Green Bay Packers fans who are old enough surely remember the legend of Matt Flynn. He turned one opportunity with the club in a meaningless regular-season finale into a life-changing payday, and Malik Willis is suddenly taking a similar path.
Flynn walked so Willis could run. The two are on eerily comparable trajectories: career backup quarterbacks entering free agency at peak value ahead of their age-27 campaigns with minimal prior experience. However, as we've seen, teams do crazy things for even a modicum of stability at the most important.
This was true when Flynn signed a three-year, $26 million contract to leave the Packers for the Seattle Seahawks in 2012, and it's still true now. The Packers should keep that in mind when Willis inevitably signs a check to lead a huddle elsewhere that they can't cash.
Matt Flynn showed the Packers that losing Malik Willis to free agency isn't the worst thing
Spotrac's calculated market value projects Willis to earn roughly $35.5 million annually on his next deal. It feels safe to say that number, deserving or not, prices him out of the cap-strapped Packers' range. Moreover, their starter, Jordan Love, is making $55 million per annum, further rendering a high-priced understudy a luxury they can't afford.
It's no secret that Willis has almost certainly played his last snap as a Packer. Notable Green Bay connections to quarterback-needy squads like the Miami Dolphins and Arizona Cardinals figure to make the 2022 third-round pick a hot commodity. But should he be, considering how Flynn's story unfolded?
As the saying goes, history doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes. Flynn threw for a whopping 480 yards and six touchdowns in his iconic spot start for the Packers in the 2011 season. He only recorded eight scores from that point on, and none of them were with the Seahawks.
The Seahawks got zero starts from Flynn (because of the surprising emergence of some guy named Russell Wilson). They traded the one-time Super Bowl champion to the Las Vegas Raiders just 13 months after committing to him long term. Seattle all but waved the white flag, and he fizzled out in short order.
Las Vegas released Flynn six months later. He made two appearances for them before reuniting with the Packers in 2013. The 40-year-old was last seen in the NFL in 2015 with the New Orleans Saints. His official retirement announcement didn't come until a decade later.