Dolphins Don’t Scramble From Obvious Link to Packers QB Malik Willis

INDIANAPOLIS – Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis is going to do more than become a free agent in a couple weeks. He’s arguably going to be the No. 1 player in free agency.

The Miami Dolphins, who are led by general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley, two people who watched Willis on practically a daily basis while in Green Bay, need a quarterback. At the Scouting Combine on Tuesday, they didn’t run from the possibility that they could sign Willis to replace Tua Tagovailoa.

“As it pertains to the Miami Dolphins, listen, I think I’d be lying to you,” Sullivan said at the Scouting Combine on Tuesday. “Any team that is potentially in a needy quarterback situation, if they tell you they’re not talking about Malik Willis, that would be a lie.”

Sullivan couched those comments in saying that Willis “is just one” of the quarterbacks the team is discussing. However, considering the Dolphins hired Sullivan away from the Packers and Sullivan hired Hafley away from the Packers, the dots to signing Willis away from the Packers are simple to connect.

After two dismal seasons with the Titans, Willis was sensational in two seasons with the Packers. He completed 85.7 percent of his passes with a 145.5 passer rating in 2025. He completed 30-of-35 passes; of the five incompletions, two were drops. He threw the ball downfield, made big plays with his arm and legs, and avoided big mistakes.

Hafley went against Willis throughout the offseason and training camp and three days a week during the season.

“Obviously, he was our scout-team quarterback,” Hafley said on Tuesday. “So, a lot of times, he really couldn’t do what he does best because if we were playing a dropback guy and he started scrambling, I’d tell him, ‘Hey, you got to stay in the pocket, man. Stop scrambling, that’s not what we’re doing today.’ And then if we were playing a scrambler, he could kind of play his game and do his thing.

“Obviously, him and I have a really good relationship and he always did a really good job and gave us everything that he had.”

The Dolphins are among the front-runners to land Willis in free agency, according to one insider.

How he rebuilt his career in Green Bay was stunning. A third-round pick by the Titans in 2022, Willis played in 11 games with three starts in two seasons in Tennessee. He threw zero touchdown passes, three interceptions and had a 49.4 passer rating before they unloaded him to Green Bay for a seventh-round pick. With identical numbers in games and starts, Willis threw six touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 134.6 passer rating.

With a new leadership regime, the Dolphins are looking to get out of the Tua Tagovailoa era. The other quarterbacks under contract are Quinn Ewers, the 2025 seventh-round pick, and Zach Wilson, the second pick of the 2021 draft by the Jets.

The financial ramifications of dumping Tagovailoa, though, could make signing Willis incredibly challenging. Maybe impossible. Even after making a bunch of roster moves last week, the Dolphins are barely under the salary cap. Getting rid of Tagovailoa would add an additional $42.8 million to the ledger.

So, ultimately, the Dolphins could roll with Ewers and a draft pick and circle back on quarterback in 2027.

“Everything’s on the table, including the potential of a trade. We don’t know which way that’s going to go,” Sullivan said. “There’s a lot of different factors at play, a lot of conversations being had. It’s my job to infuse competition into that room along with every other room as we go down the road.”

Willis or no Willis, Sullivan’s history in Green Bay will drive the quarterback depth chart.

“Look, I grew up in Green Bay. You know the history there,” he said. “I was not with Ron Wolf, but Ron Wolf’s fingerprints were all over what we did as I moved through my career with Ted Thompson and Brian Gutekunst. Aaron was our starter in 2008, but he was a young quarterback. He was not Aaron Rodgers yet. And we drafted Brian Brohm in the second round and Matt Flynn in the seventh.

“And I think if you just look at the history of what Ron did, who Brett Favre’s backups were with (Matt) Hasselbeck and Aaron Brooks and Ty Detmer. I don’t think you can ever have too many quarterbacks. I think that the value of the position cannot be overstated. So, I think that you have to infuse as much competition into that room every year that you possibly can.”

Whether Willis will be leading the competition in that room remains to be seen. Regardless of whether he signs with Miami or some other team, he’s going to be rewarded for two superb seasons with Green Bay, and the Packers almost certainly will be rewarded with a third-round compensatory pick in the 2027 draft.

“Very happy for Malik on a personal level, the situation that he’s put himself in,” Sullivan said. “Malik’s a very, very good kid. It’s a testament to him and how he played and the opportunities that he got. … We got a lot of decisions to make as we move through the next couple of weeks. But I wish Malik the best. A lot of like for the human being.”

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