What Dolphins and NFL History Suggests About the Malik Willis Situation

The Miami Dolphins are turning to Malik Willis to see if he can be the answer in their neverending quest to find themselves a franchise quarterback this millennium, using the approach they first used after Dan Marino retired in March of 2000.

Willis will be the 11th different quarterback to give it a shot after agreeing to terms on a three-year contract with the Dolphins, though the number of those brought in as a potential long-term answer is much smaller.

The Dolphins' run of starting quarterbacks starting in the mid-2000s focused on veterans clearly in the second half of their NFL careers — Gus Frerotte, Daunte Culpepper, Trent Green and Chad Pennington.

After that, the Dolphins tried the draft approach with Chad Henne, Ryan Tannehill and most recently Tua Tagovailoa, with Jay Cutler brought out of retirement in 2017 to serve a one-year stint while Tannehill was spending the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.

But before Frerotte was signed in Nick Saban's first year as head coach in 2025, it was Jay Fiedler who had a long run as starting quarterback.

And he joined the Dolphins in a similar way as Willis.

THE FIEDLER EXPERIMENT

Like Willis, Fiedler had been around the NFL for a bit but had very little starting experience when the Dolphins signed him as an unrestricted free agent in 2000.

The one difference between the two was that Fiedler had bounced around several teams after entering the NFL as a rookie free agent in 1994, but he had only one career start before the Dolphins signed him — Willis has six.

While he never had the upside that Willis possessed, Fiedler had done strong work as the backup to Mark Brunell for the Jacksonville Jaguars before he signed with Miami.

Fiedler won a summer competition with Damon Huard for the starting job and ended up producing a 36-23 record in his five seasons with Miami. Fiedler never was a high-end quarterback, but that winning percentage of .610 is the best for any starter since Marino outside of Frerotte's .667 for his one season.

OTHER WILLIS-LIKE QBs AROUND THE NFL

Around the NFL, there aren't a lot of examples of quarterbacks with fewer than 10 starts through four years who go on to have significant success.

The cutoff point usually is three years of sitting, and examples of some of those QBs include Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love and Rich Gannon.

One example of a quarterback with fewer than 10 starts in his first four seasons who went on to have success is Jimmy Garoppolo, who went from a second-round pick with the New England Patriots to starter with the San Francisco 49ers after being traded and helped the 49ers reach the Super Bowl in the 2019 season.

On the flip side is Matt Flynn, who started two games in four seasons with the Packers but parlayed a six-touchdown outing in his one start of 2011 into a free agent contract with the Seattle Seahawks, only to be beaten out by rookie third-round pick Russell Wilson. Flynn started five games over the next three years before leaving the NFL.

Kevin Kolb started seven games as a backup for the Philadelphia Eagles before signing a free agent contract with the Arizona Cardinals, but never panned out for his new team, even before concussions derailed his career.

Before he joined the Dolphins in 2018, Brock Osweiler made his first seven starts in his fourth season with the Denver Broncos and got a big free agent deal from the Houston Texans, who regretted their decision enough that they traded away a second-round pick to the Cleveland Browns to take on his contract.

Another example that didn't work out for Miami involved A.J. Feeley, who had five starts in four seasons with the Eagles before the Dolphins traded a second-round pick to get him in 2004. Miami was hoping Feeley would be an upgrade over Fiedler and become the long-term answer at quarterback, but instead Fielder beat him out in a training camp competition and the Dolphins traded him to the Chargers the next season.

Because Feeley and Osweiler and others didn't pan out in going from backup to starter doesn't mean the same will happen with Willis because every player is different.

And the Garoppolo example will serve as a counter against what the historical trend suggests.