Malik Willis

[Phishfan]

Reports are out there he is signed. No time to link. Sorry

[Pappy13]

Here's one.

Miami Dolphins sign Malik Willis Free Agency Contract Green Bay Packers FAQ

[Dave Gray]

It's been a very busy day.  I am not excited for any of this, but I do appreciate how clean and definitive it is.  There's no "one foot in the old regime" with any of this.

[Pappy13]

It's been a very busy day.  I am not excited for any of this, but I do appreciate how clean and definitive it is.  There's no "one foot in the old regime" with any of this.

On the other hand how is any of this different from the last regime? What happened to the competition at QB? That's out the window. Even if Ewers outplays Willis, he's not your starting QB next year. What about taking a QB in the draft? That's out too now unless you count a 3rd day kind of guy which you already have. What about building this team through the draft? Nope, $45M in free agency for a guy with 6 career starts is just fine thank you very much. This is JUST like what the Dolphins have been doing for the last 20 years, thinking that if they just hit on a QB, everything else will take care of itself. They hit on a QB in '83 and still weren't able to win the big one, but spending $45M on an unproven one is going to work? Whatever. I'll believe it when I see it. I'm 62, I don't have another 20 years to wait.

By the way this signing pretty much guarantee's that Chub is now also a post June 1 cut along with Tua, so yeah the 2027 Cap isn't looking much better than 2026 when you add in the price for Willis. So much for 2026 being the only cap year that was an issue.

[CF DolFan]

I agree with you Pappy. I don't like it. I'd have brought in whatever veteran was left and let Quinn and he battle it out for the season. We would have easily been in shape for a top pick next year where a good potential QB would not cost us much.

The guy is literally the same build as Tua. A small running QB doesn't seem like a good idea considering what we have been dealing with.

The list of failed QBs with similar situations is pretty bad. Matt Flynn to Seattle will always be in my mind because us fans were so upset we didn't get him. Of course, Detroit signed Scott Mitchell from us after he had a successful fill in for Dan Marino. That didn't go too well either.

[Sibster]

I don't know what's worse:

1.  Spielman giving up a second round pick for AJ Feely when he could've signed Mark Brunell or Kurt Warner for only money.

2.  Saban giving up a second round pick for Daunte Culpepper when he could've signed Drew Brees for only money.

3.  This clusterfuck.

It seems that this team doesn't learn from past mistakes.

[Denver2]

I think he’s a good QB but I don’t think he’s good enough to win a superbowl or even make a deep playoff run with as many holes as they have that they can’t fill because their still paying Tua

I can see him getting 6-9 wins keeping us in perpetual mediocrity.

Personally I would have just rolled with Ewers, either he develops into a good QB or he sucks but there’s no expectation for next year and you’re looking at a high draft pick in what should be a better QB class

[masterfins]

Where is the cap space going to come from to pay him??  Miami will have to cut/trade good players to cover this added expense, meaning overall the team will get worse; this is a team that can't afford to lose the few great players they have.  I could see Achane, Waddle, and others moved on to lower the team cost.

It just never changes in Miami, they always overpay for "upside" and "potential".

I feel bad for Ewers because he isn't going to be given an opportunity because the HC and GM want to put in place GB players.  I guarantee Willis won't be the last GB player picked up by these two.

[CF DolFan]

If they aren't lying, they will allow competition between Ewers and Willis. Obviously salaries point to Willis starting but no coach worth his weight would play someone while the better person sits. Ewers has history with the offensive coordinator so he kind of has a leg up. OC Bobby Slowik has expressed support for Quinn Ewers, with reports indicating he is a "big fan" of the young quarterback. We will see. I just hope Ewers doesn't get back seated and I'm all for competition.

[masterfins]

If they aren't lying, they will allow competition between Ewers and Willis. Obviously salaries point to Willis starting but no coach worth his weight would play someone while the better person sits. Ewers has history with the offensive coordinator so he kind of has a leg up. OC Bobby Slowik has expressed support for Quinn Ewers, with reports indicating he is a "big fan" of the young quarterback. We will see. I just hope Ewers doesn't get back seated and I'm all for competition.

