Just ahead of the 2024 regular season, the Green Bay Packers swung a trade with the Tennessee Titans to acquire quarterback Malik Willis, sending back only a seventh-round draft pick to get the deal done.
And as it happens, the deal paid off quite quickly. After Jordan Love went down with an MCL sprain late in Green Bay's Week 1 loss in Brazil to the Philadelphia Eagles, Willis stepped in and stepped up to deliver the Packers a pair of victories over the Indianapolis Colts and the Titans over the next two weeks, completing a combined 75.8 percent of his passes for 324 yards with two touchdowns and zero interceptions, while adding another 114 yards and a score on the ground, averaging 9.5 yards per carry.
With Love out with a concussion, the 2022 third-round pick may have failed to win his lone start this past season in a Week 17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, but he once again proved what he's capable of when given meaningful snaps, completing 18 of 21 passes for a career-high 288 yards and a touchdown, adding 60 rushing yards on nine attempts, two of which resulted in touchdowns.
As Willis is set to become an unrestricted free agent, the general consensus around the league (and among Cheeseheads everywhere) is that he'll leave Green Bay to find a franchise for which he can genuinely compete for a starting job. And on Wednesday, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst confirmed that the 26-year-old is basically as good as gone.
Packers GM Brian Gutekunst is preparing to lose Malik Willis in free agency
"We'd love to have Malik back," Gutekunst said, "but at the same time, to be realistic, I think he's going to have a lot of opportunities to play more than he would here, so we'll see where that goes."
Translation: Malik Willis is as good as gone.
Gutekunst, who, along with head coach Matt LaFleur and Executive Vice President/Director of Football Operations Russ Ball, just received a multi-year contract extension, met with the media on Wednesday and discussed a variety of topics, Willis naturally being one of them.
And while Gutekunst expressed his desire for his backup QB to return, he understands the reality of the situation.
Willis will undoubtedly have several suitors once free agency begins, with the Miami Dolphins, the New York Jets, the Arizona Cardinals, the Las Vegas Raiders, and perhaps even the Pittsburgh Steelers being viable options at this point.