There are questions aplenty surrounding the Houston Texans quarterback room, which currently consists of Deshaun Watson, Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Finley and rookie draft pick Davis Mills.
With rookie minicamp set to start Thursday for the Texans and most of the NFL, Houston general manager Nick Caserio believes his QB room is right where everyone else's is, despite the uncertainty surrounding Watson, who's currently facing 22 civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault and misconduct.
"We're all at the same point, essentially," Caserio said Monday at the Houston Texans Charity Golf Classic, via team transcript. "We're early in the offseason program. It's a teaching time of year. So, the next phase will be Phase Two, so that will entail some other things. Again, we'll take it one step at a time. We're not going to put any unreasonable expectations on anybody. It's kind of a waste of everybody's time. It's how do they improve? Can they make adjustments? What do they do one day? OK, can they stack multiple days together? Look, they're going to have setbacks. You're going to go out there, you're going to have a bad play. OK, how do you respond to that? Can you make the adjustment? Do you understand why that happened? Those are the types of things right now that are really important."
Prior to the more than 20 lawsuits filed against Watson, the three-time Pro Bowl quarterback requested a trade and took an already tumultuous Texans offseason to another level. Since then, Houston acquired veteran journeyman Taylor via free agency and traded for former Bengals QB Finley. However, it was the selection of Stanford's Mills in the third round of the 2021 ąú˛úÍâÁ÷ÍřDraft that opened the most eyes, likely because it potentially portends to the Texans putting in place a plan for a QB of the future.
Nonetheless, Caserio downplayed any excitement to see Mills in particular, though seeing how the Cardinal product performs in rookie camp or anywhere else will be a particular point of offseason storyline interest.
"I think we're eager to see everybody," Caserio said when asked how eager he was to see Mills hit the field. "You've got to be careful going out there watching one throw and making a judgment off of like, guy made a great throw, he looked good today. Honestly, I don't even know what that means. Again, it's about stacking days on top of each other and just having a good series of days, weeks, months and then by the end of let's call it minicamp or whenever that is that they actually have something in place to feel confident so when they go out there in training camp, they can actually go out there and perform at whatever capacity they can."
Mills brings promise and the uncertainty that goes with having played in just 14 college games.
In Caserio's mind -- or at least words -- there is no pressure for Mills to perform in a hurry as the QB has a timeline just the same as any Texan.
"No different than any other player," Caserio said of the timeline of bringing along the first-year signal-caller. "Bring him in, teach him our system, teach him our terminology, take it one step at a time."
One step at a time seems to be the theme for how the Texans are going to and essentially have to handle their quarterback situation.
As for Caserio's expectations of what will happen, that it seems will remain hidden in all the right answers.
"We're just glad that we have the players that we have in the building," Caserio said.
