Cory’s Corner: A New Chapter For Willis

Pump the brakes. 

The season is not over. One game does not a season make and just because Jordan Love will miss some time doesn’t mean the Packers cannot make a deep playoff run. 

Does that automatically mean the Packers should go after 36-year-old Ryan Tannehill, 32-year-old Trevor Siemian, 31-year-old Teddy Bridgewater, 30-year-old C.J. Beathard or 30-year-old Nate Sudfeld?

The answer is a hard no. What do all those guys have in common? They are average to awful NFL quarterbacks. If they could still play, they would already be on a roster.

There has also been talk about letting Sean Clifford take the reins because he obviously knows more since Malik Willis is currently drinking from a firehose at the mass amounts of information he’s ingesting. But Clifford didn’t even suit up down in Brazil as an emergency backup and I think that should tell you all you need to know about how the Packers feel about their 2023 fifth round pick.

I think Love will be back by Week 4 when the Vikings visit Lambeau Field. And if Love is back by then, there’s no point in adding a veteran, who very well could be worse than the 25-year-old Willis. Yes, I know that Willis doesn’t have a touchdown pass on his career ledger but the one receiver that actually made an impact in Willis’ two years there was DeAndre Hopkins. 

Now he has an arsenal of receiving options at his disposal on every play. I would expect that Packers coach Matt LaFleur will use Willis’s athleticism in addition to play-action to keep defenses honest. That won’t take a lot of know-how and the receivers will make his job a lot easier, especially given that the Packers generated 134 yards after the catch on Friday — led by Jayden Reed’s 54. 

Is Willis going to be perfect? No. But I think the Packers can go 1-1 vs. the Colts and at Tennessee. Even if Love does miss the Minnesota game at home the following week, that is also a winnable win and it is not out of the realm of expectations for this team to go 2-1 in Love’s absence.

Think of it this way. Caleb Williams got a win in his pro debut with a passer rating of 55.7 and tallying less than 100 passing yards. He leaned on his defense and special teams and didn’t commit any mistakes. That’s really all the Packers want Willis to do. Just manage games by keeping the turnover count to a minimum. 

The Packers don’t need someone new under center. They just need someone that they can trust. Adding another quarterback gives this team someone else that they have to get comfortable with before playing at noon on Sunday. 

Coming into this season, the Packers were labeled as a Super Bowl contender. Things happen. It’s a collision sport. How do the coaches and players handle this bump in the road?

It’s only the start of Week 2. Odds are that the Packers will have another notable player get injured this season. This will also be a measure of how deep this roster is. Did general manager Brian Gutekunst do enough when he built this roster? The Bills gave Mitchell Trubisky a two-year, $5.2 million contract and the Chiefs gave Carson Wentz a one-year, $3.3 million deal. What do both of those situations have in common? They both have realistic shots at the Super Bowl.

Gutekunst didn’t like any of the quarterbacks that were in camp, which is why he sent a seventh rounder to Tennessee on Aug. 27 for Willis. 

It may feel like the sky is falling but it really isn’t. The Packers have weapons at wide receiver, tight end and running back. And let’s not forget that the defense is fully stocked.