What Constitutes a Successful Season for Malik Willis?

What Constitutes a Successful Season for Malik Willis?

The Miami Dolphins enter a whole new era in the 2026 season.

Gone are the high-paid names of the “Ferrari era” Dolphins, a team that once featured a prolific offense including the likes of Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The stripping down of the roster didn’t just include the offense; it also included defensive stars such as Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips and Minkah Fitzpatrick.

That also includes the man who shaped the identity of those teams in head coach Mike McDaniel.

The current era features a number of former Green Bay Packers figures in new head coach Jeff Hafley, general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan and starting quarterback Malik Willis. All three figures played prominent roles for the Packers in recent years.

While the Dolphins will enter a new era with a fresh start after a couple of disappointing seasons under the McDaniel regime, they’ll enter with extremely low expectations. Many expect the Dolphins to be one of the worst teams in the NFL, with some expecting Miami to be at the very bottom of the barrel. In their recent offseason power rankings, USA Today ranked the Dolphins as the worst team in the NFL — and it’s hard to argue against that.

With such low expectations, the question is, what constitutes a successful season for Willis and the Dolphins? The 27-year-old quarterback will be a full-time starter for the first time in his NFL career after entering with high expectations as a third-round draft pick of the Tennessee Titans back in 2022.

However, Willis struggled during his brief action with the Titans, and they quickly moved on from the idea of him as a franchise quarterback. He went 1-2 as a starting quarterback with a lowly 42.8 passer rating, zero touchdowns, and three interceptions. His lone bright spot was his rushing ability, posting 123 rushing yards with a touchdown on just 27 attempts. However, he also fumbled three times, losing two of them.

He re-upped his value as a backup to Jordan Love as a member of the Green Bay Packers over the past two seasons, going 2-1 as a starter while posting six touchdowns against zero interceptions. He lost just one fumble in those appearances. As a result of his solid play — and the Dolphins’ new regime’s familiarity with him — Willis was signed to a three-year, $67.5 million deal as the new franchise quarterback.

As with all things, the standard for Willis needs to be measured based upon the expectations and his supporting cast. The Dolphins have one remaining star player on offense, and that’s running back De’Von Achane, who is coming off a stellar Pro Bowl season with 1,350 rushing yards, eight rushing touchdowns and 67 receptions.

Outside of Achane, his supporting cast is largely unproven and young, with his top three receivers being Malik Washington, Jalen Tolbert and Tutu Atwell. For perspective, Washington is probably the top receiver of those three and is the only one that was with the Dolphins last season. He posted just 46 catches for 317 yards and three touchdowns.

On the other hand, Tolbert spent four years with the Dallas Cowboys as a secondary receiver, posting 18 catches for 203 yards and one touchdown last season. His best year saw him post 49 catches for 610 receiving yards and seven touchdowns during the 2024 season.

Atwell spent the past four seasons as a secondary receiver with the Los Angeles Rams, posting just six catches for 192 receiving yards and one touchdown in 10 games. His best season also came in 2024 when he had 42 catches for 562 receiving yards while appearing in all 17 games.

At tight end, the Dolphins are hoping that Greg Dulcich can become the lead guy at tight end with the departure of former Pro Bowler Darren Waller. Waller was a pleasant surprise last season after coming out of retirement, posting 24 catches for 283 yards and a team-leading six touchdowns in just nine games.

Dulcich had 26 catches for 335 yards and a touchdown last season and doesn’t possess the talent or skill that Waller does. He’s also never really been a full-time starting tight end in his career, starting just 13 games in his career. He started six games as a member of the Denver Broncos in 2022, posting 33 catches for 411 yards and two touchdowns, his best season to date.

In our recent interview with Joe Theismann, the former MVP and Super Bowl champion quarterback said it best when it comes to Willis — a successful season for him is keeping the turnovers to a minimum and ensuring that he’s not the reason for the Dolphins’ losses. It’s also key that he keeps the Dolphins competitive in games, which would be an indication he’s keeping the turnovers to a minimum while maximizing the potential of arguably the least-talented offensive core in the NFL.

“You can’t just look at a quarterback and say, ‘Well, this is his record,’” said Theismann. “You have to take into consideration what’s happened around him every time he’s gone on the football field; he’s performed very well. He understands that he’s a team guy, he knows what he needs to do. He understands his job, and this is going to be the ultimate test of leadership for him, because now there’s a whole new slew of guys, all new coaching staff, and the thing you can’t do is you can’t try and please everybody.

“I think to be consistent, number one, not make the big mistakes,” Theismann continued. “I used to have a sign on my locker that said, ‘You don’t have to be the reason the team wins, you just can’t be the reason it loses.’ I think that’s a great moniker for him. There’s going to be lots of ways to win a ball game, but as a quarterback, there’s certain ways that you just don’t want to lose games. I think that’s what he needs to do.”

One benefit that Willis has over most quarterbacks is his mobility. He showed the ability to take care of the football in brief action with the Packers. The question is, can he do that over the duration of a full 17-game season?

A good example of a quarterback — who has much less talent than Willis — who takes care of the football, maximizes his own abilities while keeping his team competitive is Tyrod Taylor, who ironically took over Willis’ backup job in Green Bay. Taylor has the lowest interception rate (1.4%) in NFL history with Aaron Rodgers and led the Buffalo Bills to the playoffs in 2017 after an 18-year hiatus.

The Dolphins could very well select Brendan Sorsby in the 2026 Supplemental Draft, but this is Willis’ job to keep for this season. If he can prove to be a capable starting quarterback, that would hold off the idea of starting Sorsby while also giving Willis an opportunity to compete for the starting job in 2027 — regardless of who the Dolphins pick in next year’s draft.