The Josh Innes Show - Texans QB Controversy?

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

I get that Davis Mills is playing well. But, there is no Texans QB controversy. We've got DeMeco Ryans reaction to the question about that topic. That said, could a controversy be brewing? Let's discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All right. So more on the Texans here. We talked about the playoff positioning. They're in it. There's no like, you know, like maybe sort of kind of. You are in it for as far as a playoff spot. You're essentially controlling your own destiny. And now you're controlling your own destiny possibly for the division. Like it is crazy to think. I know I keep saying it's wild, weird and wacky that this is where we are. But we are. You know, the Texans were out of sight, out of mind for me for most of this year. Like they haven't been very good. CJ hasn't been very good. There's nothing about them that I've watched and enjoyed. The fan base has been checked out, all that. Crowd was into it last night, man.

It was loud. And it wasn't just Buffalo people either. Like, give the Houston people credit, man. You would have expected it to be big and filled because of Buffalo? That wasn't the vibe last night. It felt pretty loud. And it didn't feel like it was all Buffalo people like it was legit. So, all right.

Let's get into that after these words. All right. So here's a headline from S.I. Davis Mills had classy response to the notion of a quarterback controversy or competition with C.J. Stroud. So let's see here. Let's see. All Mills has done is throw for 719 yards, five touchdowns and one interception and three starts, leading Houston to three straight victories, including a massive 2319 win over the bills. The Texans are now very much alive in the playoff race. After Thursday's win, Mills was asked if he views his solid play as an open audition. has an open audition for the job. Okay, so is it an open audition of sorts for a quarterback competition? And he answered this.

In my current situation, I don't think there's a competition. CJ's the starter for this team. I'm just doing everything I can to bring my best foot forward every day, make everyone else around me better, try to provide and play my role to my best ability when I get thrown in there. Look, you can say it's a classy response. It's the only response. What's Davis Mills going to do?

Like, who the fuck is Davis Mills? Like, what do you expect him to do? Like, do you think Davis Mills is going to roll up there and be like, let me tell you something. Like, cut a promo on C.J. Stroud. Like, listen here, let me tell you something mean, Gene about C.J. Stroud. Like, what are they going to do? Like, I like when people give people the, like, they give them credit for obvious things, right? Like, it is an obvious thing to step up to the podium and say, it's C.J. Stroud's job.

You're Davis fucking Mills. What's he going to do? Now, let me see here. This is audio of Domingo Ryan's. Domingo Ryan's when asked if C.J. Stroud is the starter when he is healthy. I haven't heard this, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and just assume that he's laughing at the notion that it does anybody else's job. We saw CJ on the field pregame. He notes on his future availability, and I guess is he the starter when he is healthy.

Ooh, look at you trying to come with that question. At the end, just drop in the – we'll see what happens. Now, C.J. It was great to see him back out there. He was back at practice. Just to see him back around the guys with a huge smile on his face, him feeling well. That's the most important thing. When our guys are in the concussion protocol, I just want to make sure they're healthy and they're well. So that's the one thing I'm most happy to see that he's well. He's himself. So back to football. There you go. I'm all about that life. That is a solid. That's solid. Look, he is the starting quarterback, and that's not going to change. It's Davis fucking Mills. But when you look back on this and they write the story of this season, here's the hope. And I don't think that C.J. Stroud will view Davis Mills as some sort of competition

because big picture, Davis Mills is not a serious competition. He's not a serious competitor. We know he's not a serious competitor for the job because if he were, he would have had the starting job. So he's not. We get that. the hope is that C.J. looks at this and goes, okay, now, let's rewind. Let's also not act like this has been an offensive explosion. They were down 19 points in the fourth quarter to Jacksonville and rallied.

It's a weird world when you're down 19. It totally changes the way the game has played. The defense approaches things differently. There are a lot of factors in there. So that's important to note. Okay, that's number one. number two they scored 16 points and had to win on a walk off against the Titans okay that's 16 points against the worst team in the NFL last night as good as it was and it was nice to see them rally they won the game 2319 he made the plays he had to make it's and they won okay so they've won the games they deserve credit for winning the games he deserves credit for steadying the ship because this season could be over if you would have told me three weeks ago it's CJ

who, by the way, hadn't played well, but if C.J. Stroud's brain is scrambled, and C.J. Stroud cannot play for three weeks. And in some of those games, you're going to face, you know, the Jaguars who are in above 500 team, and you're going to face the bills who are coming off for two losses and desperate. And you're not going to win those games, and we're not even talking about Davis Mills. So the fact that Davis Mills won those games, credit. Good for Mills. but and I understand the idea of the drama I understand the idea of talking about it I understand that it makes for nice talk but this is not a real quarterback thing this isn't like ooh they drafted a guy and he's waiting in the wings and he came in and played his

