The Miami Dolphins were headed toward an inevitable teardown. With the way the season was going in 2025, it was hard to imagine a different pathway for them. But the biggest question for them was going to be the next quarterback.
After releasing Tua Tagovailoa, they had a deficit under center. However, they were able to make the most out of a bad situation by signing Malik Willis to man the spot. Now, most analysts, and even former players, are giving them rave reviews for their choice.
Miami Dolphins Make Perfect Choice With Malik Willis
After giving him the full max extension, it became clear pretty quickly that Tagovailoa wasn’t the same player after multiple gruesome concussions. As a result, after a disastrous 2025 campaign, the Dolphins were ready to clean house.
Releasing Tyreek Hill and their quarterback, they also fired their head coach and general manager. This offseason, they began by replacing those two pillars, bringing in Jeff Hafley and Jon-Eric Sullivan from the Green Bay Packers.
However, that still left the all-important position of quarterback up in the air. But in one of his first moves since the hiring, Sullivan brought in arguably the most sought-after free-agent quarterback in the market.
Willis, who’d spent most of his career in a backup capacity, won hearts all over the NFL with his performance for Green Bay. With Jordan Love out with an injury, Willis slotted into the starting quarterback role and was immediately effective.
Completing over 80% of his passes in both his outings, Willis averaged over 200 passing yards per game and added over 100 yards on the ground, while recording 5 total touchdowns without a single interception and a passer rating of 145.5.
As a result, the potential was intriguing to a lot of teams, and many saw him as the best available quarterback on the market, with estimated asking prices upwards of $30 million. Both Hafley and Sullivan got a close look at his work on the field and clearly wanted their guy.
They were successful in their pursuit as Willis signed with Miami early in free agency. However, the terms of the contract, three years and $67.5 million, have earned the Dolphins some rave comments from across the football landscape.
Marcus Spears of ESPN, who spent eight seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, was among that group. Appearing on the “Rich Eisen Show,” he explained his love for the Willis signing. “A lot of familiarity where he’s going. Coaches that drafted him, coaches that were a part of the process when he was in Tennessee.”
Speaking on the Packers connection, he added, “That is what everybody in Miami is excited about. The fact that he [Willis] played at the level at which he played in the time off, and it didn’t look like the playbook was shrunken, it didn’t look like they had to coach around him.”
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Spears firmly believed that Willis had picked up right where Love left off, providing equivalent play without any real drop-off, with essentially the same playbook. On a team where the starter ranked at No. 27 on PFSN’s QB Impact, the change at quarterback could be enormous.
“Malik played damn near elite.”
