How to Avoid Extremes with Malik Willis

The scrutiny of Malik Willis has begun, and no one should be surprised that the viewpoints can go from one extreme to the other.

The new Miami Dolphins starting quarterback probably knew it was coming, though, because it comes with the territory, particularly given his circumstances as an unproven commodity with a lot of potential.

New Miami GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and new head coach Jeff Hafley clearly have a strong conviction about Willis, otherwise the Dolphins wouldn't have gone out and signed him to a three-year contract that features $45 million guaranteed over the first two years.

But the reality is that no matter how good Willis was in his spot starts with the Green Bay Packers the past two seasons, where Sullivan and Hafley were able to watch him up close and personal, nobody really knows for sure how Willis will fare in his first full season as a starter — and, yes, he will be the starter for the Dolphins in 2026.

Chances are it'll be somewhere between how he looked at the Dolphins OTA open to the media Wednesday and how Pro Football Talk analyst Chris Simms talked about him in his annual ranking of NFL quarterbacks.

SIMMS' GLOWING PRAISE

Simms placed Willis at number 19 in his ongoing rankings, just ahead of Jalen Hurts and C.J. Stroud and behind Daniel Jones and Brock Purdy. His list began with Arizona Cardinals rookie third-round pick Carson Beck at number 43 and had Tua Tagovailoa, of whom Simms never was a big fan during his time in Miami, at 36.

While Willis made only one start for the Packers in 2025 after making two the previous year, Simms saw enough to come away mightily impressed — borderline in awe, actually.

"I think he's got superstar talent, that's why I got him there," Simms wrote. "And I know the film was limited, but the film is superstar-ish too. I'm just gonna say it on top of it, I mean, Malik Willis, his best throws are up there with the superstars of the sport, and then, of course, his athletic ability and what he does there is incredible, his playmaking, his running is extending all of that. The only thing there's the questioning is just, yeah, the amount of reps and games and and just information we have in them."

The Packers lost Willis' one start last season, but it was about the defense not holding up against the Baltimore Ravens in a Saturday night game where the quarterback completed 85 percent of his passes. In his first season in Green Bay, Willis had a passer rating of 124.8 in seven appearances, two of them starts.

HOW TO WATCH WILLIS IN THE SPRING

But those expecting Willis to light it up in practice based on what he did the past two seasons would have been disappointed by what the media observed in the two open OTAs — though it shouldn't be overly shocking.

The reason is simple: It's the spring, with Willis teaming up with new teammates in a brand new offense for most.

The timing simply is not going to be there and the receivers aren't always going to be where they're supposed to be when they're supposed to be there.

And there also were throws that Willis simply missed, whether a bit too high or too far ahead or too far behind.

That is nothing unusual about spring practices when the defense invariably is ahead of the offense.

There isn't or shouldn't be any cause for concern, regardless of social media highlights we might be seeing coming from other teams — like, say, the Atlanta Falcons.

The real test will come in training camp, in the joint practices, in the preseason and then when the regular season arrives.

Willis might not be able to make superstar throws on a regular basis, but we saw enough in Green Bay that we should expect some accuracy.

In other words, it won't look anything like the open practice looked this week.

Besides, as Simms pointed out, the Dolphins shouldn't be asking Willis to single-handedly carry the offense — at least at the start of the 2026 season.

"The coaching staff and the GM down there, they're not going to make it just about the quarterback, right?" Simms said. "They're going to play the let's build the team, we're not going to put everything on him and ask him to carry the squad, they're going to run the ball and do stuff like that, and they'll play the right way and grow him, hopefully to where maybe by week 10 or 12, they can start to go, 'Hey, you know what? Go carry the team, go carry them. We're gonna, we're gonna open it on, we're gonna get shotgun a little bit more, we're gonna throw the ball a little bit more, we're gonna put it on you and see where it goes.' That's the best-case scenario for Malik Willis and the Miami Dolphins."

The bottom line is that Willis is going to be hard-pressed to live up to Simms' words, though he's going to be a lot more accurate and a lot more productive than what we'll see all spring.

You know, somewhere in the middle.

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