With Willis, It's Back to Quarterback Basics
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NASHVILLE – One new player has changed an awful lot in the Tennessee Titans’ quarterbacks room.
Over the past two seasons, starter Ryan Tannehill and backup Logan Woodside have seen a quartet of veteran teammates come and go. Trevor Sieman, DeShone Kizer, Matt Barkley and Kevin Hogan all came to the Titans with some degree of NFL experience, and each had started at least one game in the league. That meant they only needed to get up to speed with the particulars of the offense.
With rookie Malik Willis, a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, now the third member of that position group, there is a need to go back to square one.
“A lot of quarterbacks, when they come in, you really have to teach the operation,” quarterbacks coach Pat O’Hara said. “And the operation is really everything you do before you touch the football. It’s a huddle. It’s a play call. It’s the cadence at the line of scrimmage. It’s [being] under center. It’s getting us in the right play at the line of scrimmage. It’s shifts. It’s motions. And (it’s) an operation that has to take place during a play clock – a 40-second play clock.
“So, there’s tasks, and those tasks are all part of the operation. And each day that’s improving. He’s really been good. We just keep moving forward one day at a time.”
That is not to say that Tannehill and Woodside must sit there while Willis learns the basics of the position, many of which they mastered – particularly in Tannehill’s case – years ago.
At this time of the offseason, players who choose to participate in the voluntary portion of the offseason program – veterans and rookies – report to the facility early in the morning.
By roughly noon, the veterans are done with their work and free to leave. The rookies stay until 5 p.m., and it is during those afternoon hours that O’Hara serves up the crash course that he hopes will bridge the knowledge gap between Willis and the other two.
“It’s a lot of teaching, which is why you’re here,” O’Hara said. “You love to do it. I love that part of it, and Malik’s been a great student.”
The good news for the Titans is that there is time for him to learn it all.
While there is an appropriate sense of urgency, Tannehill is still very much established as the starter. That means there is no sense that Willis has to have it all down by the start of the regular season. Ideally, in fact, he will have the entire season to watch and listen and learn.
It is a luxury Tannehill did not have when the Miami Dolphins selected him eighth overall in 2012. He started every game as a rookie and all 88 he played for that franchise over his first seven seasons in the league.
“(Willis) is figuring it out,” Tannehill said. “I can vaguely remember being a rookie way back 11 years ago. You’re just kind of figuring it out. It’s coming at you fast. You’re drinking through a firehose and trying to soak up as much information [as possible] and figure it out. So, we’re trying to help him along with that process, and he’s doing a good job so far.”
In other words, there have been questions asked and issues raised in quarterback meetings over the last few weeks that likely have not come up in years.
That is OK as long as those same questions are repeated and that Willis moves farther and farther from square one each day.
“Really, it’s retaining information,” O’Hara said. “You’re asked to retain a lot of new content every day. Malik’s done a good job of that. And then it’s just the application of it. It’s a daily process.”
