00:00Let me read you something Barry Jackson wrote in the Miami Herald.
00:03I'm not going to read you the entire thing, but you get the gist of it here.
00:07He says the first four games of Malik Willis' audition to become the Dolphins franchise quarterback
00:12can be summed up thusly, not nearly good enough.
00:17And yet, during fleeting moments, tantalizing enough to not totally rule out the possibility
00:24that he could become one.
00:26There have been moments, some snapshots, where you see the dynamic arm strength or the escapability
00:33or the high-end athleticism or the ability to throw on the run, NFL-specific skills that
00:39make you resistant to give up totally on the hope of Willis becoming a franchise quarterback.
00:44You can't determine anything definitively after four games, particularly when several of the
00:50players around Willis are underperforming or simply not good enough.
00:54But we're still waiting for the game where the Dolphins have reason to emerge, saying
01:00we have our guy.
01:03And Barry Jackson writes further, a month in, that game hasn't happened.
01:08It certainly didn't happen on Sunday when Willis completed just 9 of 17 passes for 85 yards
01:15in a surprisingly competitive 15-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in their vaunted defense,
01:20dropping Miami to 0-4.
01:22And he kind of recounts what went wrong during some key plays, and you can read it in the
01:28Miami Herald.
01:30And then he writes, finally, there was the most important possession of Willis' young Dolphins
01:35career, one that separates franchise quarterbacks from Jags.
01:40Just a guy.
01:41Down 15-10 with the ball, with 6.41 left, Miami went three and out.
01:47Gordon gained two yards on a first down run, and Willis then threw errantly on a pressured
01:53throw to Jalen Tolbert that would have gone nowhere even if it had been completed.
01:58On third and eight, Willis got the ball to Bell downfield, but Harrison Smith knocked it
02:02away.
02:03But Coleman was wide open on the play, and Willis apparently didn't see him.
02:06Bell wasn't the primary read on that play, Willis said.
02:11It turned into a scramble drill once I got outside the pocket.
02:14Miami punted, never got the ball back.
02:16None of that, Barry Jackson writes at the end, is nearly good enough.
02:22Is it time to completely give up on the idea of Willis as a franchise quarterback?
02:26Absolutely not.
02:27But is it reasonable to expect much more?
02:32Absolutely.
02:32A franchise quarterback must orchestrate more than four touchdown drives in four games.
02:39He also must lift the players around him.
02:42In both regards, Willis continues to come up short.
02:48Yes, I agree with everything that Barry says, and it's a tough argument because he's in year
02:55what, three, four?
02:56He's really in game 10 of his rookie season.
03:00That's what I was just looking up.
03:01Josh Allen was terrible as a rookie, 52%, 10 touchdowns, 12 interceptions.
03:05We were praising Bryce Young earlier in the show.
03:08Bryce Young was terrible his rookie year.
03:10He actually got benched his second year.
03:13Malik Willis, if you can look at it this way, let me know if I'm wrong.
03:16He is 10 games in his rookie year.
03:18This is his 10th start as a leader of a team.
03:21He's going to have growing pains.
03:23Do you see flashes?
03:24Did you see enough flashes out of Josh Allen?
03:26He was terrible.
03:26You see enough flashes out of Bryce early on.
03:28Somebody didn't because he got benched for Blaine Gabbard or something, Craig.
03:32It was somebody terrible.
03:34Are we willing to go through that with Malik Willis and not draft a guy to take his job?
03:38That's really the question.
03:39That's what everybody has to figure out down here.
03:41But it's an impossible situation.
03:43Here's what I struggle with.
03:44I want to know what we have in Malik Willis.
03:46And you're right, Crowder.
03:47That was his 10th game ever starting.
03:50Well, if you provide all the context where his weapons are the worst in the NFL, the Dolphins are constantly
03:57getting penalized, which hurts the quarterback and puts him in tougher spots because you have a young team.
04:02It is what it is, right?
04:04Well, then how are we going to analyze them?
04:07Because the numbers aren't good.
04:08The numbers are not a franchise starting quarterback.
04:13So I don't know.
04:14How do we analyze it?
04:15Well, to what Barry Jackson is saying in the Miami Herald, maybe you can take some context out of it.
04:22You can put context in it, but you can take some context out and just say a franchise quarterback has
04:30to be able to lead you to more than four touchdown drives in four games.
04:35All context aside, a franchise quarterback has to be able to lead you to more than four touchdown drives in
04:43four games.
04:44That's a pretty fair statement, I think, right?
04:48Yes, that makes sense.
04:51How?
04:51How?
04:52But, um, I was going to say Bryce Young, Bryce Young in 2023 had 11 touchdowns in 16 starts.
05:02He wasn't leading much of much game winning drive.
05:06Yeah, I mean, they were less than one a game.
05:07They were two and 14.
05:10And now we're talking about now he's going to probably go to the Pro Bowl if he keeps this up
05:13and stays healthy.
05:15But are we willing to wait three years on Malik Willis?
05:18I would say no.
05:19I don't care what he becomes.
05:20I would say no to waiting three years on Malik Willis if he hasn't shown me more than that.
05:25But to Solana's point, can he show that when your number one receivers are rookies and tiny-type Malik Washington?
05:32But I would also submit to you that Malik Willis had an opportunity to show that to two different organizations
05:39prior to us getting him.
05:42You know what I mean?
05:43Like, Tennessee wanted him to succeed, obviously, right?
05:48Didn't they draft him in the first round?
05:50No.
05:50Not the first round.
05:52I mean, they want him to succeed.
05:54They gave him a couple of chances.
