Packers trade for Malik Willis: Titans move on from QB in exchange for 2025 seventh-round pick, according to report

Though the NFL’s 53-man cutback deadline isn’t until Tuesday at 4 p.m., some teams across the league have already begun their cutback process.

The Green Bay Packers decided to go to the front of the line and acquire someone who might have been in danger of being ousted, Tennessee Titans quarterback Malik Willis, who is one of the most talked-about players of the 2022 NFL Draft, emerging as a third-round pick (86th overall). According to ESPN, Green Bay is acquiring Willis from Tennessee on Monday at the cost of a 2025 seventh-round pick.

Willis, 25, has thrown for 550 yards and three interceptions on 35 of 66 passing in 11 career games, three of them starts. He also ran for 144 yards and a touchdown on 32 carries. Willis performed better than most quarterbacks this preseason, compiling a 104.7 passer rating with 205 passing yards, two touchdowns and an interception while completing 20 of 27 passes (74.1%). However, he was beat out for the right to be Will Lewis’s backup in Nashville when former Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph threw for 365 yards and a touchdown on 31 of 49 passing (63.3%), boosting his passer rating to 92.6.

Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst made the move after he was clearly unimpressed with two of his pass rushers who were battling to be Jordan Love’s backup this preseason in 2023 fifth-round selection Sean Clifford and 2024 seventh-round selection Michael Pratt.

Clifford vs. Pratt this preseason

Packers quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who has coached Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Love in Green Bay, now has another athletic, flexible young passer on his hands.