Malik Willis Joins Packers, Enhancing Quarterback Options

The Tennessee Titans suffered a further setback in the depth of their quarterback options when the Green Bay Packers claimed Malik Willis. According to a tweet by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the trade involved the Packers giving up a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to acquire Willis, who was their 2022 class third-round draft pick. The player failed to flourish in Tennessee, which terminated his contract after he did not meet the performance expectations. This paper discusses the positives and negatives of this latest trade, as registered on various NFL platforms and in the professional social media accounts.

Willis was a third-pick choice who certainly did not live up to the expectations of his employers. The head coach, Mike Rabels, continually expressed his discontent with the player’s progress. However, with the Green Bay Packers, Willis would immediately become the number two choice, with Jordan Love as the starting quarterback. The team has just one other quarterback behind Love – a second-year professional, Sean Clifford. There is also a seventh-round draft from this year, Michael Pratt, who has yet to play for the team, even in the pre-season games where the Titans have performed dismally.

The question is: What are the Packers up to with all these machinations of getting the second, third, and even seventh-choice quarterbacks? Since Love is the first choice, Willis is obviously a ‘supporting cast’. This part of the analysis makes sense. It justifies the decision to have a mobile quarterback with a strong arm into the Packers’ offense. There are multiple distinct possibilities or readings, but all can be distilled into one conclusion: they are building a talented pool of quarterbacks to mange injuries or unexpected levels of performance from the pair of Love and Willis.

If there is one team that might help Willis realize his potential as a professional, then it is the Packers. The attacking systems that the Packers employ and other team just do not have offer him the opportunities that he requires. The coaches will surely find ways of effecting the player to become the ‘Weapon X’ that he promises to be. We can expect Willis to be used in specific packages/series this year.

The Twitter account “NFL Trade Jon-Troy” stated rightly: “Welp, Malik Willis just got the best chance he has ever had in his entire life.” Another comment by “Tom Doe” reads: “It is impossible for me to look at these Packers Titans trades as anything but fleecing. They trash Love all last year. Go into season w/ him as starter. After one game? We need Willis.”

Willis becomes the second quarterback lost after the Titans’ move to show Richard Bowes the exit. It is going to be interesting watching how the incumbent player, Will, performs. The Titans need to reflect on the factors that contributed to their player’s poor run so as to avoid a similar fate with the remaining players. Going by the inclusion of Willis into the Packers, it can be said that they need to be more imaginative in their offensive strategies. This trade is one of the football transactions that have trailed back to the days immediately following the end of the last regular season, where the players proposed for replacement from the tenants in the rumor mill of American football in the National Football League.