PHOENIX \u2014 As the Miami Dolphins have brought in new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, coach Jeff Hafley and quarterback Malik Willis all from the Green Bay Packers, a reporter at NFL owners meetings referred to it as \u201cGreen Bay South\u201d to Packers coach Matt LaFleur.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I say, too,\u201d LaFleur quipped at the Arizona Biltmore on Monday morning. \u201cThey\u2019re taking everybody. What are they doing?\u201d<\/p>\n
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So, what is that Packers culture that Sullivan will bring with him from 22 years with the franchise and Hafley and Willis also picked up the last two seasons?<\/p>\n
\u201cI would just say it\u2019s just about bringing the right kind of character into the building, and then just move quick every day and try to get a little better each and every day,\u201d LaFleur said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Sully and Haf well, and I think they\u2019re going to do a great job over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
In that, LaFleur likes the prospects of Willis, his backup quarterback behind Jordan Love in Green Bay, as he now has an opportunity to start with Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say very high,\u201d he said of the chances of Willis being a successful starter. \u201cBut I think, too many times, you get into situations where it can\u2019t be all on the quarterback. You got to surround these guys with pieces. Nobody can do it by themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
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LaFleur assured that was merely a general statement, and he wasn\u2019t saying that\u2019s what\u2019s going on with the Dolphins, although it can be a fair criticism to say Willis doesn\u2019t have ample playmakers around him after Miami\u2019s trade of wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m not saying they have or have not,\u201d LaFleur said, \u201cbut I just think that has to be under consideration when you\u2019re talking about the evaluation of a quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willis still has speedy Pro Bowl running back De\u2019Von Achane in the backfield at this time, but before the draft, the Dolphins top wide receivers are free-agent additions Tutu Atwell and Jalen Tolbert and third-year slot receiver Malik Washington.<\/p>\n
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LaFleur looked back Monday on when the Packers first took him in in 2024 following two seasons where he couldn\u2019t crack the Tennessee Titans starting job after he was a touted draft prospect out of Liberty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen (Packers GM Brian Gutekunst) called and asked if I was interested, I said, \u2018Heck yeah,\u2019 because it\u2019s just hard to find a guy that athletic at that position,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cWe all saw what he did with his legs, but I think he\u2019s receptive to the coaching and he\u2019s shown a lot of growth in the passing game. Obviously, really talented thrower. He\u2019d surprise me sometimes with his accuracy, especially down the field. Certainly excited about his opportunity in Miami, and we\u2019re definitely missing him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willis is naturally a capable scrambler, but on the Packers scout team, he\u2019d often have to emulate pocket passers for the Green Bay defense during the practice week. It may have helped his development as a passer.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe still scrambled around,\u201d LaFleur said. \u201cEvery week was a little bit different. He did a great job of trying to play to kind of the look that we\u2019re going to get. But he got a lot of opportunities within, whether it was the offseason program or training camp, to play within our system. He did a hell of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n
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LaFleur lost Hafley as his previous defensive coordinator of the past two seasons after Hafley\u2019s four-year stint as Boston College coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll be outstanding,\u201d LaFleur said of Hafley as a first-time NFL head coach. \u201cHe is, No. 1, a great person. He\u2019s a great communicator, loves ball, loves people. And he\u2019s done it. He\u2019s been in the seat at BC. I think he did an outstanding job. He\u2019s a guy that I got a ton of respect for, a ton of love for. Certainly going to miss him, but I\u2019m happy for his opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 As the Miami Dolphins have brought in new general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan, coach Jeff Hafley and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[258,217,7,41,345,53734,4078,14706,8628,1071,6450,4097,3031,216,251,2087,6,394,7392],"class_list":["post-843330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-denver-broncos","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-green-bay","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-hafley","tag-jalen-tolbert","tag-jaylen-waddle","tag-jeff-hafley","tag-jordan","tag-malik-washington","tag-malik-willis","tag-matt-lafleur","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-nfl","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-tutu-atwell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843330","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=843330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}