The Malik Willis Conundrum

What are the Titans thinking when it comes to Malik Willis's viability as a NFL Quarterback?

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The Tennessee Titans traded up in the second round to draft Will Levis. The supposed heir apparent to Ryan Tannehill and the potential franchise quarterback that can take the team to the promised land. That leaves the Titans with an odd-man out situation and that odd man is none other than 2022 Third Round Pick, Malik Willis.

This article is going to be filled with some tough love. Do not mistake this as a hit-piece on Willis or an indictment of who he is as a person. You must separate Malik Willis the person from Malik Willis the quarterback. This is just a realistic assessment of where Malik Willis is currently at in his very young career.

Malik Willis: The Rookie Year

Look, there is documented evidence all throughout the internet of me being the longest local media holdout hoping Malik Willis would show growth as a passer. He never did. Then the team signed and started Josh Dobbs and he immediately the offense looked competent and more efficient.

Some of this was beyond Willis’s control. The entire offensive unit was in shambles and not the best of circumstances for a rookie quarterback, but it also wasn’t the perfect fit of player and scheme. I wrote about this over at BroadwaySportsMedia.com when I assessed all of the notable rookie quarterbacks in the 2022 draft class.

There I called Malik Willis the philosophy changer. I thought, based on tape, you had a player with special arm talent and athletic ability who didn’t need to be confined to an archaic system. He needed to be allowed to roam and sling it:

All the amazing things that Willis does would be forced to go away here in Nashville based on what we’ve seen this team emphatically say is their offensive philosophy. That’s why I have him listed as The Philosophy Changer, because for him to be successful here, or really anywhere, you have to let Malik Willis be Malik Willis.

Above, I laid out all the negatives in Mahomes’s scouting reports leading up to the draft, and Willis has a lot of the same issues come up on film. Elite arm talent, with scattershot mechanics. So when a team drafts him, they need to work with that.

If the Titans were that team, I would be heartbroken if they muted his talents and forced him into a scheme that doesn’t let him make amazing plays routinely with both his arms and his legs, and we all know that the Titans prefer to play a safer style of offense than the Chiefs or Bills tend to do.

When I see landing spots that could work for Willis, I think of the Giants, where Brian Daboll puts his players in positions they can succeed and maximizes their talents. It took a bit, but he’s been able to let Josh Allen be comfortable enough to go out there and just make plays.

If you take the approach that the Chiefs did, where they fixed some issues, but not too much it waters down his strengths, then you got a guy who is going to be able to be absolutely electric for a team.

If I were to trade up for a guy, I am trading up for a guy who can has all the athletic ability in the world, with the strongest arm in the class, Willis is that guy but the Titans would have to join the modern offenses.

Spoiler Alert: The Titans did not in fact join the modern offenses. That’s not a good enough excuse for what we saw. What we saw starting back at camp into preseason and into regular season action, was a quarterback who came from a system so elementary, that it lowered the point from which Willis was to grow.

Essentially, while immensely gifted, he was a lot more raw than what people initially projected. Again, it was the offense he’s coming from, not necessarily Willis’s fault. I say not necessarily because he could’ve put in the work at Auburn and maybe he would have had a fighting chance.

Willis from the get go was uncomfortable. That is a him issue, not a team issue. No matter how raw Mahomes was, they knew from camp and preseason action he was grasping a NFL offense and how to play at a NFL speed.

Willis never displayed that. Again, that is a him issue, not a team, scheme, etc. issue. He was missing wide open wide receivers and making poor decisions on when to run and when to stay in the pocket and pass. Sure, it doesn’t help the OL sucked, but his OL sucked in college too. His wide receivers sucked in college too.

The difference is that playing against the competition Liberty did is much different than playing against the NFL. Duh. We all know that. What that does mean is that if he wasn’t asked to make full field reads and quick, non-binary decisions, then he doesn’t have a chance here. Likely never will.

From this point on, his NFL career hinges on what he does to grow the processing and decision making part of his game. This isn’t the team’s responsibility anymore. The ball is in his court. He needs to get his mind’s processing power in tip-top shape and put that into action.

Are the Titans Out on Malik Willis?

Are the Titans out on him after his rookie year? Sure seems like it. Their actions have spoken louder than their words. Everyone was quick to point out that both Mike Vrabel and Ran Carthon said nice things about him at the combine.

Well, they were asked questions directly about him. What are they supposed to say? “Nah, he sucks! We hate him!” No, they’re going to give some nice PR mumbo jumbo and just let the kid duke it out at camp.

Their actions tell you, in a flashing neon Broadway sign, that they’re out on Willis. If he develops or grows, fine, but the Titans aren’t going to sit around and wait on that.

They tried to trade up for C.J. Stroud and failed. They were hsuccessful in trading up for Will Levis. Even before that though, you knew the writing was on the wall for Willis’s path to NFL QB Success.

They spent all draft season looking and spending time doing research on quarterbacks. It was so apparent that they were looking for the next guy that if you ignored it, that’s a you thing. Get your eyes checked.

Their actions told you that Willis wasn’t their guy. They’re not gonna pin the hopes of this season or future seasons that he may somehow put it all together and be a franchise quarterback.

He has every chance to prove them and everyone else wrong and that would be an outstanding development for the Titans.

Malik Willis: Best Case Scenario