With the Houston Texans falling to 1-4 on the season this past Sunday, and with the upcoming three games including a road game in the division, and two games against Arizona and the Los Angeles Rams (two of the best teams in football), it's not out of the question that the Texans will be 1-7 in just a few weeks. In fact, that's the heavy favorite right now, as the Texans are a 10 point underdog this weekend to the WORST of those three opponents, the Colts.

As the season continues to slide into the abyss, the number of intriguing Texans storylines would logically dwindle, as well, to where the "Who starts at quarterback the rest of the season?" is one of the few compelling talking points. Right now, rookie Davis Mills is coming off his best start as a pro, a 312-yard passing performance against the Patriots. He will start at least one more game this weekend, as Tyrod Taylor continues to recover from a hamstring injury in Week 2.

It would seem that if Mills continues to show signs of life, but the team's record continues to plummet, playing Mills would make a lot of sense to (a) get him some experience, and (b) get a clear evaluation on him before the draft next spring, where the team could presumably select a better young quarterback. Taylor is 32 years old, and even if he plays well, he is not the future. If nothing else, he is only on a one-year contract.

So, with those nuances in mind, Seth Payne and I had Texans general manager Nick Caserio on our show yesterday on SportsRadio 610, and we asked him about the possibility of Taylor taking back his starting position when he comes back from his hamstring injury:

“When Tyrod is ready to go, whenever that is, we’ll assess the situation, and we’ll ultimately make the decision that we feel is the best for our team. Going into before he was hurt, or up until the point he was hurt, Tyrod had played well. He played really well, actually. So, things change and we’ll take it one day at a time and then we’ll make the decision we feel is best, and we’re not going to predetermine anything, not doing anything until we get in that position.”

Here is the audio of that response:
So Caserio, in typical fashion, left the door open for all options. Oddly enough, just three hours later, though, head coach David Culley was asked the same question in his Wednesday media availability and took a much more stark, direct approach to handling Taylor's return:

“When Tyrod comes back and he’s healthy, he’s our starting quarterback,”

You can hear the extended version of the exchange with the media here, in which, among other things, Culley says he doesn't think players who get injured should lose their starting jobs due to the injury. In other words, they should stroll right back into their starting roles, which is ironic, considering his boss was in the building in New England in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe got hurt, was replaced by some dude named Tom Brady, and never saw his starting job ever again (Brady went on to become the greatest player who ever lived.):
For what it's worth, if the results of this poll are any indicator, Culley's decision to start Taylor would, as of right now, be the more popular decision:

#Penderpoll … for #Texans fans … if Tyrod Taylor is healthy enough to play next Sunday vs Indy, who should start at QB next Sunday?

VOTE:

— Sean Pendergast (@SeanTPendergast) October 10, 2021

In the end, my main takeaway here has less to do with the two quarterbacks, and more to do with the head coach taking cues from his general manager. Either the two of them have not thoroughly discussed one ofthe most crucial topics for the balance of the season, or, more likely, Culley was much more forthcoming than his general manager would like him to be.

Listen to Sean Pendergast on SportsRadio 610 from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. weekdays. Also, follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/SeanTPendergast and like him on Facebook at facebook.com/SeanTPendergast.