Packers quarterback Malik Willis embraces opportunity to play
Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis talks about his growth and maturity as a player.
- Malik Willis, backup quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, is focusing on improving his decision-making and adapting to the team’s playbook.
- The Packers plan to give Willis significant playing time in the final preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks.
- Willis aims to refine his skills and demonstrate his growth as a quarterback during the preseason.
GREEN BAY – Once Malik Willis couldn’t see his third progression, he knew it was time to bolt.
The Indianapolis Colts pass rush was closing on fourth-and-5. Willis found nobody open when he checked his first two reads. There wasn’t much time until the Green Bay Packers quarterback would be engulfed.
Willis ran backward another 8 yards before resetting. It’s a skill set the Packers became enamored with a year ago when they traded the Tennessee Titans a seventh-round pick to acquire him. Willis can do the things that can’t be coached, like a Houdini act when the pass rush starts to swarm, buying time to make a play instead of taking a sack.
“I kind of looked for an escape route,” Willis said. “There wasn’t any. So I get my eyes back up and look downfield.”
When Willis looked back downfield, he finally found a target. Tight end John FitzPatrick, his initial third read, had stretched his route over the middle. With calm feet, Willis fired to his tight end to extend the drive as Colts edge rusher Tyquan Lewis ran past him.
It hasn’t been the dominant preseason Willis hoped for after showing he’s capable of winning games in his first year with the Packers. Willis has completed just 10 of 23 passes for 122 yards, a meager 5.3-yard average. He hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass, though Willis hasn’t tossed an interception either.
The backup quarterback came close against the Colts, trying to force the football to FitzPatrick on a corner route. The tight end again was his third progression. Willis found nothing in his first two, and the internal clock in his mind was about to expire. Focused on using his arm more than his legs in this training camp, Willis fired to FitzPatrick despite Colts cornerback Chris Lammons squatting on the route.
Lammons let the quarterback get away with a bad decision, dropping the interception.
“I think there was a lot to like,” coach Matt LaFleur said. “Was it perfect? No, but it rarely ever is. I think he can improve on some of the things that we may have missed in the game, but all in all, the only play I wasn’t real fired up about was when we tried to force a ball on a corner route to FitzPatrick where there’s a defender obviously in that vicinity. It almost gets picked off.
“I just wish you’d see him read with his feet and check that ball down, because that was the only play that was there to be made.”
It’s those minute decisions that make a successful NFL quarterback. Only live snaps can develop the rapid timing required to choose correctly. It’s why LaFleur said he’s intent on playing Willis extended snaps in the Packers’ preseason finale against the Seattle Seahawks on Aug. 23. If all goes according to plan, it’s the last time Willis will play meaningful snaps for months.
Of course, the Packers saw last season how quickly they might need to deviate from their chosen plan. Which is another reason LaFleur might be enticed to play Willis for the bulk of his team’s preseason finale. A year after surpassing any reasonable expectations, successfully spelling an injured Jordan Love on two separate occasions, Willis’ focus has shifted before his second season with the Packers.
Instead of an offense fitting itself to Willis’ skill set, the quarterback has adapted more to LaFleur’s playbook.
“It’s way more cool,” Willis said, “rather than just try to get in there and swim when you can swim comfortably, and you know what’s going on and you understand what we’re trying to accomplish with each and every concept or play call. I think it’s been more fun just to see how the coaches call it and what are they thinking. It makes the game that much more impactful.”
The Packers knows Willis has the talent to go win games. What they’re still learning is how he functions with an expanded playbook. When Willis led the Packers to a win against the Colts in Week 2 last season, his first start replacing Love, he threw only 14 passes. Willis resembled a quarterback on training wheels.
Eventually, Willis wants what every quarterback in his position desires, a chance to be a starter in this league. That means throwing the football 30, sometimes 40 times in a game. He never threw more than 19 times in any of his seven appearances last season.
“Malik won three games last year as our quarterback,” cornerback Keisean Nixon said. “So it comes with the position, it comes with playing in the NFL, next man up. Arm talent has always been there, running ability has always been there. It’s probably been more of an IQ thing, but he’s definitely been coached well here. So he’s taken a big step last year, and he’s taken an even bigger step this year.
“Quarterback is a hard position. I can’t really hone in on everything that he has to endure playing that position, because I can’t even imagine controlling a whole offense and a team, really. Because being a quarterback, everybody is looking at you. All the mistakes, all the positive, everybody comes to you. So that’s a hard role to be in.”
Willis has one more week in that role before the regular season begins and he fades to the background. With Love missing most of the past week because of surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb, Willis has gotten even more first-team reps than anyone expected. He’ll take most of the first-team reps Aug. 21 in a joint practice against the Seahawks before taking Lambeau Field with the starters two days later.
It will be his chance to show all he’s learned in the past year, merging his natural talent with how the Packers offense operates. “I feel like it’s hard to put a finger on,” Willis said when asked how much he’s learned in the past year.
“I just try to continue to grow each day and learn from the mistakes, and learn from even the successes, and building confidence. Just continue to take a step each day in being better than I was the day before.”
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