I never thought I would post something like this! After the Houston Texans’ heartbreaking first half performance against the New England Patriots in the divisional round yesterday, many across the country and on the Internet used halftime to propose a major second-half adjustment: benching quarterback C.J. Stroud in place of Davis Mills. You know things wouldn’t go well for the starters if this happened in the playoffs, but it’s not like a lot of people were overreacting; heading into halftime, Stroud had thrown four interceptions, one for a touchdown, and had missed multiple passes due to overthrowing or undershooting receivers. Still, Houston trailed by just 11 points at halftime and remained dynamic in the game, so many viewers, both at home and on ESPN’s halftime show, viewed the break as an opportunity to switch from Stroud to Mills:
In the end, Texans head coach Demeco Ryans chose to keep Stroud in the second half. His performance would be slightly better, but it was not enough to give the Rockets a chance to comeback in the fourth quarter.
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Reigns was asked about his decision to keep Stroud in the post-fight press conference, saying:
“CJ [Stroud] It’s our people. I believe…he can come back in the second half and turn the game around. I believed he could play better, and he did in the second half, and he did play better. We made some positive moves in the second half… As I always tell our players at halftime, it doesn’t matter what happened in the first half. We have to flush it, remove it, and then you just go out and do it the right way. And, I tell you, we’ve been through this before, we’ve been through scarier situations than this, but we were able to bounce back, so, you know, in my mind, there was never a doubt in my mind that we couldn’t overcome it. ” —Demeco Rains
You almost wonder if Ryans was recalling the Texans’ miraculous fourth-quarter comeback against the Jaguars when he said “…we were in a scarier situation than this, but we were able to bounce back…” when Davis Mills was the starter…
Regardless, Ryans clearly believed Stroud was the leader to get the Texans back on track, but his poor accuracy continued into the second half, ultimately dooming the team to a slow death in the fourth quarter. So, should the Texans bench CJ Stroud? Well, looking purely at the statistics, it would be easy to conclude that Stroud is no longer popular. But will Davis Mills give Houston a better chance at a comeback? Well, let’s take a look at the 2025 regular season numbers for both players. I separated Stroud’s stats before and after he suffered the concussion in Week 9 against the Denver Broncos so we could determine how he performed with Mills as QB1:
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CJ STROUD Pre-Concussion Stats (Weeks 1-9):
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161 Cmp, 242 Att (66.5%)
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1,702 yards, 11 touchdowns, 5 interceptions
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29 rushing attempts for 189 yards
CJ Stroud’s stats since returning from concussion (Weeks 13-18):
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112 Cmp, 181 Att (61.9%)
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1,339 yards, 8 touchdowns, 3 interceptions
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19 rushing attempts for 20 yards and 1 touchdown.
Davis Mills Statistics (Weeks 5, 9-12, 18)
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91 Cmp, 159 Att (57.2%)
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915 yards, 5 touchdowns. 1 interception
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13 carries for 60 yards and 1 touchdown.
Overall, Stroud’s statistics before and after his concussion were similar. However, when watching replays of the game, Stroud appeared to make decisions quicker upon his return than before. Additionally, Stroud appears to be more comfortable in the pocket and more accurate downfield since his return. There’s no doubt that Trent Brown’s promotion to the starting RT job in Week 10 and Stroud’s choice to throw the ball more to wide receiver Nico Collins in the second half of the season contributed to his higher Y/A stats and lower sack rate.
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However, Davis Mills did more than an admirable job as the interim quarterback when Stroud went down. Mills had to win to keep the Texans alive, and he did. In fact, he was the passer who started a trend of heavily targeting Nico Collins, whom Stroud had only used sparingly before his concussion. Mills has always liked to target Collins and did so well once again in his brief starting time. Mills even started showing signs of connecting with rookie wide receiver Jaden Higgins against the Jaguars and Bills, using his anticipation and accuracy to pass passes downfield. However, those successes were short-lived for Mills, as the first half of the Jaguars game and the second half of the Bills game proved, it was only a matter of time before opposing defenses shut him down completely. To make matters worse, Mills also makes this mistake:
Now, this was Davis Mills’ only interception of the season, so he was able to keep his game-changing mistakes to a minimum…unlike Stroud, who was more error-prone at the end of the year. Stroud did take a lot of noteworthy shots this season, but also made some more catastrophic mistakes than Mills did, which was an unexpected regression in Stroud’s game. While relatively clean against the Chiefs and Colts, Stroud has been spectacular against the Steelers and Patriots, throwing more interceptions in the past two weeks than he had in the previous six weeks.
Maybe he’s developed a gunslinger mentality, or maybe he just doesn’t see the field coming. Whatever the reason, these poor performances were enough to keep Stroud on the bench when Houston’s defense was so good that they could almost win the game on their own. So while Davis Mills provides the highs, he might look like a more attractive option just to avoid the lows of those ugly turnovers we all saw last night:
Is C.J. Stroud to blame for Houston’s loss last night, or would they have suffered the same loss if Davis Mills had played? It’s worth noting that Nico Collins and Trent Brown both missed yesterday’s game, and Mills looked lukewarm when he was called up midway through Week 9’s game against the Denver Broncos, so there’s no guarantee he’ll look much better when he takes the field at halftime last night. One thing he might avoid, however, is a turnover, which might be the only improvement Houston needs to beat New England and reach the franchise’s first conference championship game.
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But what do you think? Should DeMeco Reigns bench C.J. Stroud in favor of Davis Mills, or is he right to stick with the starting lineup? Even without Nico Collins or TE Dalton Schultz, can Mills pull off a spectacular fourth-quarter comeback like he did against the Jaguars? Better yet, should Houston continue to invest in C.J. Stroud now that the season is over, or is it now time to “cut the bait”? I want to see all the opinions below about C.J. Stroud because I know there are a lot of fans on both sides of the aisle. Are you “Team CJ Stroud” or “Team Davis Mills”? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Come on Texans! ! !
