Tennessee Titans Film Breakdown: Malik Willis' Up & Down Performance Against Seattle Seahawks

Tennessee Titans quarterback Malik Willis was a mixed bag on Saturday against the Seattle Seahawks and while there is some good there's still just too much bad on his tape I'll show you in today's film breakdown from Tic Tac Titans [Music] Titans fans welcome in to another film breakdown from Tic Tac Titans your home for Tennessee Titans X as and O's I am your host Tyler Roland 25 years as a Tennessee Titans fanatic I've covered the team for Sports Illustrated USA Today and I've been the host of the number one Tennessee Titans podcast locked on Titans for the last five seasons I'm also a certified film junkie again breaking down the x's and o's with you guys all year long and on today's episode we're going to look at Malik Willis's performance against the Seattle Seahawks Malik has improved and there's a lot of good on the tape but there's still too much bad as well inaccurate passes missing open receivers taking too much time on things so Malik has improved I will say but again it's not all good and it may not be where it needs to be for Malik Willis to make this roster now before we dive into the film breakdown do want to thank you for watching watching make sure that you get subscribed for yearround free Tennessee Titans film content also throw a thumbs up on the video throw a Titan up down in the chat and with that being said let's step into the film room our first play for Malik Willis here is just uh a play action fake toss to the left hand side look you get a little motion from David Martin Robinson Malik fakes the toss out there and just hits Mason Kinsey short on the crossing route really nice execution really love the design more than any anything but let's just take a look at the play here so you got David Martin Robinson in that motion you're going to hit that fake toss over there so the route combination is you're going to have a vertical route on the outside you're going to have an out route right here again David Martin Robinson is going to come here and then do a deep Crosser and then you're going to have Mason Kenzie down here in the slot just run a little short Crosser across the middle of the field and malis does a really really good job here of just taking what's there taking what the defense gives them execute the Fate get into the boot immediately make the pass and that's a little bit more difficult than maybe you would expect with the player barreling down on you willing to stand up man Mason kin's always talking something that I relate with but from this angle you can really see it this is just a good efficient play from Malik Willis take the gimmies make it simple make it easy it looks like quarterback play so that's just really well done for malis again not an incredibly Advanced play of any kind but from what we've seen from in the first few years just taking those simple ones and getting the job done for a nice gain on first down that's what you want to see from Malik Willis just casual simple NFL quarterback play all right so what we're going to see right here from the Titans is they got two people in the back field one running back one tight end but those guys are going to shift down here to deal with the the pressure that Seattle is showing Seattle is showing a fiveman pressure so they're going to sit here Malik doesn't really have anything right away and this is just a crazy throw I mean a crazy crazy strong throw here so let's take a look at the route combination what you're going to have is kind of a a come in here and come inside jaquin Jackson's going to get pushed a little too far inside but he's kind of running an inside route here both these guys are trying to play The Zone trying to find the hole in the zone and then you're going to have Sam schne which I can't believe it's not samne like I've been saying it samne I I don't I don't like that much but anyway what we're going to see is he's going to come up here and just sit down all right just a classic sit down Route and none of this design or anything is too spectacular but watch the throw from Malik Willis with a player in his lap fading away to the left throwing back to the right and jamming this look this cornerback is right here okay he's barreling down on the wide receiver this is a tough throw to make from Malik Willis he drives this in there I mean it is impressive from The End Zone angle it it looks even better I mean like the there's just natural talent that Malik Willis has that makes people ride for him so hard and makes him have such a chance so look at this he looks to the right doesn't think it's there looks left it's absolutely not there comes back to the right and look how he's fading away from the pressure look how he's throwing this ball look at that missile great job coming back to the ball by schne as well but see Malik just has some raw talent and that's why people still believe in him so much and think you know if they just give him a better chance blah because that is a rocket arm and that's an incredible throw so here we're going to see just a classic play action concept from Malik Willis and it's a it's a very similar play to the last one how he just drives it home so great great arm strength here but what I also want to focus on is Malik goes through his progressions so what you're going to see is the play action fake of course to the running back and then Willis is going to turn around you're going to have just a simple