Malik Willis has only thrown 155 passes over the course of his NFL career, but the last 89 of them came in front of Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley and General Manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and they helped convince Miami to sign him to a three-year contract this week.
Willis delivered most of those passes in three Packers starts — Hafley and Sullivan were in Green Bay before being hired this January — in place of Jordan Love and his success in that role gives Willis a shot at a longer stay in the starting lineup. Willis’s first chance in that role came with the Titans as a rookie and his results were not as good as they were the last two years.
Willis was asked at a Thursday press conference about waiting for another chance in that role and why he thinks he’s better suited for it this time.
“I don’t think I [put a timeline](https://x.com/OmarKelly/status/2032127583970599340) on it,” Willis said, via Omar Kelly of the _Miami Herald_. “It happened when I was prepared. I think when I came into the league I wasn’t prepared. That’s not a knock towards my coaches or myself, that’s just what it was coming from the system I came from. I’ve had a chance to learn the last four years since I’ve been in the league — been through four different offenses, seen a bunch of different defenses and think I’ve grown a lot. Grateful for the opportunity once again.”
The Dolphins are betting that Willis’s production will translate from a sample size to a full serving well enough to make him the latest quarterback to blossom after making multiple moves around the league.