Malik Willis the starter for Tennessee in 2022?

Entering 2022, eyes will be on last year’s #1 seed in the AFC, the Tennessee Titans.

One key question is around whether rookie Malik Willis can do anything to unseat currently starting quarterback, Ryan Tannehill.

Willis, selected in the third round of the NFL draft by the Titans, is seen as the long-term future at the position in Tennessee.

But he young quarterback out of Liberty State was never drafted to be an instant starter. Tannehill is still primed the line for the foreseeable future. Yet Willis is already showing sparks that his future could be very special. 

Willis has been given plenty of early game time as the starting quarterback in preseason games against the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, showing great development through both. 

The Battle For Backup QB

Willis doesn’t have a straightforward route to being the backup quarterback for the Titans. He’ll have to win the backup spot first with Logan Woodside on the roster. Nonetheless, so far through preseason action, Willis has shown a lot more promise.

Woodside threw a couple of interceptions as he tends to control second half snaps for the Titans. And the consensus is starting to shift towards Willis being the teams backup this year. 

Willis has been fantastic on the run. His ability to break tackles and avoid rushing defenders has been fantastic. This was shown with his phenomenal touchdown run against the Ravens, where he was forced out of the pocket, and managed to make a couple of Ravens defenders miss before rushing in for the touchdown. 

Willis hasn’t had great protection in front of him. And has been forced into the run far more than the coaching staff will want to see, but the rookie quarterback is showing why there was so much hype around his game.

In the game against the Baltimore Ravens, Willis also found Racy McMath on a huge play downfield, showing just how good his throw power is. 

If Tannehill goes down, Willis is proving that he will be able to provide the Titans with a better opportunity of winning games as a backup quarterback than Woodside.

Should Tannehill be worried?

Tannehill is nailed on for the starting quarterback role this season. And most likely next season too.

But having some competition behind him will only be a good thing for the Titans to get the best out of the former eighth overall pick. 

Tannehill has proven that he is more than capable of leading this Titans team, with the side finishing last year on top of the AFC standings.

Through training camp, Tannehill has been finding his receivers fantastically, and is building good chemistry with the expected starters, especially rookie wide receiver Kyle Phillips, who will fill in in the slot for the Titans offence. 

With a new receiver core to be aiming for, this chemistry will be hugely important going into the season opener against the New York Giants in just two weeks time, a game the Titans will view as must win if the team want to finish the year as AFC South champions again.

What next for Willis?

One thing that has been clear in the two early preseason games is that Willis can sometimes be very tentative on making a throw. Instead, he will lean to his run game far too quickly. 

Multiple times the quarterback has has passing lanes open, but has chosen to go to his legs rather than finding his open receiver.

This is something that the Titans coaching staff have really been focussing on in training camp, and some development is starting to show.

Willis also had issues rolling to the left when he was initially drafted by the Titans, and this has still been showing as a weakness for him during training camp.

However, in recent training camp videos, Willis is starting to look a lot more comfortable rolling to the left, showing promising development already that Titans coaching staff will be huge excited about.

Willis probably has two years to refine these issues before he’s given the keys to the Titans offence, but any early development will only make the transition to starting quarterback much more simplistic.