GREEN BAY — Malik Willis is focused on the here and now. And while he’s not the first NFL player to claim that he’s living in the moment, the Green Bay Packers No. 2 quarterback is more convincing than most. 

Maybe that comes from the experience of having your promising career take unexpected and unwelcome twists and turns, and from knowing that for all the success he had last season with the Packers — let’s be clear, the Packers don’t make the playoffs without him — he still has a lot more to prove and accomplish.

So as he prepared to start Saturday’s second preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium — while starter Jordan Love recovers from surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left (non-throwing) thumb — he’s not about to obsess about whatever happens at Lucas Oil Stadium might mean for his long-term future.

“I try not to look too far ahead. I’m blessed enough to wake up today, so I try to focus on today and try not to look past it,” Willis said as he ran the No. 1 offense throughout the week following Love’s injury in last Saturday’s preseason opener against the New York Jets.

“You just don’t know the day you won’t wake up, so I try not to look too far forward and not let that get to me.”

If that approach is working for Willis, so be it. But after being acquired from the Tennessee Titans at the end of training camp last summer for a seventh-round pick, and then being thrust into the starting lineup when Love went down with a left knee injury in the closing moments of the Packers’ season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Brazil, the stakes for the 26-year-old Willis are high.

In the final year of the four-year, $5.16 million contract he signed with the Titans as a 2022 third-round pick from Liberty, Willis admits that he’d like another shot at being a full-time NFL starter after starting three games for the Titans as a rookie before getting caught in a regime change in Nashville.

The Titans went from taking Willis in 2022 to picking Will Levis in the second round in 2023 to taking Cam Ward as the No. 1 overall pick in April. Had he gotten the chance to sit and develop for awhile — like, say, Love did behind four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers — perhaps his career would have unfolded differently.

Instead, the Titans, who are now on their third general manager in four years, got what they could for Willis from the Packers — and it wound up being a season-saving trade for Green Bay.

Acquired on Aug. 27, Willis was starting against the Colts just 19 days later — having taken a crash course in head coach Matt LaFleur’s offense — and helping the Packers to a 16-10 win. The next week, he led them to a 30-14 victory over his former team in Tennessee.

“He came in last year and hit the ground running. He did a great job,” Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said this week. “I think where he sits now, having a full offseason with Matt and his staff, he’s certainly so much further along not only in his play but then just how he affects the room, as well. Really good addition to our quarterback room.”

Willis then came on in relief of an injured Love in a Week 8 win at Jacksonville, delivering a colossal on-the-money downfield throw to Jayden Reed to set up Brandon McManus’ game-winning walk-off field goal.

He finished last season having completed 74.1% of his passes for 550 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions (124.8 passer rating).

“I mean, if you ask me, it’s no way that this guy shouldn’t be starting somewhere. I mean, that’s just my opinion,” veteran running back Josh Jacobs said. “The way that I see him on a day-to-day basis, his attributes, the way he uses his mind and things like that, he’s a really good football player. We have the ultimate confidence in him.”

In last week’s 30-10 debacle against the Jets, Willis ran the No. 2 offense and completed 4 of 9 for 39 yards (57.2 rating) and lost a fumble on a sack in the end zone for a Jets touchdown. Against the Colts, he’ll again be working mostly with the backup unit — even though he’s set to start the game with Love sidelined — as LaFleur doesn’t plan on playing many if any starters.

“Just be you,” LaFleur replied when asked what he’s told Willis this week. “That’s really the expectation you have for everybody. You don’t have to do anything different. It’s not like he hasn’t been in this position.

“It’s great he’s had that experience with us of being ‘The Guy.’ Nothing really changes. The focus is on doing your job to do the best of your ability.”

The question now is whether Willis will get the chance to be ‘The Guy’ for someone else next season. The Packers would like to see him on the field only in mop-up duty in blowout wins, and while Love did endure multiple injuries last year, he started all 19 games (including playoffs) in 2023 in his first year as the starter.

Not that Willis is thinking that way, of course.

“I feel like we’ll see if an opportunity arises and I’m able to prove that. That’s just the way this league goes,” Willis said. “It’s a business. Some people are able to prove it for a long period of time, some people get three games as a rookie and that’s just the way it goes.

“So you just stay around until you get an opportunity and take advantage of it when you do. When my opportunity came here [last year], it was just awesome to get back out there again. And I’d say I put something on tape that might spark some interest.

“I definitely want the opportunity to get on the field. I like playing football and more than anything, just get the chance to utilize all the work that I’ve put in. So we’ll see what happens and focus on that when it gets here.”

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