{"id":261855,"date":"2026-03-09T12:56:50","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T16:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=261855"},"modified":"2026-03-09T13:13:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:13:10","slug":"malik-willis-potential-franchise-quarterback-signs-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/03\/09\/malik-willis-potential-franchise-quarterback-signs-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential Franchise Quarterback Malik Willis Signs With Miami Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Four-year veteran quarterback Malik Willis signed a new contract with the Miami Dolphins. Willis, a former third-round pick, spent the 2025 season with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/packers\/\" target=\"_self\">Green Bay Packers<\/a> but originally entered the league with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/titans\" target=\"_self\">Tennessee Titans<\/a>. Willis agrees to a three-year, $67.5 million deal to join former Packers defensive coordinator turned Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley in Miami to be his starting quarterback in 2026.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_260704\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-260704\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-260704\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams-1024x701.jpg\" alt=\"Malik Willis Teams\" width=\"640\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams-1024x701.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams-300x205.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams-768x526.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams-1536x1051.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2025\/12\/Malik-Willis-Teams.jpg 1949w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-260704\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dec 27, 2025; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis (2) breaks away from Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey (44) to score a touchdown in the second quarter at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Mandatory Credit: Dan Powers\/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Malik Willis, Miami Dolphins, Agree to Contract<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Sources: The <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Dolphins?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Dolphins<\/a> are signing <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Packers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Packers<\/a> QB Malik Willis, as a new QB has landed in Miami. <\/p>\n<p>He gets a 3-year, $67.5M deal with $45M fully guaranteed in a contract negotiated by <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DavidMulugheta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DavidMulugheta<\/a> of <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AthletesFirst?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AthletesFirst<\/a>. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bhIpxV3UrK\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/bhIpxV3UrK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/2031049459333759337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 9, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Malik Willis spent most of his career as a backup quarterback but has shone when given the opportunity to play. The Liberty product appeared in four games while making one start last year, and he looked like a potential franchise quarterback during his limited playing time. In total, the quarterback completed 30 of his 35 attempts for 422 yards, 12.1 yards per attempt, three touchdowns, and no interceptions while adding another 123 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. With <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/12\/30\/sitting-jordan-love-in-week-18-would-be-a-mistake\/\" target=\"_self\">Jordan Love firmly entrenched<\/a> atop the depth chart, Willis never had the opportunity to build on this performance.<\/p>\n<p>Willis originally entered the NFL as a third-round pick in the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-draft\/\" target=\"_self\">2022 NFL Draft<\/a>. Selected by the Tennessee Titans, the Liberty product began his career backing up veteran Ryan Tannehill. However, injuries forced him to make three starts as a rookie, and they didn&#8217;t go well. In total, Willis completed just 50.8% of his passes for 276 yards, no touchdowns, and three interceptions as a rookie. He remained on the Titans in 2023 but lost the backup job to second-round pick Will Levis.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee traded Malik Willis to the Green Bay Packers during the 2024 offseason, and this move immediately paid dividends for the Packers. Willis started two games in relief of an injured Love and appeared in seven during his first year with the club. The third-year passer showed incredible growth in his new environment, completing 74.1% of his passes for 550 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions.<\/p>\n<p>Since signing his rookie contract, Malik Willis has completed 67.7% of his passes for 1,322 yards, six touchdowns, and three interceptions.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo: Mark Hoffman &#8211; Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four-year veteran quarterback Malik Willis has signed a new contract. The former third-round pick spent 2025 with the Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2376,"featured_media":261857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,25,4,6431],"tags":[7460,8559,7777],"class_list":["post-261855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-packers","category-dolphins","category-nfl-teams","tag-green-bay-packers-news","tag-malik-willis","tag-miami-dolphins-news"],"modified_by":"Michael Zimmelman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261855"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":268547,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261855\/revisions\/268547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}