Aug. 14, 2026, 2:01 p.m. CT
Here is everything Houston Texans quarterback Davis Mills said after Thursday’s preseason 27-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, including what he saw out of wide receiver Jared Wayne, how he felt about his performance and what he has seen out of this rookie class. Question: On the growth of TE Marlin Klein
Davis Mills: “Marlin’s been great. Obviously put his head down and went to work since the minute he’s been in the building. He’s grown a lot since he’s been here. Obviously, a ton of raw talent.
We’re trying to keep developing him in the pass game and run blocking and everything scheme-related. When you see him flash as he does, especially on vertical routes down the field, he can take the top off of defenses and create mismatches all over the field with his size and speed. It was a big-time play getting him on that seam route we had early in the game.”
Q: On seeing a lot of game action in the first preseason game
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Mills: “First off, hate it for Graham [Mertz].
I’ve been there. I had some knee injuries in the past in high school and college. I’m wishing him the best. It’s a long road to get back to recovery and get back to normal.
He’s a good player, a great guy and I know he’ll come back stronger. Starting off with that. It’s the reality of the game. I wasn’t initially expecting to go back in, but something happens that’s out of your control, I want to go back in there and compete with my guys, my teammates, spread the ball around and let a lot of the young guys make plays and showcase themselves to try to make the roster.”
Q: On WR Jared Wayne
Mills: “’J-Wayne’s’ a stud. He’s been extremely consistent since he’s been here. I love throwing him the rock.
Another guy who creates mismatches with his size and his natural ability to go up and high point the ball. He’s a really easy target to throw to. When I saw that matchup, they were playing some sort of match coverage down there and I knew he had a runaway and I could kind of just put it up and let him go up and grab it and that’s exactly what he did.”
Q: On how he feels about his performance
Mills: “Obviously we didn’t get the result we wanted.
We want to go out there and play to win, but unfortunately we didn’t do that. I thought it was a positive. I thought process-wise, everything was done very efficiently and clean.
We were getting in and out of the huddle and communicating. Some plays just don’t execute or play out the exact way you want it to on the field.
Credit to the other guys on the Chargers for playing a good game and getting the win. It’s definitely a great learning opportunity to go out there and get live reps for all of our guys, myself included, and we’re looking forward to the next one.”
Q: On how comfortable he is in the offense in year two of the system
Mills: “It’s exciting to see where we’re at right now. Even comparing OTAs to where we were last season and last year during OTAs, it’s a night-and-day difference. Kind of getting to that graduate level of the offense with everyone really seeing what the objective of the play is.
Sometimes you’re calling something to set up something else and guys are really starting to make that click. Keep pushing similarities between plays, so it makes it hard for the defense to decipher what we’re actually going to get to. I think just being in the same scheme for a longer time makes everyone have more comfort and the recall process of putting in new plays throughout the season when you’re game planning, it clicks a lot faster so we can go out there and play fast. It’s exciting. Obviously, we’re not going to show everything we’re capable of in preseason. We’ll save that for Week 1 versus Buffalo, but it’s exciting, I think. We like what we have in this building, and we’re excited to see how it keeps evolving.”
Q: On whether there will be time for more game planning in the upcoming week
Mills: “I think too we have a crossover practice with them in the middle of next week.
We’ll get a lot of good reps during that. You’re able to game plan throughout the week. I think our practice schedule this week, we’re going to emulate our in season schedule. We’re going to start prepping our guys to get ready for what our schedule is going to be like so we can start building that rhythm and routine to come out and really just execute at a high level.”
Q: On what he has seen from the rookie class
Mills: “I think this is one of the best rookie classes I’ve been around, just the professionalism they carry themselves with, already building routines. A lot of them, kind of early on, were asking veterans to help them with the routines and kind of give them a game plan to be a professional in this league. A lot of them have really hit it in stride. It’s a good thing when you don’t really notice you’re out there playing with rookies.
They’re kind of just plug and play, and a lot of them are doing big things.”