flat here from your tight end you're going to have an in route from schne up top and then you're going to have a front side curl from Bryce Oliver and and Willis and Oliver have had a great connection throughout training camp but again Watch How Malik Willis goes through his progression here that's what's most important and that is if you've been watching Malik Willis since he was drafted that's what you want to see improve is his speed through his progression so look he comes out looking this way one okay could be looking to the tight end too I mean you have to check his exact eyes but you could see him look and go through check check looks to the middle of the field is there people going to be here can I throw this I can't look at the line linebackers dropping they did a great job so Malik goes here not there goes forward goes here and then he flips right here and once he sees it he lets it rip and I I got to give credit to Bryce Oliver too for coming back to the ball just like schne did Ty Tolbert teaching those wide receiver as well but again just seeing him go through the progressions one two three throw no hesitation at all getting the ball out of his hand seeing it feeling it ripping it like that's what Malik Willis had to get better at and you can see improvements you can see improvements in his time to throw Now quickly gets it one two three rip bam hammers at home and again a good job by Bryce Oliver who's played well throughout training camp would love to see him on the Titans practice squad coming back to the ball and helping out his quarterback and tight coverage so good stuff from Malik Willis on back-to-back Hammer throws on that curl all right now any Madden player will know this one okay we're going to see just an allo concept A vertical concept from the Titans the Seahawks rotate down from two high to three High em Malik just hammers a seam in to jaquin Jackson on a long second down so that's a really really nice play there great catch by jaquin getting hammered in the back but I want to look at this from the Seahawks perspective first so we talked about this in our defensive breakdown that we did last week looking at the pressure Concepts you guys are going to learn defensive structure watching this channel okay so you have a twoo high safety look here so they're showing to high all right what's going to happen is though Seattle is going to bring this safety down into a hook and then they're going to rotate this safety up into a deep third so instead of being a a two High coverage like cover two or cover four this is going to be cover three okay and this kind of coverage being attacked by all verticals excellent quite honestly so the Titans are going to run vertical route here vertical route from the tight end down the seam jaquin Jackson down the seam I think that's Sam schne down the seam as well so great coverage four verticals against cover three is Elite for sure and Malik is going to drive this home all right perfectly in between the coverage this is arm strength velocity KNN where to go with the football as the safeties rotate all right they're rotating in Malik should see this rotation all right after he completes the play action see this rotation so if the safety is going away from here then that means once jaquin Jackson clears this second level Zone Defender he should have room to make this play and he does now the the quarterback does a good job of coming over to hit him in the back and to read it pretty well you would like to see a little more space there but overall I mean that's a really good throw and a really good play tough catch by jaquin Jackson but I do want to point out one thing here from The End Zone view watch Malik Willis Pat the football right before he throws it can you see it it's kind of tough from this angle we might do it the the angle on the other side but he just does like a little baby kind of hitch with his hands let's look at it from from this angle just a small one do you see that little Pat did you see it it's quick it is really quick but this matters Pat and then throw Pat and then throw all right just keep that in mind keep that in mind for later in the video but little stuff like that just rip it there's no need to Pat the football it reminds me of Willie bean from uh Any Given Sunday Malik had a couple of good runs in this game there was a design run for him near the end of the first half I believe a couple of times he ran but we need to focus on Malik Willis as a passer we know that he can run and take off out of the back field and all that but can he get better as a passer so I don't like to focus too much on the runs but I did have to show this one third down nobody open pressure in the back field Malik breaks a sack and then picks up a first down I mean like or not but a good gain on third down like this is just the type of stuff that you know this does make Malik will is special there's not a lot of people that can do stuff like this again broken sack Run for the not a first down but get a good gain on third down like that sort of stuff and again there was nobody open so you can't criticize Malik Willis here on this like look right now who is open who are you throwing it to who looks like they're about to be open nobody I mean I guess you could have jump dumped it to Jabari small out of the back field but like it's third and or third and long so this type of stuff breaking that sack may not have picked up the first down completely you know but this is good stuff