NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Three big themes are sitting with me after seven of 11 training camp practices.
Malik Willis and the third-string defense
It’s hard to know what Malik Willis’ improvement means because the defensive depth's back end is questionable.
Willis is unquestionably better. It’s important to contextualize that because his biggest supporters then immediately jump to a place where they want him to be the No. 2 quarterback. He’s coming from a place where he was quite bad.
Nick Holz gave a good example of one thing he’s stopped doing – unnecessarily climbing the pocket and understanding he’s got sufficient arm strength to make the throws without gaining the ground up the middle. Willis is taking off less quickly and less frequently. In consecutive practices, he even recovered from fumbling a snap to make a successful throw.
All of these things are good signs that help his bid to make the roster or to help him be the prime candidate to be their practice squad guy if they decide to only keep two.