For the most part, this has been a solid offseason for Tennessee Titans quarterback Malik Willis, who, by all accounts, has made positive strides in his overall development.
Willis’ hard work even received praise from head coach Mike Vrabel after he stated that his second-year quarterback showed “glaring improvement” during the offseason.
However, one area where Willis continues to struggle is with his ability to process information in live action.
This has been evident by his average time to throw (TTT) ever since he entered the league. To be fair, the Titans quarterback has dramatically improved in this area compared to this time last year.
Willis’ average TTT in his first preseason game in 2022 was approximately 4.39 seconds. One year later, that number dropped all the way to 3.18 seconds in his 2023 preseason debut.
While that is still considered pretty slow in the grand scheme of things, that is an obvious sign of progress that left many of us feeling optimistic that he was starting to turn a corner.
Unfortunately, Willis regressed in this category just one week later, with his TTT average increasing to a whopping 3.58 seconds, the slowest among all quarterbacks this preseason who have had a minimum of 30 dropbacks, per Zach Lyons of the “Football & Other F Words” podcast.
#Titans QB Malik Willis saw his Avg. TTT increase in week two
Through 2 Games he is at 3.58s. Slowest out of the preseason QBs w/ 30 dropbacks min.
Pressure Responsibility ( All QB Hurries):
Duncan: 3
Hubbard: 1
Skoronski: 1
Rupcich: 1
Brunskill: 1Only sack was on Levin https://t.co/3ucRcSnlqd
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) August 20, 2023
For perspective, Ryan Tannehill’s average TTT a season ago was less than 2.7 seconds despite everything that happened to his supporting cast throughout the year.
If you want to say this type of regression is because the young quarterback extends his plays with his legs, then that’s fine.
But Lyons calculated Willis’ TTT without scrambles and sacks and instead only used plays in which he attempted a pass. These were the results:
If you took out his scrambles and sacks, and just ones where he attempted a pass:
Week 1: 2.92s (7th slowest) (min. 15 DBs)
Week 2: 3.00s (3rd slowest) (min. 15 DBs)
Week 1 & 2: 2.95s (slowest) (min. 30 DBs)Levis Week 1: 2.56s (14th fastest) (min. 15 DBs)
— Football & Other F Words (@FWordsPod) August 20, 2023
Lyons also pointed out that rookie quarterback Will Levis produced the 14th-fastest TTT (2.56 seconds) in his debut using those same metrics
If Willis is ever going to reach his full potential, he must improve his ability to accurately process information, both pre- and post-snap.
One of the biggest things that the former third-round pick struggles with is the fact that he tends to wait until he sees something come open instead of anticipating it.
This is the NFL and the reality is defenses are going to do a good job at disguising their coverages.
In order to truly succeed, he has to do a better job at picking up tendencies of the opposing defense and/or critically thinking about the various possibilities based on the looks he gets.
For example, if both safeties bail into a two-deep look to cover a deep half of the field the second the ball is snapped, chances are they’re playing some variation of Cover 2.
At that point, a quarterback should know that there is some sort of underneath coverage to complement the two-deep safety look.
Troy Dye's pick was a bad read by Malik Willis, yes, but also a well-executed rep from Dye to sell man coverage and then settle into an area. pic.twitter.com/VnXFSYNtX6
— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) August 20, 2023
As difficult as it is, Willis has to find ways to give himself an advantage if he’s going to play the position.
If a signal-caller scans the field and sees something he doesn’t like, he has to take the checkdown or whatever the defense is giving him, make a mental note of how that coverage was disguised, and then adequately attack the defense the next time he gets that look.
What a quarterback can’t do is latch on to a primary read and make predetermined throws because that’s how signal-callers get in trouble.
Even if a quarterback absolutely loves the look they’re getting and is positive the first read should be open, he must manipulate the defense or, at the very least, do a quick scan to make sure nothing out of the ordinary took place that could compromise the play.
Football is a chess match and Willis must figure out a way to play the game as such. Nobody is pretending like that’s an easy thing to do; professional quarterbacks have to process a ridiculous amount of information in a short amount of time.
There’s a reason why they get paid a ton of money, and it’s largely because their job is harder than everybody else’s.
With that said, it comes with the job description, and if he can’t get it done, then Tennessee will have no choice but to find someone who can.
This doesn’t mean Willis can’t get there, nor is it some personal attack like some might take this as, it’s simply pointing out things that Willis must improve if he’s ever going to be trusted to be a franchise quarterback.
Thankfully, Willis will likely have another year on the bench to continue developing and improving his overall skill set.
For everybody’s sake, let’s hope we see major improvements in the cerebral part of his game because he truly has the physical traits to be a special player if he can ever sync the two together.
