With the Dolphins’ newfound connection to Packers, will Malik Willis come to Miami?
Now that the opening news conference is over, one question ultimately remains.
What will the Miami Dolphins do at quarterback?
Of course Tua Tagovailoa and Quinn Ewers remain on the roster yet the name Malik Willis has constantly been floated out as a potential option due to his play in relief of Green Bay Packers starter Jordan Love. Newly minted head coach Jeff Hafley recently shared some insight on that matter.
“I love the way he prepared,” Hafley said of Willis on “The Joe Rose Show,” explaining that he was the Packers’ scout team quarterback and helped prepare the defense. “He’s a great athlete. He’s smart. He can throw it. He can make off-schedule plays. Just a really cool guy to be around in my two years.”
This comes less than 24 hours after general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan was asked about Tagovailoa, who’s owed a guaranteed $54 million in 2026, and the Dolphins quarterback situation in general.
“I have a lot of respect for Tua,” Sullivan said. “He’s a good football player. He’s accomplished a lot in this league. I think whether it’s Tua or anybody else, it’s unfair and irresponsible for me to sit up here and talk about anything specific before I’ve talked to the player himself. Quarterback is the most important position in professional sports.”
Added Sullivan: “We will evaluate that position like we evaluate every other position, and we will do what is best for this football team. With Tua or anybody else, to sit up here today and tell you that I have a great understanding of what we’re going to do or which way we’re going to go, that would be a lie because there’s just too much work to do. There are too many conversations to be had at this point. A lot of respect for Tua, what he’s accomplished in this league. I thought Quinn [Ewers] did a great job at the end of the season. We have to figure that out.”
The link to Willis only makes sense considering the four-year veteran will be a free agent this offseason and the Packers connection that currently runs through the Dolphins. Hafley doubled down on Sullivan’s assessment on the quarterback position, emphasizing that he and his GM will work together to address the conundrum. He even let it slip that there will be “guys that will compete for that job that are here.”
“That’s going to be huge part of this entire thing,” Hafley told Joe Rose, adding that he’s not ruling out free agency or the draft. “With Sully and his department and with me helping, that’s got to be one of the No. 1 focuses because everything is going to run through that position.”
The Dolphins, however, have been here before. Think back to 2012 when Joe Philbin took over as head coach. There was a certain quarterback by the name of Matt Flynn who many believed to be the Dolphins’ answer. Flynn and Philbin also had a connection through the Packers.
In the end, Philbin chose not to sign Flynn, a move that worked out as the quarterback would be out of the league by 2016.
What can be learned from Flynn’s situation, however, is what Willis could potentially command as a career backup potentially in search of a starting opportunity. Flynn signed a three-year contract worth $26 million with Seattle Seahawks in 2012, the same year Philbin’s Dolphins tenure began. If that’s what Willis commands then he could be a viable option yet with a number of quarterback-hungry teams, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals and Las Vegas Raiders, his price will likely be driven upwards.
Regardless of what happens over the next few months, just know that this new Dolphins’ regime will seemingly exhaust all options to find the right starting quarterback. No organization has had the sustained success at quarterback like the Packers — in large part due to the franchise’s philosophy that it’s ok to pick for the future. Now, a disciple of that credo now resides in Miami Gardens.
“We’re going to invest in that position every year if we can,” Sullivan said, calling quarterback “the most important position in sports.”
“Now depending on where we are as a football team, it’ll be at different values, but we will draft quarterbacks every year, if not every other year because I think you have to. If you hit on a guy, great. And if not — if you hit on two, you have trade value.”
