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Davis Mills is a player that many scouts are going to disagree on. He was highly recruited out of high school and has the arm talent to play in the NFL, but didn’t play much in college. Injuries and COVID-19 didn’t help, but there is little doubt that he has some coaching up to do.
In three seasons at Stanford he played in 14 games, completing 287-of-438 pass attempts for 3,468 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions. In many ways, his lack of experience might actually help him, as a team could reach for him and his potential, but at this point, potential is all he has.
Scouting Report
At 6’4”, Mills has the look of your prototypical quarterback. He also can rifle the ball deep and outside the hashmarks with ease and his throwing motion is exactly what you want to see. But he does have plenty of problems that plague many young quarterbacks. He loves to heave the ball into poor coverage situations and is a turnover waiting to happen, for one.
He’ll need to learn to read defenses and get off his number one read with much better quickness and awareness than he’s shown. He has the building blocks of a good quarterback. If he had played three/four full seasons in college without showing more than he has, he’d be further down the draft rankings. But, his “rawness” will entice a team on taking a flier on him with the intent of molding him into an NFL quarterback.
Mock Draft landing spots
Amazingly, one NFL.com mock draft has Mills going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the 32nd pick in the NFL Draft. That might be the biggest reach in the mock draft world, but also shows you the worth of quarterbacks with arm talent. He will likely end up going in the third or fourth round to a team with an established starter.
Fantasy impact: Rookie year
It would be a miracle if Mills saw any snaps in his rookie year.
Fantasy impact: Career
He’s a longshot to be sure, but if a good quarterbacks coach like Pep Hamilton can get ahold of him, there is a chance he could develop into a starter. But until that happens, he’d need to land in a spot that has good longterm upside before I’d hold him on a dynasty team.