on CJ because it’s hard to evaluate him given the situation. He doesn’t really show much processing or anticipation but his accuracy is top notch and he can still run/throw on the run effectively. I think he would actually translate well going into a Pep system, given that we give him weapons. Regardless of what Caserio does, it’s almost impossible to screw this up badly. The one thing he MUST do is get the QB a WR core that can compete. The front 7 can be built sure but right now you have a QB situation in which they MUST have help around them to develop, whether it’s Mills, Young or Stroud. I still believe JSN in or Addison are the best options. Just walk away with some offensive skill players and WE WILL BE FINE.

First off, the offense is so devoid of talent and it’s showing week after week. It makes it hard to evaluate Pep and Mills because there’s only so little that they can even do. With that said, this isn’t really a post to defend anyone. What we’re being forced to watch is inexcusable. You can’t call yourself the Texans, representing a football state, and play like that. It’s been 20 years and it’s almost an insult to Texas. But all this is to say that Caserio must learn a valuable lesson and that is that you can’t waste time building up a team with washed veterans. You need to get aggressive about finding young talent and seeing what sticks.

When draft time comes, if I were Nick, I’d focus on building this team up on both sides of the ball. We’ll be picking top 3 more than likely. I’d say you have 2 options-

1. Select Will Anderson if he’s truly worth it or
2. Auction off the pick for more picks. This can be used to either add more weapons or trade up next year for an elite QB prospect like Williams.

I have no idea why anyone would want a project QB or QB who doesn’t show translating skills when you have Williams, Ewers and even Young as options. However idc who you had at QB today, not one of them is getting anything done with that supporting cast. They were downright terrible. OL let defenders into the backfield on almost every play, WRs couldn’t get open, play calling was terrible. That leads to my next point:

This coaching staff ain’t getting it done. I understand Lovie has limited talent to work with but it’s been so abysmal and it’s clear Lovie was never Nick’s guy. I’d clean house on both Lovie and Pep. I’m not sure if he still wants Gannon or someone else but now that you’ve got pieces in the secondary, reset the cap and have plenty capital draft wise, go get your guys for the coaching staff. Argue about Mills all you want, idrc the team building needs to be better otherwise you’ll kill every QBs career that comes here.

I think this offense can actually be a lot better if and when Mills learns to multitask going through progressions and managing pocket presence. There has been progression each week in his pocket presence, which is why we’re seeing less and less panicky throws with bad accuracy. Still not 100% but at least he’s hanging in the pocket now and setting his feet more often which has led to an increase in accuracy. Now he has to learn to not be a statue while going through his reads. At that point, I think Pep will unlock more in the passing game beyond this quick game we’re seeing. All a matter of if Mills can learn this in time or not. As I’ve said before, he’s not making bad throwing decisions but moreso leaving too much on the table. If he learns this, he’ll be able to make those throws more consistently. But first he has to also stop hesitating. Praying he gets all this down because I still believe he could be the guy if he does before the end of the season.

I think this offense can actually be a lot better if and when Mills learns to multitask going through progressions and managing pocket presence. There has been progression each week in his pocket presence, which is why we’re seeing less and less panicky throws with bad accuracy. Still not 100% but at least he’s hanging in the pocket now and setting his feet more often which has led to an increase in accuracy. Now he has to learn to not be a statue while going through his reads. At that point, I think Pep will unlock more in the passing game beyond this quick game we’re seeing. All a matter of if Mills can learn this in time or not. As I’ve said before, he’s not making bad throwing decisions but moreso leaving too much on the table. If he learns this, he’ll be able to make those throws more consistently. But first he has to also stop hesitating. Praying he gets all this down because I still believe he could be the guy if he does before the end of the season.

1. I lied. Mills actually did seem to make some progress in that he actually stayed in the pocket without getting skiddish every snap and not only that but he actually stepped up into the collapsing pockets and threw comfortably. It may not mean much to y’all because on the surface the offense still stinks and Mills is the leader of it but this has been one of my BIGGEST critiques of Mills. He’s still a little skiddish but looks to be getting better at handling it. I’m back to giving him till week 9 before my full evaluation begins unless I see regression in this area.

2. Mills needs to be more decisive in general. Too much hesitation in some of his throws, to much shuffling of the feet still, and he just seems to not look confident. Also he needs to be more decisive about when and where he runs outside the pocket. He hesitated a few times and got sacked because of it. His pocket vision doesn’t seem to be that good. He needs to start feeling the pocket better and assessing what’s going on around him more while still looking down field. MULTITASK!

3. Some serious questionable calls out of Pep with the shovel pass to Rex on 3rd and long(he doesn’t have the speed…just why???) which was nicely designed and executed but wrong situation and definitely wrong personnel. Also there was a rollout PA and idk if Mills was supposed to keep the ball and run, throw it or what but leaving an unblocked defender coming at Mills with no quick option to dump it off is asking for disaster. Mills can run if he has space but he’s not going to run through guys and he’s not making them miss head to head. Strange play there.