Should CJ Stroud Have Been Benched Against the Patriots?

I never thought I would be making a post 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 across the internet used halftime to propose one major second-half adjustment: benching QB CJ Stroud for backup Davis Mills. You know things aren’t go well with the starter if this is happening in the middle of a playoff game, but this wasn’t really on overreaction by many; Entering halftime, Stroud had already thrown 4 interceptions, an interception returned for a touchdown, and missed multiple completions because of overthrowing or underthrowing his receivers. Despite all of that, Houston entered halftime only down 11 points and still very much alive in the game, so many spectators both at home and on ESPN’s halftime show saw that break as the opportunity to move away from Stroud and towards Mills:

Ultimately, Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans elected to stay with Stroud in the second half, where he would perform moderately better, but not well enough to give Houston a chance at a comeback in the fourth quarter.

Ryans was asked about his decision at the postgame press conference to keep Stroud in, stating,

“CJ [Stroud] is our guy. I believe…he can comeback out in the second half, and flip it. I believe that he can play better, and he did that in the second half, he did play better. We had some positive drives there in the second half…as I always tell our guys at halftime, it really-it doesn’t matter what happened in the first half. We have to flush it, remove it, and you just have to go out and finish the right way. And, I tell you, we’ve been there before, we’ve been in situations much more dire than this and we were able to bounce back so, you know in my mind, there was never a doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t be able to overcome it.” – DeMeco Ryans

You almost wonder when Ryans states “…we’ve been in situations much more dire than this and we were able to bounce back…” if he was reminiscing on the miraculous fourth-quarter comeback the Texans had against the Jaguars…when Davis Mills was the starter…

Regardless, Ryans clearly believed in Stroud as the leader who could get the Texans back on track, but his poor accuracy continued into the second half, where it ultimately doomed the team to a slow death in the fourth quarter. So, should the Texans have benched CJ Stroud? Well, looking purely at the statline, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Stroud had worn out his welcome. But, does Davis Mills give Houston a better chance at making a comeback? Well let’s look at both player’s stat lines for the 2025 regular season. I’ll split Stroud’s stats between the time before he suffered a concussion in week 9 against the Denver Broncos and after so we can determine how he performed after Mills had his time as QB1:

CJ STROUD STATS BEFORE CONCUSSION (WEEK 1-9):

• 8 Starts, 3-5 Record
• 161 Cmps on 242 Atts (66.5%) 
• 1702 Yards, 11 Touchdowns, 5 Interceptions
• 7.0 Y/A
• 93.4 Passer Rating
• 17 Sacks for 148 Yards
• 29 rushing attempt for 189 yards

CJ STROUD STATS AFTER RETURNING FROM CONCUSSION (WEEK 13-18):

• 6 Starts, 6-0 Record
• 112 Cmps on 181 Atts (61.9%)
• 1,339 Yards, 8 Touchdowns, 3 Interceptions
• 7.4 Y/A
• 92.3 Passer Rating
• 6 Sacks for 41 Yards
• 19 Rushing Attempts for 20 Yards, 1 Touchdown
• 2 Fumbles, 1 Recovered

DAVIS MILLS STATS (WEEK 5, 9-12, 18)

• 3 Starts, 3-0 Record
• 91 Cmps on 159 Atts (57.2%)
• 915 Yards, 5 Touchdowns. 1 Interception
• 5.8 Y/A
• 81.6 Passer Rating
• 8 Sacks for 60 Yards
• 13 Rushing Attempts for 60 Yards, 1 Touchdown
• 1 Fumble

Overall, similar statlines both before and after the concussion for Stroud. But, when watching replays of the game, it appears that Stroud was quicker to make decisions after returning than he was before. Additionally, Stroud seemed more comfortable in the pocket upon returning, and more accurate downfield. No doubt, Trent Brown’s elevation to the starting RT job in week 10 and Stroud’s election to spam the ball to WR Nico Collins more in the second half of the season contributed to his higher Y/A stat and lower sack rate.

Davis Mills, however, did more than just an admirable job as the interim QB when Stroud went down. Mills had to win out to keep the Texans alive, and he did just that. In fact, he was the passer that started the trend of heavily targeting Nico Collins, with Stroud only sparingly using Collins before the concussion. Mills has always loved targeting Collins, and excelled doing so again in his brief time starting. Mills even began to show a connection with rookie WR Jayden Higgins during his Jaguars game and the Bills game, using his anticipation and accuracy to layer passes downfield. But, those successes were short lived for Mills, and, as evidenced by the first half of the Jaguars game and the second half of the Bills game, it’s only a matter of time until the opposing defense completely shuts him down. Even worse, Mills can make mistakes like this, too:

Now, this was Davis Mills’ only interception during the season, so he was able to keep game-changing mistakes at a minimum…unlike Stroud, who was far more mistake prone to end the year. Stroud did make plenty more highlight-worthy throws this season, but also made several more disastrous mistakes than Mills, an unexpected regression in Stroud’s game. While playing relatively cleanly in the Chiefs and Colts games, Stroud was anything but against the Steelers and Patriots, having more interceptions in the last two weeks than he had in the previous six.

Maybe he’s developed a gunslinger mentality, or maybe he’s just not seeing the field as well. Whichever may be reason, these bad plays are enough to bench Stroud when Houston has a defense so good that they can nearly win games on their own. So, despite the highs he offers, Davis Mills may look like a more attractive option just to avoid the lows of those ugly turnovers we all saw last night:

Was CJ Stroud to blame for Houston losing last night, or would they have suffered equally as much if Davis Mills had come into the game? Is it worth noting that both Nico Collins and Trent Brown were unavailable for yesterday’s game, and Mills looked lukewarm at best when he was called upon halfway through the Denver Broncos game in week 9, so there’s no guarantee he would have looked much better stepping in at halftime last night. However, one thing he may have avoided is turnovers, and that might have been the only improvement Houston needed to defeat New England and move on to the franchise’s first conference championship game. 

What do you think, though? Should DeMeco Ryans have benched CJ Stroud in favor of Davis Mills, or was he right in sticking with the starter? Would Mills have been able to orchestrate a fantastic fourth quarter comeback like he did against the Jaguars, even without Nico Collins or TE Dalton Schultz? Better yet, now that the season is over, should Houston continue to invest in CJ Stroud, or is this the moment to “cut bait?” I wanna see all of the opinions on CJ Stroud below, because I know there’s plenty of fans on both sides of the aisle. Are you ““team CJ Stroud” or, “team Davis Mills?” Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!

Go Texans!!!