GREEN BAY — To be fair, the Malik Willis who arrived in late August 2024 in a trade with the Tennessee Titans was not the same Malik Willis who left last month to become the Miami Dolphins new starting quarterback. 

He may have been the same person, but he was not the same player.

Willis had nothing on his NFL résumé remotely as impressive as what he did during his two seasons as the Green Bay Packers’ backup behind Jordan Love. Rushed into game action prematurely and playing for an organization that has been a career-killer for more than one quarterback, nothing Willis did during his time with the Titans portended what he did in Titletown.

In 11 games and three starts with the Packers, Willis completed 70 of 89 passes (78.7%) for 972 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions (134.6 passer rating). He also ran 42 times for 261 yards (a 6.2-yard average) and three touchdowns while the Packers went 2-1 in the games he started.

“More than anything, in Tennessee, I kind of got thrown in the fire. I wouldn’t say I was ready yet,” Willis said late last season. “I hadn’t seen much, [it was] my first time being under center every single play. I didn’t do that in college, and just understanding the different type of defenses that you receive in the league versus in college [was challenging]. I just wasn’t ready at the time. I was still trying to just absorb it all.

“But that’s how the league works. Whatever you get put on tape, that’s who you are — regardless of if it’s a good showing or not.”

Now, Willis in South Florida — or Green Bay South, as Packers head coach Matt LaFleur is calling it given how many expats from northeast Wisconsin have relocated in Miami under general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley — and the Packers no longer have the best insurance policy in the NFL.

Instead, they’re looking for Malik 2.0 — and hoping that Desmond Ridder, an 17-game starter for the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 and 2023, can resurrect his career the way Willis did his.

A third-round pick out of Cincinnati in the 2022 NFL Draft — taken 12 picks before the Titans took Willis out of Liberty — Ridder completed 64% of his passes for 3,544 yards with 14 touchdowns and 12 interceptions (84.1 passer rating). The Falcons went 8-9 in those 17 starts, including a Week 2 win over the Packers in Atlanta in 2023.

“I think we all know how we felt about Malik and his ability to go out there and give us a chance to go win games. And he did exactly that,” LaFleur said after this past weekend’s draft wrapped up when asked about the process of finding Willis’ replacement.

“It’s a work in progress.”

Ridder’s time in Atlanta ended in March 2024 when the Falcons traded him in March 2024. Since then he’s spent time with five other teams — the Arizona Cardinals, who acquired him from Atlanta for wide receiver Rondale Moore; the Las Vegas Raiders; the Cincinnati Bengals; the Minnesota Vikings; and the Packers, who signed him to their practice squad last Dec. 31 and to their active roster on Jan. 6 in advance of their season-ending playoff loss to the Chicago Bears.

The Packers also signed former Philadelphia Eagles fifth-round pick Kyle McCord after the season, but given that they didn’t sign a free-agent quarterback when the market opened and didn’t draft a quarterback this past weekend would indicate the team is giving Ridder more than a puncher’s chance of winning the job.

For now, the Packers have three quarterbacks on their roster behind Love: Ridder, McCord and undrafted rookie free agent Kyron Drones, whom they agreed to terms with on Saturday — although it seems unlikely that Drones, the former starter at Virginia Tech, would come in and win the top backup job, given the way Gutekunst spoke of the position after the draft ended on Saturday.

He would much rather have Ridder, because Gutekunst understands the stakes when Love is sidelined.

The Packers would have missed the playoffs in 2024 had they not won the two early-season games Willis started — they also won a game at Jacksonville later in the year when Willis relieved Love after Love sustained a groin injury just before halftime — and while the Packers lost their Week 17 game against Baltimore in December when Willis started for Love (concussion), that game was lost by the defense, which surrendered 307 rushing yards to the Ravens.

“I’m excited about the competition in that room,” Gutekunst said after the draft concluded. “We’ll see if we add to it along the way. But it’s a really important thing for us.

“Jordan, the last two years, has missed some time and we’ve needed somebody to come in there and play at a high level to help win those games. So whoever’s called upon, we’re going to expect that.

“When you lose a guy like Malik, it is something you’re going to have to replace, and we’re going to try to do that.”

LaFleur said there is clear value in Ridder’s regular-season experience, which gives him a leg up on McCord and Drones, but that experience only goes so far.

“Anytime you’ve got guys that have put regular-season games on tape, I think that gives you a little bit of comfort,” LaFleur said. “But at the end of the day, it’s about how they acclimate themselves to your offense and just how they go out there and perform.”

For his part, Ridder got a head start on getting up to speed on the Packers’ offense, and he also ran a similar offense under Falcons coach Arthur Smith for two years in Atlanta. Smith and LaFleur worked together with the Titans, and Smith took over as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator in 2019 when LaFleur departed to become the Packers head coach.

“Obviously, just being able to be in here and get the playbook is a huge advantage,” Ridder said before the season ended. “It’s just about, when given the next opportunity, going out and taking advantage of it.”

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