Malik Willis is going to surprise a lot of people this season.
He's already surprising Miami Dolphins fans. They understandably had skepticism when general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley, only weeks after arriving from the Green Bay Packers themselves, spent big to reunite with Willis.
We hear about his lack of experience. The small sample size in Green Bay. Six career starts. The best response? Just watch him play. That's exactly what's happening in Miami.
It hasn't taken Willis long to win over Dolphins fans. He is turning heads at training camp and showing his new team everything Packers fans saw over the past two seasons.
"Through the first two weeks of training camp, it's easy to see why the Dolphins' new regime wanted him to be their QB. Willis turned in a stellar performance in Friday's practice, and the buzz around his potential to shock the NFL is growing day by day," writes Shayne Kubas of Phin Phanatic.
Dolphins fans are getting the Malik Willis experience Packers know all too well
"Malik Willis was a smart move by the Dolphins. I was dead wrong not wanting him," writes Neal Driscoll of the Fin Too Deep podcast.
It's an opinion echoing around Miami Gardens this summer.
Sullivan and Hafley didn't just bring Willis to Miami because they had a good relationship with him. It's not show friends, after all. It's show business. They know how talented he is, and just as importantly, how good Willis can become.
Everyone has seen how dangerous Willis can be as a runner. Once he escapes the pocket and takes off, good luck stopping him. That alone makes life easier for the rest of the offense. Defenses can't sell out to stop the running backs if there's always a risk Willis keeps the ball and bounces to the outside.
Perhaps even more encouraging for the Dolphins, though, is how good Willis looks as a passer.
"Malik another ridiculous throw," host of the Dolphins' Drive Time podcast Travis Wingfield wrote from practice on August 7. "He's got all kinds of time, coverage is tight, he threatens the run, defense gets disjointed, then he throws another off-platform ball 15 downs to the outside to Cole Turner."
Yes, it's just training camp, but this is no fluke. Willis spent two years in Green Bay doing the exact same thing whenever he received an opportunity.
Packers fans won't be surprised by how good Malik Willis looks at training camp
It's rare to have a backup quarterback who can ensure the offense doesn't skip a beat when the starter goes down.
Sure, the Packers had to adjust their game plan when Jordan Love exited games. They are different players with different strengths. But defenses couldn't figure out how to stop Willis.
Just look at his numbers.
In two seasons with the Packers, Willis completed 70 of 89 passes (an incredible 78.7 percent) for 972 yards and six touchdowns with zero interceptions. He earned an unreal passer rating of 134.6. On top of that, Willis rushed 42 times for 261 yards and three touchdowns.
Willis' work in 2025 earned him a Pro Football Focus overall grade of 92.3 and a passing grade of 90.8, both in the elite range. He was credited with three big-time throws and zero turnover-worthy plays.
In other words, Willis made a bunch of explosive plays and never put the ball in harm's way. That works.
The NFL world outside of Green Bay and Miami hasn't caught up yet. They'll say Willis thrived in a quarterback-friendly offense and has to prove it over a larger sample size. It could explain why he ranks just 29th in The Athletic's quarterback rankings, which were determined by a survey of 50 coaches and executives.
Give it time. We saw how good he is in Green Bay, and Dolphins fans are now seeing it too.
Soon, the rest of the NFL will.
Add us as a preferred source on Google