Malik Willis tells Miami Dolphins teammates 'this is a business

MIAMI GARDENS — If Malik Willis was making an error, it was a minor one. Willis was reflecting on the talk he’d recently given teammates, and in doing so, he tried to pass it off as no big deal.

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“I just wanted to talk to the offense and just have a man-to-man conversation,” Willis said. “We’ve got to understand this is a business and we’ve got to take what we do personal. We’ve got to take pride in it and we’ve got to do it to the best or our ability regardless.”

This was the Miami Dolphins ’ starting quarterback addressing the team like, yes, the starting quarterback. Some Dolphins quarterbacks in the post-Marino era may have said the same thing, some, maybe not. Or at least not without a nudge.

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Willis, of course, hasn’t played a down for the Dolphins. He just turned 27 but is in his first year as an NFL starter. He has attempted fewer passes in his four-year NFL career than Dan Marino did in his first seven games.

Patience isn’t what it once was in the NFL. Doubly so for Dolphins quarterbacks. Miami has a maximum of two years to kick the tires on Willis. He knows either he makes this his team or he doesn’t. Thankfully, his modesty didn’t preclude him from imploring teammates to buckle down.

“It’s just a conversation more than anything,” he said. “I don’t know if you need some super courage or anything else (to address teammates). These are people I work with every day, I go to war with. We’re in the weight room. We’ve been together, what, six months already? So it’s just talking to the guys.”

It was only a handful of summers ago that when Dolphins’ players voted for team captains. Tua Tagovailoa didn’t make the cut, but lineman Jesse Davis and receiver Mack Hollins did. The Dolphins tried to sell it as no big deal that their starting quarterback wasn’t, in teammates’ eyes, one of the five top leaders on the team. It was, and is. That’s where Willis finding his voice is about as important as Willis finding an open man.

Two of a quarterback’s best friends are a dependable set of wide receivers and a tight end with a knack for being there when the QB is under duress. When the Dolphins practiced in Hard Rock Stadium on August 8, Willis had neither. His receivers are unproven and tight end Greg Dulcich was in a red, non-contact jersey. Oh, and the running attack was stuck in the mud on this day.

No matter. Running a red-zone drill on the 2-yard line near the end of practice, Willis went back to pass, checked his first, second and third reads, found nobody open and took off. As he did, Chop Robinson closed in. Had it been an actual game, would it have been a sack? Maybe, maybe not. Robinson swore it was. Willis swore it wasn’t.

“I just ran it in,” Willis said. “Works out like that sometimes. All you can do is be grateful.”

Reporters were split on the call. The fact there was a debate was a testament to Willis offering the Dolphins elusiveness that Tagovailoa didn’t.

It’s not just about avoiding sacks, it’s about Willis’ ability to make plays with his legs, whether it’s to actually run for yardage or to buy time to throw. He’s doing both well enough that to ask which he does better is to invite another chapter of the never-ending reporters’ debates. Let’s call that a draw.

Is Malik Willis really the 29th-best QB in the NFL?

None of this is to say Willis is obviously The Answer. To say that about a player who has thrown 155 passes would be foolish. Plus, the rest of the NFL remains unconvinced. The Athletic just did a survey of 50 league experts, including executives, and Willis came up as the 29th-best quarterback. In a 32-team league? With Tagovailoa tied for No. 26?

Wait, there’s a caveat. The Athletic lumped Willis in its fourth tier of QBs, which it labeled as “unproven player; not enough information to classify” or “veteran who ideally would not be a full-season starter.” Plus, it wrote that despite the minuscule sample size, it “was enough for 17 of the 50 voters to place Willis in Tier 3 as a legitimate starter.” One exec even called Willis “the one guy where you said, ‘OK, if we sign him, we give him a couple years, he could maybe ascend to that 2 level.’ ”

Tier 2 consists of guys like Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Drake Maye and Jordan Love. Suddenly, No. 29 doesn’t seem so bad, does it?

One aspect of Willis’ play that’s emerging this week is the connection he has developed with receiver Caleb Douglas, the third-round pick out of Texas Tech. Despite Willis’ disclaimer that he’s “still trying to figure everybody out,” it would appear he already has all the information he needs on Mr. Douglas.

“I think he’s a great player,” Willis said.

Funny, but offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor, the Dolphins’ first-round pick, used that very phrase to describe Willis after the practice.

“He’s also one of the greatest leaders,” Proctor said. “He stood up in front of the team. That takes a lot of courage to talk to the team, right there. Just man to man, just keeping it real.”

In August, that’s about all one could ask for.

Hal Habib covers the Miami Dolphins for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Malik Willis tells Miami Dolphins teammates 'this is a business'

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