balls off you know it would be like like a more realistic situation and it's one that came to fruition what we saw it in Houston right when Tom Savage at the beginning of I guess it would have been the rookie season for Deshawn and they didn't start Deshawn. Tom Savage started, got mangled in the end zone and was like convulsing and was going to die. And then Deshawn came in at halftime. That was against the Jaguars, I believe was that season opener. And he came out and the rest was history. Deshawn was the guy up until he started getting jerked off all the time.

He was the dude. Or at least it got caught jerking or getting jerked off. So he was the dude. But like you knew that Tom Savage wasn't the dude. You knew that Deshawn Watson was the dude. It was just a matter of when the dude was going to take over, right? Or look at this year, in New York with the Giants. So the Giants have a quarterback room that had Rusty Wilson, who was our other guy?

We had, well, Jamis, obviously, you had multiple dudes that were in the quarterback room, and you drafted a quarterback. You knew it was only going to be a matter of time for a guy to come in, right? So then they bring in, due to injuries and poor play, they finally decide to play Jackson Dart. Jackson Dart takes the job, doesn't lose the job until he gets hurt. That's not what this scenario is. This is not a, well, we've got this guy waiting in the wings and he can be a real competitor. But there is some real here. And the real is that the offense has not been good with C.J. Stroud.

The other real is that C.J. Stroud hasn't really been good for the last two years. He had a great first year. Second year has been, was fine, ups, ups, downs, whatever, kind of tailed off at the end. started, it actually started slow in year two. And this year he's never been C.J. Stroud. We haven't seen like that dude again. And you wonder if he's ever going to be that dude again. But at this point, he's your that dude.

He's your guy. So there is no Davis Mills is going to be the guy or could win the job. But let's say he's won three in a row, slinging the ball around. Again, look at the numbers for Davis Mills too. Like the numbers do matter. The numbers do tell a story. The results of these games tell a story as well. he won the game

and he won three of them and that's important but you look at the numbers again you barely beat the Titans who are the worst team in the league got through for 274 numbers were solid it's a 1613 game and it's also a situation where you had zero points at halftime of that game so you're trailing you start to sling the ball around

a little bit same thing against Jacksonville extremely slow start against Jacksonville you know he comes in slings the ball around a little bit throws for 300 yards the numbers are sexy. Make no mistake about it. The numbers are big. He threw for only 153 last night, but the numbers are sexy. But not sexy enough to say, hey, the guy that we might invest a shit ton of money in to be our future and our franchise, that we're going to bench him for this. But if Stroud comes in and you're playing poorly and that defense doesn't feel like

they're getting that complimentary game, which is vital in this, if they're not getting that complimentary. Right now, they feel like they're bowling out defensively. And because of the fact they're bawling out defensively. They're able to feel like, hey, our offense is going to do some stuff for us. If they get to that point, it's kind of like in Philly. I guarantee you the Eagles defense despises the offense, hates them, because the Eagles defense is nasty. Their front is nasty. Everything about the Eagles defense is gross. Like they are a great defensive football team. They are a mediocre to bad offensive team. And that's when you start to deal with those issues, right? You start to deal with, hey, we're doing everything we can. We're out here

crushing. And this jagoff over here, these guys aren't getting the job done. If it gets to that point with the Texans who are now in the race, it's one thing when you're, you know, 0 and 3 season looks like it's falling apart, you have no hope. When you've won 6 of 8 and you're in the playoff race and you've got games coming up for the next couple of weeks against teams that you need to beat to get into the postseason. Imagine what happened. Imagine what happens if they beat the Colts next week. I mean, shit. But anyway, you could start seeing that kind of divisiveness

because Davis Mills has steadied this thing and the offense has looked very good in stretches. Nico is getting more involved. Like, that's the other thing I look at and go, like you got this star player, you got Nico. And the guys out there making plays, now he's putting up big numbers. Jane Higgins is putting up

big numbers. It's interesting. At this point, it's not a controversy. C.J. comes back. He slings it. if he struggles and the chirping gets a little louder because now people are believing. Again, it's one thing if you're three and six or five and six or four and seven or whatever and it's over. Now you're in it and now you're hot. Now you're dangerous. What do you do?

And that'll be interesting. More to come.