{"id":403352,"date":"2026-09-18T07:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403352\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T07:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:50:19","slug":"miami-dolphins-malik-willis-looks-to-cut-down-on-sacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/403352\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Dolphins’ Malik Willis looks to cut down on sacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAPA, California \u2014 As Malik Willis reviewed the tape from his debut as Miami Dolphins quarterback in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a>, he noticed a few things he could\u2019ve done better.<\/p>\n

As the Dolphins stay on the West Coast<\/a> this week for practice ahead of another road game, against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, Willis shared his lessons Wednesday evening. He pointed to situational awareness, cutting down on the sacks he takes, protecting the football and plain execution.<\/p>\n

The five sacks of Willis were particularly detrimental in the opener in Vegas. Three of them occurred on third downs to kill a drive \u2014 two in the fourth quarter as Miami tried to mount a comeback.<\/p>\n

Of the five sacks, three of them were probably a result of Willis holding on to the ball too long. Another one was simply Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby, a top player in the league at his position, making a great play to shove Dolphins left tackle Patrick Paul aside and take Willis down. The remaining sack came on a well-designed pressure from the Raiders, where they ran a stunt and one rusher set a pick for the other to get through, while Willis\u2019 eligible receivers didn\u2019t have time to get open.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a mixed bag,\u201d Willis said. \u201cIt\u2019s all easily fixable stuff. You say that after the fact, after you watch the film, after you understand what it was, it\u2019s very fixable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, before Thursday\u2019s practice, agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s usually a little bit of everything when you exit a game with multiple sacks or a handful of sacks,\u201d Slowik said. \u201cIt\u2019s typically a combination of maybe a poor play call on my front, poor protection up front or the ball should\u2019ve been gone and it\u2019s not, or someone messed up on a route so we can\u2019t get it out where we need to get it out to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were multiple execution breakdowns that we know we need to clean up, and that\u2019s the emphasis for us this week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willis said Wednesday he doesn\u2019t operate in the pocket with an internal clock, rather off feel of pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like that\u2019s made up. There\u2019s no such thing as a clock,\u201d Willis said. \u201cSometimes they win fast, sometimes they win slow. It\u2019s just understanding the feel of when are they going to get there more than a clock telling you, \u2018OK, I need to throw it now.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas front applied pressure on Willis, a passer very capable of making plays with his legs, throughout. Early in the game, he managed it fairly well, as the second sack didn\u2019t come until the end of the third quarter. The sacks started to pile up, though, as Miami played from behind in the fourth, and the Raiders knew the Dolphins had to throw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think early on there were some really good off-schedule plays where he stepped up, he kept his eyes down the field, and some were actually still in rhythm of the play and the receivers didn\u2019t have to go off schedule,\u201d Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley explained Monday. \u201cAnd then there were some when he did go off schedule, they adjusted to our scramble rules and they did a really good job. And then there\u2019s some that weren\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there were instances where a receiver wasn\u2019t where Willis needed him to be once he rolls out of the pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s sometimes when we needed a guy to break a certain way and he didn\u2019t,\u201d Hafley said. \u201cThose are things that they\u2019ll work out together.\u201d<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t get easier for Willis after facing Crosby and the Raiders. In Sunday\u2019s 4:25 p.m. kickoff at Levi\u2019s Stadium, he gets former St. Thomas Aquinas High standout Nick Bosa and a vaunted 49ers defense<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through all the pressure, Willis only turned the ball over once. It was a costly one in the third quarter when he forced a pass downfield, and safety Treydan Stukes was waiting for it, as the Raiders had just responded to a Miami touchdown to go back up by two scores. Willis labeled that the one example where he locked into a receiver too much.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty for Willis to work on between his first and second game leading the Dolphins offense, but also some strong points to build on.<\/p>\n

For one, his connection with rookie wide receiver Caleb Douglas flashed from their very first game together. Douglas\u2019 94 receiving yards were most by a Dolphins player in his NFL debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s confident in what he\u2019s doing, and we\u2019re just continuing to build and grow,\u201d Willis said. \u201cObviously, he\u2019s still a rookie and he has things to learn, as well as I do in this new offense, and we\u2019re just going to continue on that same path upward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Hafley: \u201cWe saw it in camp, we saw it in the preseason games, and I just think he\u2019s been a consistent player that he trusts and he\u2019s going to continue to try to get him the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday against the Raiders was not only Willis\u2019 first game for Miami, with a lot of newcomers around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to see what he can do this week and take a step,\u201d Hafley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NAPA, California \u2014 As Malik Willis reviewed the tape from his debut as Miami Dolphins quarterback in Sunday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[114,123,1763,125,124,119,110],"class_list":["post-403352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-latest-headlines","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}