from Malik Willis that does make him special so I wanted to at least highlight this broken sack in this run a little bit good job so on this one we just have another simple play action concept Malik Willis is going to fake the play action and then he's going to hit jaquin Jackson on the short drag route underneath this is stuff that jaquin Jackson should be eating on all season long man like like the Titans have to get him in these situations so again you're going to have a little play action fake here all right on the outside you're going to have Mason Kinsey with the Deep Over route you got Sam schne here on the vertical route and then jquan Jackson on the underneath drag route which is where Malik Willis is ultimately going to hit so that's the that's the play design right there simple effective and get it to your playmaker and again you got to commend Mal I know that they're just simple NFL quarterback plays but this is the type of stuff that maybe he wouldn't have hit so easily he wouldn't have made it look so simple in previous iterations or previous Seasons you get a little uh horse collar tackle right there as well so again not spectacular but just clean simple good quarterback play look at that footwork really nice really nice play right here really simple footwork get his feet in line deliver a nice catchable accurate ball for a big gain get a penalty you put your team in position to score love this from malis all right so this is another all vertical concept like we saw earlier remember he hit jaquin Jackson on the seam route took the big shot in the back and remember I pointed out that little Pat of the ball okay keep that in mind here it's just another all vertical route though good job by David Martin Robinson to bend that inside a little bit so SE Seattle stays in a cover two coverage this time they come out in a two high shell like we saw last time but they bent it into cover three they stay in a two high two High coverage here and just run a cover two all right what the Titans are doing though is a little bit of all verticals like I mentioned you got a vertical route outside here vertical route here vertical route here vertical route here but what I want to point out to you is what a lot of NFL teams do is depending on the coverage if it's cover three if it's cover three and there's only one single high safety back here then keep it vertical keep it straight vertical okay because you're trying to get rid of this safety right here if it's cover two though if it's cover two a lot of teams will have players kind of kind of break inside a little bit off there so it's still a vertical route but you just bend it inside a little bit to be in front of this two high safety so if it's single high keep going vertical if it's too high you can break inside because the seams are the big open spot against cover three the middle is the big open spot against cover two so that's just a little it's not even an option route it's just read the coverage and what your rules are on the play so David Martin Robinson at tight end is going to do exactly that he's going to get his vertical release and he's going to bend inside a little bit and Malik Willis just drives it home in between the linebacker and the safety boom now he takes a big Big Shot there and sometimes you got to do that it's football you know the only way to get this going I is to take a big shot all right but here's the thing the Pat this ball is just a touch touch late and I know that some people would think I'm being picky and maybe I am being picky but for me I would like to see this ball thrown right now lead that right here linebacker looking inside lead that right here and he might be able to catch and run or at least catch and protect himself okay but just a second late on it again I put it in the good section it's a good throw good completion from Malik I'm not going to say it's a bad play but it's just one of those things where it's just a a split second late and if you watch it from the other side you see that little hand Pat and if he just threw it instead of doing that hand Pat now hit the back foot release it requires a little bit of anticipation but that's necessary at the NFL level watch hand Pat did you see that so again I I know I know that it's a small little critique but little beats like that little moments like that little milliseconds like that are the difference between your tight end getting smoked and your tight end catching it and maybe running or the difference between a completion and maybe an interception like that's how quick the NFL game is so I just it's a good play way to drive it home but I do have to point out that that little hand Pat on two different plays has on both plays led to his guy getting absolutely smoked so little things like that [Music] matter all right so we're going to look at some of Malik Willis's bad plays from the game as well because again a bunch of those are mixed in with the good ones the only problem is I got to mention this up front most of Malik's good plays came against the third string he only had really one good play against the second string and then four bad plays against the second string so the majority of his good plays came against the lower competition which again is why I have said that Malik didn't really take advantage of the opportunity hits the play action fake here goes through his progressions ends up dumping it off to the running back decent gain by Julius chesta and that that doesn't look all too