Green Bay Packers backup quarterback Malik Willis, who had a 134.6 passer rating over two years with the team after general manager Brian Gutekunst traded a 2025 seventh-round pick for him in the summer of 2024, is set to be a free agent in 2026. It seems unlikely that Willis will be brought back to Green Bay this offseason after he hits the free agency market in March. In his end-of-season press conference earlier this week, Gutekunst even stated that Willis is “going to have a lot of opportunities”
this spring, a light admission that the quarterback will probably be wearing another jersey next year.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein in November — which, to be clear, was before a two-game stretch where Willis went 27 of 32 for 409 yards (12.8 yards per attempt), two passing touchdowns, a passer rating of 139.6 and run for 104 yards and two touchdowns on the ground — Willis’ market was projected to be around $5 million to $8 million per year. At this point, I think anything around or under the number Justin Fields got last offseason, a two-year, $20 million per year contract, seems reasonable. It only takes two teams to start a bidding war, which would bring up Willis’ price.
But who will those teams be? Well, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler dropped an update on the offseason quarterback market on Saturday, which included some info on potential landing spots for Willis. Here’s what Fowler had to say:
Two teams I’ll be watching to pursue Malik Willis, if they can find someone to take their current quarterbacks, are the Cardinals and Dolphins. The ties are obvious: New Dolphins GM Jon-Eric Sullivan and coach Jeff Hafley got a head start on Willis from Green Bay, and new Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur can get intimate knowledge of Willis’ game from LaFleur’s brother, Matt. The Cardinals and Dolphins are saddled with huge guarantees for Kyler Murray and Tua Tagovailoa, respectively, though. The Browns were my sleeper for Willis, but the hiring of Todd Monken might change that equation. He seems open to working with the quarterbacks on the roster, including Shedeur Sanders.
Those make sense, depending on how much of an appetite the Cardinals and Dolphins have to move on from their current quarterbacks. Both Murray and Tagovailoa have contracts that are hard to get out of, as Murray carries a dead cap of $54.7 million in 2026 and Tagovailoa carries a dead cap of $99.2 million. Those are the numbers to release these quarterbacks. If they trade these quarterbacks, their original teams will be less on the hook for their dead cap, but this would require finding a team that would be willing to take on the quarterbacks’ salary or bonus guarantees, too.
The NFL record for a dead cap hit is Russell Wilson’s $85 million, which was split over two years, so it’s not impossible for Arizona and Miami to move on from their quarterbacks, but it will cost them a lot of opportunities moving forward. The biggest single-season dead cap was Matt Ryan’s $40.5 million after the Atlanta Falcons swung and missed in the Deshaun Watson sweepstakes, followed by Aaron Rodgers’ $40.3 million after his time in Green Bay, when the Packers pushed his cap hits forward to prevent a title window from closing before trading him to the New York Jets.
For what it’s worth, Arizona finished 11th in the NFL with a 92.8 passer rating on the year. If I were asked to name places where Willis might get a legit shake to be a starter, I’d circle the Jets, Minnesota (depending on how they stack the veteran QB market), Carolina (if they don’t want to pick up Bryce Young’s fifth-year option), Miami (if they don’t want to stick with Tua), Pittsburgh (if they aren’t going to run it back with Rodgers) and Arizona (if they don’t want to move forward with either Murray or Jacoby Brissett). Decisions that these teams make at the quarterback position before free agency will tell us if they are or aren’t open to making Willis more than a backup in 2026.
