Former Vikings GM Rick Spielman is a big fan of Malik Willis

Spielman believes Willis is a special talent entering the NFL Draft.

Author:
Chris Schad
Publish date:
Apr 22, 2022 11:58 AM EDT

Spielman believes Willis is a special talent entering the NFL Draft.

Throughout his final season with the Minnesota Vikings, Rick Spielman was on the road scouting players, including quarterbacks. While reports surfaced that Spielman traveled to Nevada to scout Carson Strong, he may have found his favorite QB prospect when he scouted Malik Willis.

Spielman expressed his opinion on Willis in a video posted to Tik Tok on Thursday. In the video, Spielman says Willis can be a special player in the NFL. He began developing the opinion on a scouting trip to see him play against Syracuse last fall.

"I was there very early and when he came out of the tunnel the whole student section started yelling 'OVER-RATED! OVER-RATED!'," Spielman began. "I saw him turn toward that student section and start clapping with them. He just played to the fans. What you have seen through this draft process is that every time he gets to go on a big stage, it's never too big for him."

Willis continued to put on a show once the game began. He threw for 205 yards and three touchdowns against the Orange, adding 49 yards on 17 carries on the ground.

Willis has a big arm that helped him throw for 2,857 yards and 27 touchdowns last season. One complaint about Willis is his accuracy as he threw 12 interceptions. But he had a higher completion percentage (61.1 percent) than Josh Allen (56.3) and Lamar Jackson (59.1) during their final seasons in college.

There's also his ability to run the ball. Pro Football Focus gave Willis the highest running grade of any player in the Football Championship Subdivision. This includes top running backs in this year's class, Isaiah Spiller (Texas A&M), Kenneth Walker III (Michigan State) and Breece Hall (Iowa State).

Willis arrived at LIberty after transferring from Auburn. Had he stayed at Auburn, there's no telling how much hype he would've created. But playing at Liberty might've actually suppressed his skillset.

Liberty graded 51st in PFF's pass-blocking grades last season, and the offense relied heavily on run-pass options and limited the passing game, according to The Viking Wire's Tyler Forness, who believes Willis has a toolbox similar to Allen.

"While Willis likely isn’t the next Allen, you can draw very similar parallels to the two," Forness wrote. "They both played in offenses that didn’t prepare them for the next level, had poor weapons and offensive lines, major accuracy issues in college, played a lot of hero ball out of necessity and possessed insane arm talent."

How good is Willis' arm? A source described it to NFL Network's Tom Pelissero as "a once-every-couple-years type of arm" that is "damn close" to as strong as Allen's arm.

Spielman drafted Christian Ponder, so his track record with quarterbacks has to give some pause to Vikings fans. But there's no denying Willis is entering the 2022 draft with a lot more hype and respect than Ponder had over a decade ago when Spielman fell in love with him.