On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins will look to get their first win of the season as they take on the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium.
Through two games, the Miami Dolphins are the only NFL team to not have held a lead at any point of the season. While growing pains were to be expected on a young, inexperienced roster with not a lot of depth, the team has been uncompetitive.
Additionally, their collective struggles have made it so that it’s difficult to truly evaluate the play of certain individual players. For example, the Dolphins offensive line has struggled as a unit, but a lot of that has been right tackle Austin Jackson being left on an island against two of the premier pass rushers in the NFL.
Aside from making it difficult to truly evaluate whether starters like Kadyn Proctor and Jonah Savaiinaea have been good, the offensive play has also led to a difficult evaluation of quarterback Malik Willis. Despite this, Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley believes the quarterback has some areas where he can improve upon after the first two games.
Miami Dolphins Quarterback Asked to Be More Consistent
After Week 2’s loss against the San Francisco 49ers, Miami Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley said of Willis’ performance: “I just think it’s the consistency right now and it’s just getting comfortable with the guys around him and getting in rhythm. So the drop back pass, which unfortunately we’ve been in two games where we’ve needed to drop back and pass for the latter half of the second half, and when they know you’re going to drop back, it’s going through the progression, it’s being on time, it’s having the receivers be on time. I think those are the things early in the year there’s a lot of quarterbacks working on.”
Regarding Willis’ performance, Dolphins on SI’s Tyler Carmona wrote: “Malik Willis already is sitting near the bottom of a leaderboard no quarterback wants to be on two weeks into his first season with the Miami Dolphins.
The 27-year-old has completed just 58% of his passes (29 of 50), with only three current starting quarterbacks posting a lower completion percentage through Week 2.
And he hasn’t exactly made up for the low completion rate by being a gunslinger, as his passing-yard total still ranks in the bottom half of the league.”
Malik Willis’ Supporting Cast
Despite his poor statistical production, Carmona made the argument that Miami’s supporting cast has not helped out its inexperienced quarterback.
Carmona added: “But a closer look at the film shows pointing the finger at the quarterback doesn’t tell the whole story.
Willis has left throws on the field. He’s also been inaccurate on plays where personnel and play design offer no excuse.
At the same time, Miami continues to put their new quarterback in situations where the margin for error disappears almost immediately…
Sometimes Willis actually misses the answer. Other times, the personnel or the construction of the play makes completing it considerably more difficult.
That doesn’t absolve him. But at some point, help the guy out.”
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