Malik Willis has not been dealt the best of hands in his opportunities to start for the Tennessee Titans.
The rookie from Liberty finds himself being asked to rescue a foundering franchise, playing behind an offensive line that looks USFL-caliber and with few quality receivers.
It’s certainly a lose-lose proposition for getting a full evaluation of what they do or don’t have in Willis.
That said, at this stage of his rookie season, it’s clear Willis is far less NFL-ready than any rookie quarterback the Titans have asked to lead the offense since the franchise arrived here.
Granted, that’s a pretty low bar, but rookies Vince Young, Jake Locker, Marcus Mariota and even Zach Mettenberger all showed moments of promise in their first seasons under center before flaming out.
This is not to say that Willis, who has flashed solid athletic skills in the preseason and by all accounts seems to be a hard worker with a positive attitude, can’t succeed. But Sunday, he completed 14 of 23 passes for 99 yards with two interceptions.
That paltry 99 yards through the air was his top number of the season. Thus far in 2022, he has completed 31 of 61 throws (50.8%) for 276 yards passing.
Those numbers pale in comparison to the other Titans rookie quarterbacks at the same junctures of their respective careers. Both Young and Locker had only slightly better completion rates in their first years, but both threw for significantly more yards per attempt than Willis’ puny 4.5 yards.
And while, as Willis reminded reporters in his postgame media availability after the loss to the Texans, stats don’t tell the whole story, the Titans have to have more productivity from this rookie, if for no other reason than to give them hope that he might be a franchise quarterback at some point in the future.
What will the Titans do in 2023 if Willis doesn’t show more in his next two starts against the Cowboys and the divisional playoff play-in against Jacksonville?
They can go with Ryan Tannehill, who will be 35 and coming off an injury, hope to get lucky in the draft or take a stab at a potential younger free agent like Daniel Jones, Jimmy Garoppolo or Baker Mayfield.
Or they can hope Willis shows them enough to at least be in the conversation going forward.
Should Willis do that, the Titans have other decisions to make. To go with Willis means to go all-in with him, which means changing the offense to fit his skills, much like the Ravens did with Lamar Jackson.
They can’t simply continue to ask Willis to run an offensive system that is not build for his skills. That strategy is one reason he has looked so uncomfortable in the starts he has made.