Despite taking on a record-setting dead money sum from the impending Tua Tagovailoa release, the Dolphins will be the team that signs off on Malik Willis‘ second contract.
Willis is reuniting with Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley in Miami, according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport, who reports the sides agreed on a three-year deal worth $67.5MM. Willis will receive $45MM guaranteed at signing.
While not a $30MM-per-year contract like recent rumors indicated, Willis will still cash in via that nice guarantee number. This figures to provide at least a two-year runway for Willis in Miami, which will spread the Tagovailoa dead cap hit through 2027. Still, a $99.2MM dead cap hit over that span and a $20MM-plus QB salary will be an interesting route to take. A bit of a smokescreen effort may have taken place on the Dolphins’ part, as Sullivan pointed to the team’s cap situation making it difficult to win the Willis sweepstakes.
In terms of AAV, Willis is set to hover in unoccupied territory. This number comes in south of the Baker Mayfield–Sam Darnold tier but well north of backup money. The full guarantee likely became a strong sweetener for the Jordan Love backup, who drew interest from a few teams — the Browns, Cardinals and Steelers among them. Presenting a strange free agency profile with six career starts, Willis ranked seventh on PFR’s top 50 free agents list. He will do much better than Justin Fields in terms of fully guaranteed money; the Jets gave their 2025 starter at $30MM guarantee.
Fields’ $20MM-per-year deal is the only QB contract in this neighborhood, but the Jets are about to terminate that deal. Soon, Willis’ $22.5MM AAV number will be the only QB pact in between Cam Ward‘s rookie salary ($12.21MM) and Mayfield’s current $33.3MM AAV.
Mike Vrabel deemed Willis unplayable late in the 2022 season, after the third-round rookie looked erratic in his short time at the helm. The Titans drafted Will Levis in 2023 and parked Willis behind he and Ryan Tannehill. A new Titans coaching staff signed off on trading the Jon Robinson-era draftee to the Packers for a low-end return in summer 2024. Willis became needed immediately, with Love going down with an injury in Week 1 of that season.
Matt LaFleur customized the offense to suit Willis’ skillset, and the effort created a market. Willis ran his start count from three to six in Green Bay, putting up eye-popping (and unsustainable) numbers. He compiled a 6:0 TD-INT ratio in Green Bay, having completed 70 of 89 attempts at a college-y 12.1 yards per pass. Willis also averaged 6.2 yards per rush (29/261/3). Willis will now work under Bobby Slowik, who will run a LaFleur-type scheme. Both are Kyle Shanahan disciples.
With Willis committing to Miami within an hour of the legal tampering period’s outset, other QB-needy teams will not need to authorize higher-end guarantees — most likely, at least. But some of those teams will be left scrambling, as a host of needs exist on this year’s market. That helped inflate Willis’ value despite the six career starts.
The Dolphins gave Tagovailoa six years but erred by giving him a $53.1MM-per-year extension in 2024. The Mike McDaniel passer showed tremendous promise as an accurate thrower, but concussions gave way to inconsistency for the left-hander. Miami benched Tagovailoa late in McDaniel’s tenure and was never seriously linked to retaining him — despite what would have been a easier route contractually — this offseason. Sullivan will take a risk with Willis due to his limited sample size, but he and Hafley certainly have plenty of information on him from the sides’ two-year overlap in Wisconsin.
Wow. I figured he was Arizona bound and the Dolphins were going scorched earth tank again. It’s a lot of guaranteed money for a guy with so little track record, but the annual average is very low for a starting quarterback not on a rookie deal. Curious to see how this one goes.
Nah Miami always made most sense
22.5 AAV on a short term deal.
thats peanuts compared to the going rate for QBs. especially given the current shortage.
I was hoping the Falcons would snag him. Good for Malik getting a starting opportunity, I hope he succeeds.
No idea how this team makes one bad move after another. So be it.
The most interesting thing is trying to figure out how Miami is going to manage their cap with the massive dead money of both Hill and Tua. Between the 2 this year looking at close to $90 million dollars. That’s 1/3 of the cap.
Ugh, this is so uninspiring. I hope I’m wrong but this dude should not be getting 30+/ year. He has what, 3 games of good tape? This feels like the AJ Feely signing all over again, except Willis having scrambiling/rushing edge. This franchise is so difficult to root for. They won’t be able to fill a competitive roster, why waste what little cap space you have on an unproven passer when next years draft is potentially loaded
Well even if it is, they need a bridge QB next year.
If you look at it that way, it makes total sense. You take a chance on a guy who is still young enough to be your franchise QB, and if it doesn’t work out well you still have a bridge QB so your rookie doesn’t have to start right away.
Why not just play Ewers to see what you have and reset the rest of the roster ahead of a Rich 2027 draft? It seems like a massive overpay on top of releasing Tua
There was a reason why Ewers was a 7th round pick..
He’s NOT a starting caliber QB in this league. When he was starting at Texas there were times that he was hard to watch and you could see he didn’t have the talent to start at the next level (NFL)
That should not make them desperate enough to sign Willis. He at times has shown he is not a NfL starter either. But not my team not my circus to really worry about if it all blows up again.
I don’t have a ton of faith he’ll be good but him and waddle should be fun at least
Business is business.
It was always going to be insane money for a guy with six career starts but this is at least slightly less insane than they were talking earlier.
Funny how it ends up being Miami after everybody said they didn’t have the cap space to make it happen.
Best of luck to him. Loved him coming out of Liberty. Tennessee never gave him a real chance.
Big mistake
treading water ..
Lol guess they didn’t learn from the whole Tua contract …. Willis is unproven but hey this is the NFL
Watched alot of Willis play last season when Love was out. GB ran the ball (and alot) which opened up the WRs for Willis. He played well and made plays when needed to, don’t get me wrong, but he was never tested in critical situations or heavy pass rushes. Also had a very good D behind him. Hopefully he turns out better than a game manager. Time will tell.
let’s see if Slowik can do with Willis what he could not with Stroud