I wouldn't hold him.
His candle isn't out. After an awful offense for development in college, he has a huge learning curve.
His OMG arm and OMG speed are obvious. Malik brings up conversations we should have about prospects and not just talk physical attributes during the Combine.
There's an obvious strong reasons to count him out but he worked as hard as any QB in the NFL last year. Possibly he improved more than any QB too. He consistently has coaches say how coachable he is and spends his down time working with QB gurus. He's a super nice guy which does matter when you're in his shoes too.
He beat Levis out in camp. He held him off and won the backup job. Tannehill got hurt and he looked soooo nervous and out of sorts for what was a very short time. Levis went in and did OK then rocked his next start and Willis never got another chance. It really wasn't much of an opportunity for Willis and we didn't at all see the guy that was vastly improved last camp.
A lot of people have been short sighted and wanting to validate their predraft or preseason predictions about Willis playing last year. 5?10? plays doesn't make a career.
Alot of guys had him last summer being used as a tool to develop Levis. No doubt there were times and coaching competition tricks but not at the end of camp and not when Vrabel announced him as the 2. He was a player and he did do well last summer. Ya can't blow that off entirely. Levis had practices where he threw five TDs and Malik threw six. He beat him and idk when a "first round" QB has ever been beaten out before. Malik though is a "first round" QB too that also fell.
I go back to the coachable comments from everyone and how many reporters were stunned last summer. Titans have several 15-30 year reporters so they aren't easy to stun either. He needed a whole new process from the snap. His feet and steps, his throwing motion, everything. He worked with gurus and did it. That is so hard to do. He looked great in drills- big deal right? Well it's the opportunity given and that's all he had to work with. Then he looked good in team stuff and...hmmm.
Flop in little action no doubt.
Mini camp, new staff not sure if he'll make the team. Had issues picking up the new offense but they loved him staying late and asking questions. Nuk singled him out as being the hardest worker and said he's never not seen him at the facility. Rudolph looked like the clear veteran that was so smooth and so much better than Willis.
Two days into camp, not in pads yet, the offense stunk the first day and coach brought him up as making every read correctly and throwing where we wanted it thrown. Inference the others didn't. Coach brought up it's a competition for the backup spot and it didn't look like that in minicamp nor were there quotes it would be. This guy had to go home and work on whatever he needed and come back with issues fixed to pull that off.
Count this guy out. I have. No one is crazy enough to predict success at this point.
His ability to learn and be coached is phenomenal so you drop him from FF and leave a post it on your second monitor with his name on it. Maybe it's a stop in the UFL then beating out someone in an NFL camp for him. Idk but leave a light on for an exceptional learner
leave a door open and say my goodness that's an awful spot for a young QB and such a brief chance to show what he can do BUT that doesn't change anything as far as where any of them are at now.