bad but look at the play here you're going to have vertical clear on the outside here you're going to have the receiver down here Mason Kinsey come on a deep in you're going to have jaquin Jackson right here on an in route as well okay and to me this has to go to Jain Jackson like yes he dumps it off to the running back the running back gets a decent gain but this is exactly what's frustrating about Malik Willis why is this not go to jaquin Jackson over the middle of the field play action fake look look look look hello hello right here five alarm fire throw this to jquan Jackson this guy's looking this way he's wide open Malik's still looking over here okay you got safety help and a corner on him so looks like man coverage he's not there go through your progression to the middle of the field right now right now what what is why is the ball not in the air why is the ball not thrown instead he runs dumps it off again good gain on first down but that could have been a huge play that could have been an explosive play if he gets that ball to jaquin Jackson right there you can see it from the end zone angle too I I mean there's room I don't I don't know fake Turn he just like skips right over him you know I don't understand okay so this is um maybe the play that Stu stuck out to people the most from elal that wasn't good just a simple play action Crossing route and he's going to have NWI and the pass is just not on target now I will say in Malik's defense if we go back here so here's the the design of the play you're going to have Crosser from NWI here vertical route from keny Crosser from jaquin Jackson here and uh the tight end's just going to sneak out a little bit but hit the play action fake done right here okay and I and I see why Malik Willis is throwing this where he's throwing it NWI creates separ SE separation from the cornerback right there and Malik is throwing this ball now what I will say is NWI kind of contacts with the defender and I think that if he doesn't do that the ball might be there like it it might be right right on target it might be perfect but let me also say this look at jaquin Jackson with I mean what is that three yards of separation and look at the SA starting to move this way okay Malik still has the ball in his hand plenty of room plenty of time if you just lob this out right here this is a touchdown again jquan Jackson could have huge game like we're going to talk about that in tomorrow's film breakdown on jaquin Jackson specifically but I'm not going to fault Malik for the decision NWI is going to be here he does make contact with the defender that might mess up the timing but it's little stuff like this this like if you see it man you know this could be a touchdown in a regular game still time and I mean cornerbacks looking this way this is a TD so maybe not necessarily Malik's fault that it doesn't go to NWI perfectly here because of that contact right there but again jaquin Jackson is just running down the field like man man we just missed a touchdown easy touchdown so again you can see it from this angle Malik's going to throw this ball and it's right he literally let go of it at the same time the NW is getting contacted now maybe that ball is kind of far out there so maybe it's going to be inaccurate and not close enough to NW but n Obi was so disappointed by that one this is a short yardage simple pick play at the top of the screen you're going to have NWI as the outside receiver I believe it's David Martin Robinson as the tight end next to him and you can watch David Martin Robinson here he is not going out on a route he is going out to Simply get in the way and again this is a short yardage quick hit you got to be accurate put it right where the wide receiver can get it so that they can catch the ball get the first down and protect themselves Malik throws it high NWI has to jump to catch the ball here and it's just that's an inaccurate pass and you just really can't afford you can't afford to be inaccurate on a short threat like that like you're putting your wide receiver in Jeopardy he caught it but he was a little short he didn't get the opportunity to run after the catch because the ball is thrown high and he had to jump to get it and it I mean he got hit by two dudes in a in a tough way so to me this is a completion and somebody who maybe doesn't really understand what the goal is here would tell you that's fine but that's a little behind him that's too high that is is not good execution by Malik on that play all right so this is the big problem with Malik Willis this is the number one problem is he just doesn't throw the ball when he should like this should be a completion all day it's third and long all right it's third and long this should be an easy completion and a first down instead Malle doesn't throw the ball the pressure gets home he's got to run try to make something happen it's too tough to do and it's an incompletion so let's just look at what's going on here so you have a deep in route here kind of a mid in route here vertical route on the outside here and then you're going to have the tight end which David Martin Robinson is who I think it is straight vertical seam route okay and David Martin Robinson is wide open man like this should be quick pitch and catch look right here Seattle's got a bunch of people on the line of scrimmage this is simple if this man right here comes on a blitz you are insta throw right to the scam immediate cuz look where this safety is if this safety