{"id":631224,"date":"2025-12-27T00:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/631224\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T00:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T00:09:18","slug":"teams-eyeing-malik-willis-in-2026-free-agency-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/631224\/","title":{"rendered":"Teams eyeing Malik Willis in 2026 free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler<\/a>, there are \u201cseveral teams\u201d already keeping tabs on Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis going into next year\u2019s free agency period. Willis is in the final year of his rookie contract, and Willis\u2019 price tag is expected to be in the $5 million to $8 million range<\/a>, though that number was calculated before last week, when he posted a 142.8 passer rating.<\/p>\n

Willis is expected to start on Saturday for the Packers, as preferred starting quarterback Jordan Love did not pass through concussion protocol this week.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s what Fowler had to say about Willis:<\/p>\n

Speaking of Willis, he\u2019s a very intriguing free agent to watch next spring. He was the 86th pick in the 2022 draft, which means he\u2019s playing on the fourth and final year of his rookie deal. He is 26 years old and has now spent basically two full seasons being coached by Matt LaFleur, Adam Stenavich and the Packers\u2019 offensive coaching staff, and he has played well when he has had to fill in for Love because of injury. As we discussed above, there are a lot of teams that are going to be in the QB market this offseason. Not all of them will be able to address the position via the draft, and several have their eyes on Willis as a potential solution given what he has been able to do in Green Bay. The Packers like him a lot and could try to keep him, but if he has a chance to go somewhere else and compete for a starting job, that might be tough to do.<\/p>\n

The point about the draft is interesting because of how few underclassmen quarterbacks have declared. This was never going to be a deep class of senior passers, but the assumption was that the underclassmen would help bump the class up.<\/p>\n

So far, South Carolina\u2019s LaNorris Sellers, USC\u2019s Jayden Maiava, Cincinnati\u2019s Brandan Sorsby, Texas\u2019 Arch Manning and Duke\u2019s Darian Mensah have all decided to go back to school<\/a>. The only underclassman who seems to be a lock to declare this year is Indiana\u2019s Fernando Mendoza, the Heisman winner who is likely to go first overall.<\/p>\n

Without the underclassmen (and Mendoza), here are the top-200 ranked quarterback prospects, according to the consensus draft board<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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#1 Fernando Mendoza, Indiana<\/p>\n

#47 Garrett Nuzzmeier, LSU (coming off injury)<\/p>\n

#87 Cade Klubnik, Clemson<\/p>\n

#104 Drew Allar, Penn State (coming off injury)<\/p>\n

#192 Taylen Green, Arkansas<\/p>\n

There\u2019s going to be more demand in the NFL than just four healthy quarterbacks in this draft cycle. That will probably help Willis\u2019 camp at the negotiating table when numbers really start to fly around at the combine in February.<\/p>\n

Also, Fowler mentioned that the Packers believed that Love was going to earn a Pro Bowl honor this year, even though he was left off for the Cowboys\u2019 Dak Prescott, the Rams\u2019 Matthew Stafford and the Seahawks\u2019 Sam Darnold. Had Love made the Pro Bowl, he would have been paid an extra $250,000 by the team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to ESPN\u2019s Jeremy Fowler, there are \u201cseveral teams\u201d already keeping tabs on Green Bay Packers backup quarterback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2072],"tags":[15905,615,5385,2037,227,1370,1800,3619,7,41,345,2514,2513,6388,1724,4097,32,216,6,428,195,1878,238,20703,10957],"class_list":{"0":"post-631224","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-bay-packers","8":"tag-adam-stenavich","9":"tag-arch-manning","10":"tag-cade-klubnik","11":"tag-carson-beck","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-dak-prescott","14":"tag-drew-allar","15":"tag-fernando-mendoza","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-green-bay","18":"tag-green-bay-packers","19":"tag-greenbay","20":"tag-greenbaypackers","21":"tag-jeremy-fowler","22":"tag-jordan-love","23":"tag-malik-willis","24":"tag-matthew-stafford","25":"tag-miami","26":"tag-nfl","27":"tag-packers","28":"tag-rookie-contract","29":"tag-sam-darnold","30":"tag-seahawks","31":"tag-taylen-green","32":"tag-the-packers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115788628923718287","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}