Willis Continues to Work Through Growing Pains

The rookie quarterback has yet to experience the same kind of statistical success in the NFL that he did at Liberty University.

NASHVILLE – Malik Willis remains a work in progress, and the Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback gets another chance to work on things Thursday against the Dallas Cowboys.

Willis will start once again in place of Ryan Tannehill, who is out with an ankle injury. To date, he has three starts to his credit, two against the Houston Texans (2-12-1) and one against the Kansas City Chiefs (12-3).

The Cowboys have scored 24 points or more in nine straight games, including 40 or more in four of them. That suggests the Titans likely will need to score more than their average of 17.9 points per game, which ranks 27th in the NFL, and the 16.0 points per game they have averaged in Willis’ first three starts.

Barring a superlative defensive performance, Willis will have to be more productive than he has been to date. For example, he has yet to throw for at least 100 yards In a game.

“Young quarterbacks sometimes learn in this league by fire,” offensive coordinator Todd Downing said. “And that’s the bottom line, that there’s going to be mistakes and there are going to be plays you wish you had back, situations you never experienced in college. There are going to be times that you think your abilities that have worked for you all your years previous don’t work for you anymore when you’re going against a different level of talent. Some of those are learned, unfortunately, by experience.”

The third-round draft pick out of Liberty University is one of six rookie quarterbacks to start at least one game this season. The numbers suggest that he has yet to measure up the others, or to the challenge of playing in the NFL the way he did in college.

“There have been some positives and then there have been some things that we are continuing to try to work on and correct,” coach Mike Vrabel said. “We work on the progression, on just speeding up things, the communication, and all the things that go into playing quarterback.”

Consider:

• Willis’ passer rating of 42.8 is the lowest among the group. Two, San Francisco’s Brock Purdy and New England’s Baily Zappe, have passer ratings above 100.

• Willis’ completion percentage is 50.8, which is also the lowest of the bunch. Three of the other five have completed more than 60 percent of their throws.

• Willis is one of three who has yet to throw a touchdown pass.

• Willis’ three interceptions are tied for second-most to Pittsburgh’s Kenny Pickett, who has mor than five times the number of attempts. Willis’ 4.9 percent interception rate is the highest among this year’s rookies.

• Willis has been sacked on 14.1 percent of his drop-backs. None of the other five rookie starters have been sacked more than 10 percent of the time they have attempted to throw.

• Willis’ 4.5 yards-per-attempt and 8.9 yards-per-completion averages are lowest of the bunch.

• Willis does have one win. Two others, Atlanta’s Desmond Ridder (0-2) and Miami’s Skylar Thompson (0-1) can’t say the same.

“As he continues to grow and mature, I think he’ll be able to see some things a little quicker,” Downing said. “I think I can put him in some better positions. All in all, it’s all hands on deck to get it figured out.

“… Malik is a wonderful human being. I think he has what it takes to be able to mentally move on from the good and bad and reset. And he’s in process with that right now.”