Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Malik Willis has clearly made some strides during his first offseason in the NFL, which is pretty much all the team can ask for at this early stage of his career.
After practice on Thursday, head coach Mike Vrabel went into detail about what he has seen Willis improve upon.
“I’ve seen him work thru his progression. I’ve seen him improve his timing. Then I’ve seen him be able to slide up in the pocket,” Vrabel said, per NFL Network’s Mike Giardi. “That’s where you can make a lot of damage in the league. Then if you get out the back of the pocket, using numerous QBs as an example, but Josh Allen has made a living going out and making plays out of the pocket and throwing the ball downfield and keeping his eyes downfield.”
One example of Willis working through his progression was his six-yard touchdown pass to Chigoziem Okonkwo in preseason Week 2.
Willis did a great job surveying the field and looking at multiple options before settling on his third read, Okonkwo, in the middle of the field and throwing a bullet to complete the score.
Malik Willis put some heat on this one 🔥pic.twitter.com/eJ9zp3Oz7B
— NFL Network (@nflnetwork) August 21, 2022
Decisiveness and knowing when to step up in the pocket or roll out of it remains an issue for Willis, but we also saw improvement in those areas. And, he simply looked more comfortable overall, even with bad protection upfront.
“It is just a daily progression,” Vrabel said of Willis’ development “It’s all the individual drills that sometimes you see it carry over just like we want it to look and like he wants it to look.”
Willis has easily outplayed his competition for the backup job behind Ryan Tannehill, Logan Woodside, but it remains to be seen if Tennessee will only keep the rookie and not opt for a buffer between him and the field.
The 2022 third-round pick may see his last action for quite awhile when the Titans host the Arizona Cardinals in the preseason finale on Saturday night.
