After only 5 games, and that’s all it is folks, the resounding answer is he’s not the answer. At the moment, he’s more of the problem by far than the answer, but it is only 5 games with a new team, new OC, and a whole lot of receivers he’s basically playing together with in only 5 games, and one of the WR’s he seemed to have a nice chemistry with, WR Caleb Douglas, has been injured for the last 3 games. This past weekend, a bunch of us were at the Bengals game and we did not like what we saw from Malik Willis. In general, he seems to have a very poor sense of field and game awareness. While his escapability is a plus, his awareness seems to be a major negative. For instance, he escapes a sack, rolls to the right (which seems to be the only way he rolls away from pressure is to his right) and avoids a sack (temporarily) and then he can’t find anyone open and he’s way outside of the pocket and just has to throw the ball away and instead takes the sack. This would be fine if Willis was a rookie, but he’s a 4 year veteran and has made 27 starts. He should have had this drilled into his brain by now.
Another play that had me scratching my head was the 39 yard scramble by QB Malik Willis and for some reason, with no defenders in front of him but 2 defenders chasing from the sides, he decided to slide. To me, there’s no justification for that. He’s not a superstar QB on a team that’s headed to the playoffs and one play isn’t worth it. For all we know he might have scored on that play if they couldn’t catch him or bring him down. He could have protected the ball and taken it until they dragged him down. I was watching the Chargers vs Broncos, and believe me, I’m no Justin Herbert fan, but that guy finishes runs and takes contact. Yes, the Chargers are also 0-5 right now, so before you get yer panties in a bunch, I’m aware of that.As far as I’m concerned, this team could lose the next 5 with or without Malik Willis at QB, so play to win and finish the play.
Is there any chance that by the end of the season we think Malik Willis deserves the right to compete for the starting QB job in 2027? Sure, there’s a chance, but is it written in INK that he’s the starter no matter what? HELL to the NO. I don’t know where we’ll be drafting next year, I don’t know if any of the QB’s who will be eligible to drafted in the 2027 will legitimately be worthy of the #1 pick if that’s where we finish. It’s too early to decide anything right now on both counts, the future of Malik Willis and also which, if any college QB’s will deserve to be drafted #1 overall. Right now, Miami U QB Darian Mensah has played the best, and right behind him is Indiana QB Josh Hoover. Of course there is Arch Manning, Julian Sayin, Dante Moore, but Manning hasn’t played great and there’s always the chance he decides to play college ball for another year.
What I’m basically saying is we kind of just have to let things play out. If Malik Willis is still playing like he is now in Week 17, then I don’t care what Sully and Haf used to think about Malik Willis, they can’t put their heads in the sand and mark him down as the starter for next season, they have jobs to play for and keep. This year they get a mulligan, but if they don’t bring in an upgrade at QB over Willis if he has the same kind of season he’s been having, they won’t last here very long. They must, and will be held accountable for what they do in 2027. We’re still 12 games away from the end of the season, lots more to see from our QB and the rest of the team.
Our 2nd RD pick ILB Jacob Rodriguez didn’t have a stellar game this past weekend. He was beat for a TD twice, by both Cincinnati Bengals TE’s, former Dolphins TE Mike Gesicki, and then the other TE Tanner Hudson. Rodriguez has been so good, but Sunday’s game was sobering. Despite the 1 TD victory, None of us at the game felt the Dolphins were really in this game. Joe Burrow had far too much time, a repetitive theme that occurs each week. It appeared that DE Chop Robinson got a big sack but he was called offsides and it was nullified. Bengals RT Amarius Mims is huge, 6’8 350 and he seemed to engulf Chop on most plays, I was watching through binoculars a lot during the game to see the action better. Coming into this game, QB Joe Burrow had 7 TD’s and 3 INT’s. Now he has 11 TD’s and 3 INT’s, we made it easy for him. CB Juju Brents was evaluated for a concussion after a helmet to helmet collision. Both rookie CB Chris Johnson and last year’s 5th RD CB Jason Marshall took over on the outside for Juju Brents.
Hey! Did I mention that our special teams still really suck??? We deferred after winning the kickoff and immediately starts with an 81 yard kickoff return by Bengals KR/PR Dohnte Meyers, all the way to the Dolphins 10 yard line. How about this stat? The Bengals average starting point of al, of their drives was the Miami 49 yardline while the Dolphins average starting point was their own 24. If you want a positive, I’ll give you RB Ollie Gordon. To be fair, I’d wish he would stop celebrating after a 10 yard gain like he just scored the winning TD. In fact, behave like Green Bay Packers HC Vince Lombardi preached, when you score a TD, act like you’ve been there before. RB Barry Sanders always just handed the ball to the referee after scoring a TD, so after a 10 yard gain, just get back in the huddle and get into the endzone before you demonstratively celebrate your success. Just my 2 cents. K Riley Patterson missed an extra point, and this after we had converted a 2 PT conversion on the previous possession. I don’t like our K, P, and I definitely don’t like our ST’s Coach Chris Tabor. He needs to be on thin ice, because we can’t afford to spot teams much better field position and still expect our young squad to win games. ST’s is a young players game, and we have that in spades. Get it done!
Anyway, let me know your thoughts on Malik Willis, what you think we should do at QB next season, who you like at QB in the 2027 NFL Draft, and who you think can replace St’s Coach Chris Tabor
GO DOLPHINS!!!
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