doesn't drop down here there's so much space right here okay and for whatever reason Malik just doesn't throw the ball watch takes it he's looking right at it he's looking right at it man look at all of this room you have to hit that it's third and long you have to hit this he just doesn't hit it he's got time to hit that now he's looking at the rush now it's too late now it's a ruined play like this is the frustrating part with malis this is what drives people insane just throw the ball you I mean yeah it is David Martin Robinson boom throw it throw it throw it throw it now you can like that's not on the offensive line right there that's not on Mason Kinzie that's on Malik Willis for not throwing the football to the wide open man when the defense presents a wide open hole that's on the leak and that's the stuff that makes me say he's not going to make this roster all right so finally we come to the Malik Willis interception this was the last play that he was in and let me just set the stage here the Titans are up by one there's 4 minutes left in the game okay four minutes left in the game Willis goes to hit David Martin Robinson over the middle throws a little high tips off dmr's hands and turns into an interception all right so let's go back here to the beginning of the play again four minutes Titans up by one what you're going to have is you're going to have an out route this is going to be a vertical route on the back side of this you're are going to have uh I believe this is a vertical route I kind of forget what this one is but what we really need to focus on is there's a deep in route from David Martin Robinson okay and that's ultimately where malis goes with the ball all right and it's not a terrible idea to be honest with you to do that all right oh that's a drag route down at the bottom when jaquin Jackson okay okay look so Malik has time in the pocket here and he's going to throw this pass I don't mind the idea to throw that pass but here's the thing he's trying to get it over this linebacker and to do that you do got to throw it a little high you got to feather it in all right you could do that or you could feather it over here okay so he's worried about this linebacker and I get it but if you just put it over here you don't have to to throw it as high cuz the linebacker is down and then you don't sail the throw okay and then he catches it on the Run turns up the field all right because Malik tries to drive this in right here and throws it a little high it makes it difficult to catch and to me this is the Josh Wy thing from last year that like it's just the Josh Wy interception from last year did it hit his hands yes it did to some people that means Malik Willis is off the hook it can't be Malik Willis's fault anymore it hit his hands if it touches your hands you got to catch it all right that is not reality people could say that all they want it is not reality if the ball barely touches your fingertips there's no way that you should catch the ball like it's just crazy you know to be that finite and to be that black and white with things it's just not how it works so this ball is a little too high and maybe David Martin Robinson if he wasn't a third Stringer maybe he catches it but Josh Wy could be this team's starting tight end and Malik did the same thing last year and it went off Josh wy's hands and everybody blamed Josh Wy who likes Malik and everyone who doesn't like Malik blamed Malik so to me could David Martin Robinson have caught this pass yes maybe but but you could have let it in a better place away from that linebacker entirely or or or it's third and medium you're up by one with four minutes left hit the checkdown hit the checkdown one-on-one see if your running back can make a miss and get here now I know that they don't play the preseason like they would a regular season game Malik's just trying to do the right thing and again I don't think it's a bad idea but it has to be a better throw either you lead it over into safety or you have to keep it lower than that so you know I know some people are going to scream in his hands he should catch it that's not Malik's fault blah but it's the same thing as last year and stuff like this just seems to happen a lot when Malik is in the game no other way to no other way to say it really hot really high I mean that is barely catchable like David Martin Robinson would have to be two inches taller to catch that it's too high it's too high of a throw and again you either throw it out a little further out so that he can run to it or you have to throw it lower or you have to go to the checkdown one or the other and that's how Malik's game ends all right Titans fans I hope you guys enjoyed that film breakdown on Malik Willis's performance again showed the good there was good in there but there's still too much bad and the bad that we do see is just it's hard to wrap your head around Malik Willis being good enough to make this roster be considered a contributor for the Titans let me know how you feel about Malik Willis down below again throw a thumbs up on the video throw a Titan up down in the chat yearr round Tennessee Titans film content here on the Tic Tac Titans YouTube channel make sure that you get subscribed stay subscribed but that is going to do it for me today folks tomorrow I will have a jquan Jackson video the day after I'll have a Jaylen Harold video so make sure that you guys check that out but I am your host Tyler Roland and as I always tell you tighten up