Matt LaFleur’s Finest Hour

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Photo by Evan Siegle - packers.com

Matt LaFleur Sept. 15, 2024

Matt LaFleur after the Packers' victory, Sept. 15, 2024

Malik Willis is a gifted raw talent at quarterback who has never really found himself in the right place at the right time. He is extremely fast, and he has one of the NFL’s strongest arms, but until was traded to the Packers on August 27, he hadn’t played for team that understood how to develop a quarterback with his specific flaws. He began his college career at Auburn where, early, he couldn’t beat out incumbent Jarrett Stidham, and in 2019, saw the writing on the wall as Bo Nix took over for the Tigers. Willis transferred to Liberty where he was at least able to showcase his talent for the NFL community, and he would be drafted in the third round of the 2022 draft by the Packers’ next opponent, the Tennessee Titans. 

Tennessee is simply not a good place for a developmental quarterback to land, and it doesn’t seem as though the team understood what Willis’ shortcomings actually were. Willis spent most of his first two seasons behind veteran Ryan Tannehill, and during his time sitting and learning, the Titan coaches should have been working on getting Willis through his progressions more quickly. In his final season at Liberty, Willis was sacked on a higher percentage of pressures than all but three quarterbacks in all of college football: Ben Bryant of Eastern Michigan, Hendon Hooker of Tennessee, now of the Lions, and Sam Howell of North Carolina, now of the Seattle Seahawks. His primary problem was getting through his progressions in time. 

At the professional level, Willis started three games and threw 35 total passes for the Titans. He was sacked 14 times, threw three interceptions, and his Pressure to Sack rate (P/S) remained identical to what it was in college. Whatever the Titans were doing wasn’t working. 

Working on Accuracy

There are basically two types of developmental quarterbacks. The first is exemplified by Jordan Love, who had an extremely good 15.9 P/S in college (his internal clock was fantastic) but struggled with accuracy. While Love was sitting behind Aaron Rodgers, he was likely working on mechanics more than anything else as accuracy issues are caused by a breakdown in mechanics. The second is Malik Willis, who also had accuracy issues in college, but his biggest issue by far was simply the speed of the game. Willis’ trouble getting through his reads led to an enormous number of sacks and interceptions, and so any development with Willis needed to focus on understanding the most efficient way to get through his progressions. 

Willis is hardly alone. One of the strangest decisions by Tennessee was to move on from Willis in favor of Kentucky’s Will Levis. Just like Willis, Levis is a big-armed prospect who threw far too many interceptions in college, and in his final season, took a sack on 26.8% of his pressures. While that is marginally better than Willis, anything in excess of 25% is alarming. If the Titans were unable to bring Willis along, it’s unlikely they’ll have more success with Levis. Fortunately for Malik Willis, it’s not impossible to succeed with this particular weakness, and in the right system, it’s possible to turn your career around.

Developing Quarterbacks

The Chicago Bears are famously terrible at developing quarterbacks, and they’re off to a rocky start with number one overall pick Caleb Williams (23.2% P/S in his final season at USC), however former quarterback Justin Fields is off to a great start for his new team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fields is the same type of prospect as both Willis and Levis and had an extremely poor 25% P/S in his final season at Ohio State. The Bears were the worst possible landing spot for a quarterback like Fields as they boasted the league’s worst offensive line for the duration of his tenure, and while the Steeler’s line isn’t much better, they’ve crafted an offense that plays to his strengths, minimizing his reads, and accentuating his running ability. In 2023, Justin Fields ranked 31st overall in the advanced statistic DAKOTA, which combines a quarterbacks EPA per play and CPOE. So far this season, he’s improved to 14th.

The Packers are one of the best possible landing spots for any toolsy quarterback, and on Sunday, Matt LaFLeur put together the perfect game plan to accentuate Willis’ strengths and minimize his weaknesses. Indianapolis has the league’s worst run defense, and the Packers attacked with a motion heavy RPO-based system. Willis was a big part of that, scrambling six times for 41 yards and picking up a key first down. While running back Josh Jacobs paced the offense with 151 yards on an incredible 32 carries, Willis was able to take advantage of the reeling Colts’ defense, completing an efficient 12 of 14 attempts for 122 yards and a score. Most of the Packer passing plays consisted of simple two-read concepts with the option to run if the play broke down. By simplifying the passing game, they were able to speed up Willis’ clock, and leverage what he can do well, including an absolute laser to Dontayvion Wicks for his first career touchdown pass. 

Many coaches fold up the tent when forced to use their backup quarterback. Matt LaFleur did nothing of the sort. He spent the week installing one of the most creative NFL run schemes I’ve ever seen and trusted a quarterback who had been with the team just shy of three weeks to run it properly. In the end, the Colts had no answer, and Malik Willis proved that he can be ready to go at a moment’s notice, and trusted to run the system should he be called on to do so again. Next week, he may also get a chance for some revenge against the team that didn’t know what to do with him.