05:56He didn't.
05:57Where did he go after that?
05:58He went to Green Bay.
05:59Green Bay.
06:00And Jordan Love got drafted in the first round, and he's not going to take Jordan Love's job.
06:04He was there to be a backup.
06:06My question is, you say Tennessee wanted him to succeed.
06:09Sure, on the surface.
06:10But what did they put around him?
06:12Why did he fail?
06:13I'm not taking all the blame away from Malik Willis.
06:15Maybe he's just not a talented quarterback.
06:17But that situation was a dumpster fire in Tennessee.
06:19It continues to be.
06:20And in Miami right now, to me, it's worse than a dumpster fire.
06:24You're not giving him a fair chance to succeed.
06:26And by the way, I'm not even trying to defend Malik Willis.
06:29Like, I have no real attachment to him.
06:31I think he's a good dude, and I think he's a fine quarterback.
06:33I don't think he's great.
06:35I just don't see how Dolphins fans, through four games, especially you saw yesterday, come away saying,
06:42the quarterback is the issue.
06:44I'm done with Malik Willis.
06:45When I'm looking around and I'm saying, like, Jalen Tolbert?
06:50But I don't think anyone's saying the quarterback is the issue.
06:53I think they are.
06:53I think they're saying, we need to know, for the future, is this the guy, so that the quarterback isn't
07:01the issue.
07:02I don't think anyone's looking at what's going on this season and saying, oh, this is on the quarterback.
07:06But to ask you a question for a question, Solana, you said he's a fine quarterback, average quarterback, decent quarterback.
07:14You can use many words.
07:15What took you from he's trash to he's fine?
07:19Because if he has, if you can do that with this lack of talent around him, if he had a
07:25Rams roster, if you had Puka Nakua and Devontae Adams, he would be better.
07:30His numbers would be better, hands down, by far.
07:33Corm in the backfield, Williams in the backfield.
07:35Like, if he had those guys, could he look above average?
07:39Could he look elite with that?
07:40We don't know.
07:41And there's no answer to this because there's none of those guys on the free agent market that you can
07:45put around him.
07:46So how do we find out what he really is?
07:48I'm asking Barry, asking everybody.
07:50I wonder if the Dolphins and John Eric Sullivan did themselves a disservice by not riding with a quarterback who
07:59you knew wasn't going to be the franchise quarterback so that you didn't have this question throughout the season.
08:06Or maybe they are.
08:10Maybe they know that Malik's not the answer, but mentally is mature enough to withstand a season like this, which
08:17that, to me, has been answered.
08:19This dude says the right thing every single day.
08:21He's unlike Tua in that regard, and he's old enough and mature enough to kind of take these knocks and
08:28get back the next day, rally the team, and be the right guy in order to lead a situation like
08:34this one.
08:35But maybe they are, Hawk.
08:36Maybe they threw him a couple extra bucks and said, hey, this is your job to win, knowing that they're
08:42going to go draft a quarterback anyways.
08:44And Malik, he knows.
08:46He's not a dumb dude.
08:47He was on the podcast.
08:48He understands football.
08:51I'm going to come in here for $30 million for two years.
08:54I'm not going to have a lot around me.
08:56Let me see what I can do.
08:57Let me see what I can impress.
08:59But I'm going to walk with 30.
09:00Was it 32 guaranteed?
09:03Fellas, I'll let you know.
09:04I'll take me a $32 million knock as well.
09:07Take a break here.
09:08You can read the entire column in the Miami Herald or on the Herald app.
09:12That's Barry Jackson writing about Malik Willis.
09:14I know it's a very controversial topic right now because someone even texted in, why are you guys incapable of
09:22saying he's trash?
09:24Because I don't think he's trash.
09:26But that's what you're seeing a lot of today.
09:28I heard it.
09:29I heard it on the morning show.
09:30The texts that were coming in, midday show as well.
09:33And on Twitter yesterday, to me, Hawk, the takeaway from the majority of Dolphins ends.
09:39And I know Twitter isn't always like the great barometer of the tenor of the franchise.
09:43But you saw it a lot more yesterday than you did through week three.
09:46People have made their decision on Malik Willis.
09:48And to me, I don't see how you could possibly make your decision on Malik Willis.
09:53But that's fine.
09:53What you said was people are blaming the Dolphins' season on Malik Willis.
09:59That's what I'm taking issue with.
10:01If people want to make a determination on him, that's fine.
10:04You can think he's trash.
10:05I don't have any problem with that.
10:07You can think he's a diamond in the rough.
10:09You can have that.
10:10Like, it doesn't.
10:11That's fine.
10:12I think all ends of the spectrum are open on him.
10:16I don't hear many people saying the Dolphins' season is 0-4 because of Malik Willis.
10:23That was the only thing that I was taking place.
10:24Everybody understands.
10:25It's the team in general.
10:27The whole team.
10:28Yeah.
10:29To text her, whoever that was you read, Solana, I don't know if he's terrible, and I don't
10:33know if he's good.
10:34And I don't think anybody really knows.
10:35Right?
10:36Which is my point of maybe they did themselves a disservice by not going with a guy like
10:42Zach Wilson or Quinn Ewers just for the season.
10:46You hold your nose because you know he's not a franchise quarterback.
10:52That's a tough sell, too.
10:55Yeah, we know he's garbage, huh?
10:56Come on, now.
10:57Well, you don't say it.
10:59You just let it happen.
11:00You see what happened with Sam Darnold?
11:03You see what's going on again with Kirk Cousins?
11:06Mm-hmm.
11:08The long game.
11:09The long game.
11:10The long game.
