Today we are taking a look at Liberty’s 6’1″ 215 lb. quarterback Malik Willis who is really generating buzz this off-season given his electrifying dual-threat ability, evidenced by his 944 rushing yards in 2020 on top of 2,260 passing yards.
Strengths: Willis is an elite athlete who thrives outside of the pocket. As a runner, Willis is explosive, fast, and elusive, able to gain big chunks of yardage as a true playmaker with his legs. Willis’s speed allows him to beat a defender around the corner, getting a 10-yard gain when other quarterbacks would be sacked. He also does not take too many hits when running, as his elusiveness makes it difficult to hit him and he often slides or runs out of bounds when needed. Willis is very comfortable throwing on the run, throwing accurately while scrambling towards the sideline without needing to reset his platform. As an electric running threat who is also good at throwing on the run, Willis is very dangerous outside the pocket and can extend a lot of plays. Willis possesses elite arm strength, allowing him to effortlessly launch deep balls and to throw with a lot of zip over the middle of the field. He flashes proper ball placement, especially on some tight window throws in the intermediate range. Willis is quite reliable in the short game and often smartly resorts to his checkdown option against pressure. He flashes the ability to read the field and go through his progressions effectively. Willis can stand tall and deliver the ball through an incoming hit. Willis is a fairly good decision-maker, rarely making ill-advised throws into double coverage for example.
Weaknesses: As gifted as Willis is at making plays outside of structure, he needs to improve within structure. This starts with his general accuracy, which is not currently good enough. His intermediate accuracy is just okay, with some balls being too high where the receiver can only get a hand on it and some being too low where the ball arrives at the receiver’s feet. Willis’s deep accuracy is currently very subpar. He has the arm strength for the deep game but the ball often falls well beyond the mark and his overthrows and erratic accuracy deep leave way too many potential touchdowns unfulfilled. Furthermore, his poor accuracy can lead to interceptions when the ball happens to land closer to a defender than his receiver. Willis also needs to get better at sensing pressure, particularly from his blindside. Given that he struggles to sense incoming defenders that aren’t in his direct field of vision, Willis presents a ball security issue when he is caught by surprise. Willis could also stand to quicken his internal clock and get the ball out faster. Sometimes against pressure he continuously backs up, getting himself in trouble for a big loss, rather than stepping up and delivering the ball. On some occasions, Willis puts the ball in trouble by failing to see underneath coverage or a lurking safety. His eventual transition to the NFL game could be made even more difficult since he is rarely tasked with making checks at the line of scrimmage and many of his reads are manufactured for him in Liberty’s offensive system.
Bottom Line: Willis is gifted with remarkable athleticism that allows him to extend the play and win chunks of yardage with his legs. However, Willis needs a lot of work as a passer, starting with his overall accuracy and ball placement which must improve, especially going deep. If he makes strides in 2021, Willis could project as a Lamar Jackson-type quarterback in the NFL (albeit with a notch less athleticism, since Jackson’s is other-worldly), but he currently needs a lot of development and improvement as a passer in order to inspire confidence that he can realize the sky-high potential that his rare combination of athleticism and arm strength offers him, especially considering the difficult scheme-related transition to the NFL that eventually awaits him.
On this Thursday, my fellow co-founder of Bold Take Scouting Alex Greb and I will be interviewing potential 2022 NFL Draft prospect and Nevada tight end Cole Turner. It will stream live at 5 p.m. ET so make sure to tune in! You may ask him a question live using the comment section as well.
