Malik Willis trade details: Why Packers made deal for Jordan Love's new backup

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Casey Gower-USA TODAY Sports

With the NFL roster cuts deadline looming, the Titans and Packers made a deal on Monday. 

Former Titan Malik Willis is now a Packer, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, and will be joining a team that made the playoffs last season. 

The Sporting News fills you in on the trade details and provides an updated look at both the Packers' and Titans’ quarterback depth charts. 

MORE: Ranking the 2024 NFL quarterbacks

Malik Willis trade details

Willis, 25, was swapped for a 2025 seventh-round pick straight up in the deal, with no other players involved. 

Willis, a third-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, became expendable for the Titans with both Will Levis and Mason Rudolph on the roster. The trade allowed the Titans to shrink their roster before the cuts deadline, and the Packers to acquire a talented backup quarterback. 

After some buzz around whether Green Bay would find another quarterback for its 2024 roster behind Jordan Love, the team found its answer with Willis. 

Malik Willis stats

Year Games Games Started W-L Completion % Yards TDs INTs Rating QBR
2022 8 3 1-2 50.8% 276 0 3 42.8 13.3
2023 3 0 0-0 80.0% 74 0 0 118.7 3.0


Willis saw action across eight games in 2022 for the Titans, including three starts. However, in 2023, he got snaps in just three games. 

The third-year quarterback has yet to throw his first NFL touchdown pass. 

Packers' QB depth chart

Rank Player
1 Jordan Love
2 Malik Willis
3 Sean Clifford
4 Michael Pratt

Love, fresh off of a breakout season in which he finished with 4,159 passing yards and 32 passing touchdowns, will be looking to take the Packers back to the playoffs in 2024. In July, he signed a four-year, $220 million contract to remain in Green Bay for the long term. 

Slotted behind Love will now likely be Willis, who could see an opportunity with some strong pieces around him should Love miss any time this season. 

Clifford, a Penn State product who was drafted in the fifth round in 2023, and Pratt, a rookie drafted in the seventh round this past April, round out the Packers’ quarterback room. 

Titans' QB depth chart

Rank Player
1 Will Levis
2 Mason Rudolph

On the other side of things, Tennessee will be rolling with its second-year signal caller, Levis, to start this season. In nine games last season, Levis had 1,808 passing yards and eight touchdown passes.  

The only other quarterback on the Titans’ roster will be Rudolph, the former Steeler who had a strong preseason. Rudolph completed 63.3 percent of his passes in the preseason for 365 yards and a touchdown. 

Unlike some other squads like Green Bay, the Titans are currently holding just two quarterbacks for now.

Author(s)
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Daniel Mader is an editorial intern for Sporting News.
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