HOUSTON — When Tyrod Taylor signed with the Houston Texans in March, it appeared to be the perfect marriage between the two parties.
Taylor was in need of a home to prolong his career after losing the starting quarterback job to rookie Justin Herbert in Los Angeles, while the Texans were in pursuit of a placeholder under center with Deshaun Watson requesting a trade just two months prior.
Since his arrival, coach David Culley has remained adamant about Taylor retaining his role as Houston’s starting quarterback, until Sunday’s 31-0 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
“When you don’t score in a ball game, you evaluate everything,” Culley said during his post-game press conference. “Our job for our quarterback is to get us into the end zone, and he did not do that today.”
Culley benched Taylor in favor of rookie quarterback Davis Mills at the 3:50 mark of the third quarter. Culley attributed Taylor’s premature exit due to a wrist injury, but his performance was atrocious.
At the time of the substitution, Taylor had completed five of his 14 pass attempts for 49 total yards. On the Texans’ first drive of the game, Taylor threw his fourth interception of the season in an attempt to connect with wideout Davion Davis.
“I put Davis in the game when they told me he [Tyrod Taylor] could not grip the ball,” Culley said. “We will look at the whole situation. I have to look at the video to see what happened. I’ll look at when Tyrod was in there and then Davis, to see where do we go from here.”
When Taylor sustained a Grade 2 hamstring strain in September, Mills started six consecutive games for the Texans. Mills went 0-6 as Houston’s starting quarterback, but he did show signs of promise in a handful of games.
Mills’ best performance of the season took place during the Texans’ 25-23 loss to the New England Patriots, where the Stanford prodigy threw for a career-best 312 yards and three touchdowns.
