Case Keenum‘s injury established some clarity for the Texans’ quarterback depth chart. Davis Mills will enter the season in the backup role, and despite C.J. Stroud having quickly usurped the two-year starter, Houston still has Mills in its plans.
The Texans and Mills have agreed to a one-year extension, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The former third-round pick’s contract is worth $5M in new money, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweets. This puts Mills in line with a host of veteran backups added in recent offseasons.
This $5M-per-year number matches where the Panthers and Broncos went for their 2023 backups (Andy Dalton, Jarrett Stidham), and the one-year, $5M comes in at the same rate the Giants gave Drew Lock this year. The Texans also jumped into the QB2 market last year, giving Keenum a two-year, $6.25M deal. While Mills’ guarantees are not yet known, the Texans are planning to keep at least one of their reserve QBs around beyond 2024.
Keenum’s deal expires after the season, and it will be interesting to see if Houston carries the pact on its IR throughout the year. A preseason foot injury will sideline Keenum for at least three months. The Texans placed the 36-year-old passer on season-ending IR last week. Keenum started both the games Stroud missed due to a concussion last season, but Mills — the team’s primary starter from 2021-2022 — received work as well.
Chosen 67th overall in 2021, Mills effectively became Houston’s placeholder while the team first dealt with the Deshaun Watson drama and then while it waited on picking a successor. The Texans traded Watson for a bounty of draft picks in 2022, but as that year did not bring a promising QB class, the team waited. Mills ended up making 26 starts from 2021-2022; bottom-tier Texans teams essentially playing out the string won just five of those games.
For his career, the Stanford alum is a 62.8 percent passer with a 35-to-25 TD-INT ratio. Mills has averaged 6.5 yards per attempt for his career; he led the league in INTs (15) in 2022 despite being benched for part of that season. The Texans chose Stroud in 2023 and then took calls on both Keenum and Mills. The team ended up liking its three-QB setup last year, but with Keenum out, it will count on Mills as the backup this season. Wednesday’s deal certainly points to Mills keeping that role into 2025 as well.
