{"id":779927,"date":"2026-02-27T13:28:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779927\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T13:28:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:28:23","slug":"dolphins-would-be-risking-it-all-on-malik-willis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/779927\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins would be risking it all on Malik Willis"},"content":{"rendered":"

You wonder whether Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley<\/a> are willing to risk it all on Green Bay quarterback Malik Willis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because that\u2019s what they\u2019d be doing if they sign the 26-year-old Willis, who they know from their two years together in Green Bay, to a multi-year free-agent contract.<\/p>\n

Sullivan<\/a> and Hafley would be risking everything from owner Steve Ross\u2019 money to Sullivan\u2019s vow to \u201cinfuse competition\u201d into the quarterback room.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d be risking their credibility with Dolphins fans if Willis wasn\u2019t an instant hit. Worse, they could be risking the entire rebuild.<\/p>\n

Frankly speaking, Sullivan and Hafley would be putting their reputations on the line by signing Willis, who has never been a full-time starter.<\/p>\n

Willis, at a smallish 6-foot-1, 225 pounds, only has six games of starting experience in four seasons: two with Tennessee, which made him a third-round pick in 2022 and a backup behind Ryan Tannehill and Will Levis, and two in Green Bay, where he was a backup to Jordan Love.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not exactly a Who\u2019s Who list of starting quarterbacks that Willis couldn\u2019t beat for the No. 1 job.<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, Willis would be installed as Miami\u2019s starter if he signed with the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

Common sense says if you sign a quarterback to, say, a three-year, $80 million deal, which roughly what Willis will command, he\u2019s your starter. Period.<\/p>\n

Further, common sense says no, there wouldn\u2019t be training camp competition.<\/p>\n

And to think it was only Tuesday when Sullivan remarked at the NFL Scouting Combine that his job is to \u201cinfuse competition\u201d into the quarterback room.<\/p>\n

Willis is the no-brainer starter if he signs with the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

If Willis doesn\u2019t start, the Dolphins could be spending close to $100 million for non-starting quarterbacks next season \u2014 Tua Tagovailoa (if they cut him and give him a post-June 1 designation) and Willis (if he\u2019s on the bench as a backup).<\/p>\n

It would be a bad look on a few levels.<\/p>\n

It would be bad financially, obviously, to be spending around $92 million on two quarterbacks in 2026, and neither is your starter.<\/p>\n

It also wouldn\u2019t speak well for the new regime\u2019s judgement, signing a quarterback who lost a training camp competition for the starting job to a multi-year contract.<\/p>\n

And it would be the organization\u2019s second consecutive questionable quarterback contract (after Tua).<\/p>\n

Looking at the bright side of things, Sullivan and Hafley could be deemed geniuses if they sign Willis and he\u2019s the answer.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a possibility.<\/p>\n

Sullivan and Hafley have unique insight into Willis\u2019 skill set and mentality.<\/p>\n

They should know better than any others whether Willis, who is impressively agile, can do the job.<\/p>\n

And remember, Willis (105 of 155 in his career for 1,322 yards, six touchdowns, three interceptions and a 98.9 passer rating) doesn\u2019t have to be an All Pro-level quarterback. He can simply be timely and effective, such as Seattle\u2019s Sam Darnold, the reigning Super Bowl champ, or Philadelphia\u2019s Jalen Hurts, the Super Bowl champ from two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

It should go without saying that if the Dolphins sign Willis you\u2019d hope that Sullivan and Hafley would be smart enough to build around him. The Dolphins failed to do that with Tannehill and Tua. Instead, they thought their head coaches could magically turn those quarterbacks into Hall of Famers and the franchise ended up wasting the vast majority of those years.<\/p>\n

You know my feelings on the Dolphins acquiring Willis. I think it\u2019d be a bad idea<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, if Sullivan and Hafley think differently, that\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m guessing they\u2019re well aware that they\u2019d be staking their reputations on Willis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You wonder whether Dolphins general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley are willing to risk it all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2049],"tags":[217,7,929,216,251,2087,6,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-779927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-dolphins","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-miami","12":"tag-miami-dolphins","13":"tag-miamidolphins","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116142834241373299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779927","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=779927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/779927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=779927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=779927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=779927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}