The Miami Dolphins are in an incredibly difficult situation with their quarterback room. Highly compensated Tua Tagovailoa is sitting on the bench, with plenty of informed speculation suggesting that he’s played in his final snap in Miami. Moving on will require some spectacular gymnastics in one form or another — be it to find a taker for his contract via trade or to otherwise manipulate the salary cap around the dead money associated with Tagovailoa.

Zach Wilson was bypassed for a chance to start this month in favor of seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers — who feels like the only quarterback certain to be back on the roster in 2026 because he’s got three years remaining on his rookie contract and is an economically friendly option.

Miami needs an option for the future (and just Ewers doesn’t count). To secure one, it’ll likely need to do something a little ambitious or uncomfortable. Waiting for the perfect moment is generally a poor strategy in all things in life — finding a quarterback is no exception. Over the past few weeks, a potential name to know for Miami’s quarterback pivot has emerged. Unlike the top prospects of the 2026 NFL Draft, this one feels within reach.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Malik Willis could be the right choice to pivot from Tua Tagovailoa

Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis was sensational on Saturday night in a 41-24 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. He finished the contest 18-of-21 passing for 288 yards and a passing score, plus nine rushes for 60 yards and another two touchdowns on the ground. He was efficient, created outside of structure, and was a weapon for Matt LaFleur with his legs and arm.

Willis has quickly emerged as an intriguing presence for the 2026 offseason — he’s a free agent after the year. And the Packers, who are paying starter Jordan Love north of $50 million to be their franchise quarterback, feel ill-equipped to keep him on the roster.

Willis, who is 26 years old, is almost certainly going to be hoping for a chance to start somewhere. He’s earned that with his efficient and effective play in Green Bay over the last two seasons since arriving as an outcast from Tennessee. The tools have always been there.

Malik Willis has the launch codes. ???

(Factor in the near hash release point & WR proximity to the sideline and this is approximately a 59-yard throw in the air.) pic.twitter.com/BhlpB0p4VY

— Kyle Crabbs (@KyleCrabbs) May 22, 2021

The Dolphins are one of several teams that could afford him a starting opportunity in 2026. And the Dolphins, unlike some of those other teams, are not jostling for positioning to pick a quarterback at the top of the 2026 NFL Draft.

Miami’s offseason plans are littered with rumors of trading players to load up on draft capital as a means of getting into the rat race of the quarterback draft. But a player like Willis, who offers intriguing upside with some proof of concept at the NFL level, comes without the draft pick resources that Miami would need to move up in the queue.

He also comes with enough questions that the price point shouldn’t be considered unreasonable (at least by NFL quarterback standards). Willis has six NFL starts and 155 career pass attempts — half of those starts came with a hilariously bad Tennessee operation in 2022 as a rookie.

Daniel Jones, with a first-round pedigree and six years of starting experience, signed a one-year, $14 million contract this past offseason with Indianapolis. Justin Fields, coming off a season where he was the best starting quarterback in Pittsburgh after three years in Chicago, signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Jets this offseason.

Can Willis, with less than 200 career attempts to his name, really ask for or get much more than that? He’ll probably have an appetite for a one or two-year contract of his own — a chance to bet on himself as a starter somewhere before re-inserting him back into the quarterback market expeditiously.

Miami’s quarterback situation is uncomfortable. You may as well embrace the discomfort and do something bold and uncomfortable to try to get out of it.

Selling the farm to draft a rookie or spinning the roulette wheel and pushing things off for a year for the hope of college prospects developing, with no guarantee that it will ever happen, nor the assurance that the team will be in a position to draft one of the best ones in 2027, either.

The backdrop of the Tagovailoa contract almost reads like a “get out of jail free” card for such a move if Willis were to not work out in Miami, too. A general manager who steps into Miami with the Tagovailoa situation should not have it held against him to pursue a physically gifted free agent who has shown rapid growth in two years under the watch of LaFleur in Green Bay as an initial effort to redirect the quarterback room away from Tagovailoa — so long as he doesn’t break the bank.

There’s risk here, there’s no doubt about that. But Willis has enough body of work to showcase what he’s capable of being in a healthy environment. And pursuing Willis in free agency would allow the Dolphins to use their other resources in a foundational year to help produce a healthy environment of their own while also adding a quarterback with the physical ability to be an impactful starter.

Consider me on board for this idea — the cap gymnastics are a one-year project, and the Dolphins will be slashing plenty of cash payroll this offseason for names like Tyreek Hill and others to help balance and equal out their future books.

There’s a free agent price point at which I would believe the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. But for a dollar amount that hovers between what Jones and Fields got this past season, count me in.

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