They're lying.  That competition talk is just to appease Ewers and the fans.  You don't go out and overspend for a player from your former team, and make your already bad salary cap situation even worse, if you're not going to start him.  The GM and HC would look foolish if they don't start Willis after paying him all this money.  I can hear it now "Willis is just a little bit better and gives us a better chance to win".  If they kept Tua and didn't sign Willis they would have about $20 million in added cap space that could have been used to retain players or sign a few FA's, now all they can sign are league minimum players cast off by other teams.  I guess I'm glad Willis will be starting because this 2026 team is going to be terrible with all the talent they are losing, at least they won't be able to blame it on Ewers.

[Pappy13]

If they aren't lying, they will allow competition between Ewers and Willis. Obviously salaries point to Willis starting but no coach worth his weight would play someone while the better person sits. Ewers has history with the offensive coordinator so he kind of has a leg up. OC Bobby Slowik has expressed support for Quinn Ewers, with reports indicating he is a "big fan" of the young quarterback. We will see. I just hope Ewers doesn't get back seated and I'm all for competition.

There's no way that Ewers gets a fair shot. Could you imagine the bitching if they started Ewers week 1? C'mon, unless Willis just absolutely SUCKS he's starting. But it's not really about that for me, I don't care that Ewers isn't going to get a chance, I care that they spent $45M on a developmental QB who's had 3 games of recent experience. Oh, but these guys know him from the practice field so that makes it all ok. Even if they are right about Willis and he's a stud, it will be at least 2 years before they can put a team around him that will matter with the cap issues they have in front of them. So by that time Willis will need a NEW contract. How does this make any sense? This move would be fine if the Dolphins were a QB away from being a Superbowl contender the problem is this team isn't a QB away from even being a playoff contender.

[masterfins]

There's no way that Ewers gets a fair shot. Could you imagine the bitching if they started Ewers week 1? C'mon, unless Willis just absolutely SUCKS he's starting. But it's not really about that for me, I don't care that Ewers isn't going to get a chance, I care that they spent $45M on a developmental QB who's had 3 games of recent experience. Oh, but these guys know him from the practice field so that makes it all ok. Even if they are right about Willis and he's a stud, it will be at least 2 years before they can put a team around him that will matter with the cap issues they have in front of them. So by that time Willis will need a NEW contract. How does this make any sense? This move would be fine if the Dolphins were a QB away from being a Superbowl contender the problem is this team isn't a QB away from even being a playoff contender.

Totally agree!  Willis only started two games for GB last year and they lost both games.

[Spider-Dan]

There's no way that Ewers gets a fair shot. Could you imagine the bitching if they started Ewers week 1?

For what it's worth: Matt Flynn was signed to the Seahawks as a fairly high profile free agent, but didn't start a single game because rookie 3rd-rounder QB Russell Wilson beat him in camp.  But I will concede this is significantly less likely to happen with Ewers because we've already seen him.

Ewers isn't likely to get another start in this league unless someone ahead of him gets injured.  When you're a 7th-round pick and you get a shot, you'd better show something.  He didn't.

[masterfins]

For what it's worth: Matt Flynn was signed to the Seahawks as a fairly high profile free agent, but didn't start a single game because rookie 3rd-rounder QB Russell Wilson beat him in camp.  But I will concede this is significantly less likely to happen with Ewers because we've already seen him.

Ewers isn't likely to get another start in this league unless someone ahead of him gets injured.  When you're a 7th-round pick and you get a shot, you'd better show something.  He didn't.

If Seattle had had a new GM and a new HC and they both came from GB, where Flynn came from, then Flynn definitely would have started over Wilson.

And I disagree with you, Ewers did show something; you're just still crying over the fact he took your boy Tua's spot.

[Pappy13]

It helped that Russell was drafted by head coach Pete Carrol. If Russel was drafted by the previous regime the previous year as a 7th rounder, he wouldn't have stood a chance, probably doesn't even make the roster. The situations really aren't all that similar.

I've made peace with it now though and this was never about me thinking that Ewers was the future, I just thought he was cheap and good enough for a lousy 2026 team. They think they can turn this thing around in a year or 2. Ok, let them try, I'd love to see it happen. I'm still a Dolphins fan and I'll still be a Dolphins fan probably long after GB south is a memory.