{"id":660991,"date":"2026-05-23T19:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660991\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T19:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T19:36:09","slug":"dolphins-coach-jeff-hafley-wants-malik-willis-to-focus-on-performance-before-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/660991\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley wants Malik Willis to focus on performance before leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dolphins have many key new pieces. And they want the new centerpiece of their offense to not worry, for now, about the leadership aspect of playing quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy main focus for him right now is to learn the scheme, get to know the players and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/story\/_\/id\/48818608\/why-miami-dolphins-sold-malik-willis-quarterback-green-bay-packers-free-agency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">not overdo the whole leadership thing<\/a>,\u201d coach Jeff Hafley said recently, via Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN. \u201cI mean, I think that\u2019s my job and [the coaches\u2019] job right now, so he can focus on becoming the best quarterback and the best player and the best teammate he can be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Willis, a four-year veteran with six career starts, is fine with that approach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about building trust,\u201d Willis said. \u201cI mean, every play we go out there, whether it\u2019s calling the play, whether it\u2019s executing the play, whether it\u2019s making sure somebody else can get lined up, you build that over time. I don\u2019t think you just put somebody in a position to say, \u2018OK, you\u2019re the leader now.\u2019 You got to earn that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Willis is right. Leadership is the byproduct of performance. As Willis proves himself on the field, other players will follow him. <\/p>\n<p>For now, he\u2019s the new guy. The replacement for Tua Tagovailoa. And Willis hasn\u2019t done enough elsewhere to walk through the door and take the bull by the blowhole.<\/p>\n<p>If things go the way the Dolphins hope, Willis will become a leader. That will mean he\u2019s getting it done in practices and, more importantly, during games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dolphins have many key new pieces. And they want the new centerpiece of their offense to not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-660991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}