Change is coming to the AFC East, especially among the Buffalo Bills’ lowly rivals in New York and Miami. While the Jets continue to be a difficult team to project when it comes to who will be their starting quarterback in 2026, the Dolphins have a perfectly timed connection to one of the league’s few promising options on the free agent market.
That, of course, is Malik Willis, who spent the past two seasons in Green Bay alongside new Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan. With the team making it rather clear in recent weeks that they’re more than willing to move on from Tua Tagovailoa, analysts and reporters around the league have played matchmaker between Willis and the Dolphins to begin the offseason.
While on the surface it could be an intriguing move, the financial expense continues to worsen for Miami as we draw closer to the new league year and the start of free agency. And that is nothing but music to Bills Mafia’s ears.
Projected Malik Willis contract number raises eyebrows across AFC East
According to NFL Insider Jordan Shultz, teams that are interested in Malik Willis have already conceded that it’s “a foregone conclusion” that Willis will earn a contract worth $30 million per season on the open market.
To be fair to Miami, that is a smaller number than the $35.5 million Spotrac projected him to earn. However, it also confirms that Willis is going to get a much richer contract than he’s proven he’s worth this offseason. That said, it's not as though a bidding war between interested teams won't push his contract into that $35.5 million territory anyway.
Miami is already in a tough situation financially because of the quarterback situation. Tagovailoa, if he’s cut instead of traded, will leave Miami with $99 million in dead cap money. Considering that it’s unlikely any team wants to bring in Tagovailoa on his current, much-too-expensive contract, the Dolphins are playing a dangerous game if they replace Tagovailoa with Willis.
To Willis’s credit, his play in Green Bay more than washed away his early failings in Tennessee, where he was a third-round pick by the Titans. However, he’s thrown just 89 passes and started just three games in those two seasons with the Packers. He was a project quarterback coming out of Liberty in the 2022 NFL Draft, and he’s still a project four years later.
$30 million is a lot of money to throw at an unproven, if promising, player like Willis. Surely, Willis will likely sign a two-year contract with front-loaded money and guarantees, much like Justin Fields did in New York last offseason. That gives whoever signs Willis a comfortable out in Year 2 if things go poorly, and a great launching point if things go well.
That said, if Miami is truly among the most interested teams in Willis, it’s hard to see things going well, even if the Dolphins hold onto offensive playmakers like Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane. Miami has a ton of holes in its roster, many of which were created with the release of top veteran talents like Tyreek Hill and Bradley Chubb.
Again, it’s all music to Bills fans’ ears. Miami and Willis have a natural link, and it won’t shock anyone in the NFL if they join forces in the coming weeks. But, in the same vein, it won’t shock Bills Mafia one bit if this latest effort by Miami to throw money at their problems goes poorly once again.