The Texans traded Deshaun Watson to the Browns last month, but they otherwise stayed out of the swap meet that sent starters flying around the league at the start of the offseason.
That leaves Davis Mills in line to start and nothing that head coach Lovie Smith said at the start of the team’s offseason program on Monday hinted at any second thoughts about going all in with the second-year player. Smith praised Mills for organizing workouts with his teammates over the last couple of months and working to recruit other players to come to Houston.
Smith went on to say that he is a “believer” in what Mills will be able to do now that he has a professional season under his belt.
“I believe in him, Pep Hamilton, second year in system, so many good things that he did. And that’s as a rookie. The improvement you see from year one to year two is normally a big improvement and that’s what we’re going to see from him,” Smith said.
The Texans have five of the first 80 picks in this year’s draft and Smith’s comments suggest that they’ll be used to build a team around Mills rather than on creating competition at the position heading into the summer.