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    • Former Titans QB Malik Willis has best game in return as Green Bay Packer
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    Former Titans QB Malik Willis has best game in return as Green Bay Packer

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    The Tennessee Titans won’t know who they’ll get in exchange for Malik Willis until April 26, 2025.

    That’s seven months before they get a chance to select the seventh-round draft pick they received from the Green Bay Packers in exchange for Willis in a late-August trade.

    It took Willis less than a month to make it clear to the Titans that the deal could turn out to be unfavorable.

    The Titans’ former backup quarterback, selected in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft, returned to Nashville on Sunday in green, gold and white — and with confidence — during his team’s 30-14 victory at Nissan Stadium.

    A victory that was thanks to a quarterback the Titans didn’t want: Willis, and a former Titans offensive coordinator: Matt LaFleur in 2018.

    “Malik is a very capable quarterback,” first-year Titans coach Brian Callahan said. “You saw his improvement in training camp.

    Emotions on Malik Willis’ return? ‘Not really’

    Some 67,322 witnesses, many wearing the same colors as Willis, watched the 25-year-old Georgia native lose an arm and both legs during his second consecutive start, replacing injured starter Jordan Love.

    Watched him double his career passing and career rushing touchdown totals while Love waited for his left knee to feel better. Watched him complete 13 of his 19 pass attempts for a career-best 202 yards. Watched him complete two 30-yard passes — the same number he had in 10 career games with the Titans — on the Packers’ opening drive, which ended with Willis on his back in the end zone after a 5-yard scoring run.

    He threw for 73 yards on the ground, a personal best, and also his second rushing touchdown.

    Did Willis find it annoying to enter the field as a visitor?

    “Not really,” he said.

    How about leaving the field after the game?

    “Who am I going to give my towel and my hat to?” Willis said of his thoughts at the time. “I know they’ve come a long way to support us.”

    Matt LaFleur on Malik Willis: ‘You guys don’t get it’

    Willis has also come a long way, going from third-round pick in Nashville to starter in Green Bay in two weeks.

    “I can’t put into words the amount of work he’s done in such a short period of time,” LaFleur said. “People can’t imagine it. I promise you, you don’t get it. I think you think you get it, but you don’t.

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    “What he was able to do is…”

    LaFleur paused to catch his breath.

    “I’ve never seen anything like this before. So hats off to him.”

    LaFleur was interrupted by a faulty fire alarm.

    “They said the city would burn down if we came here and won the game,” he said.

    Willis said he’s not upset about the Titans trading him.

    “I think I got paid the whole time I was there,” he said earlier this week. “I’m more than blessed with the opportunities that I’ve been given. They brought me into this league. They took a chance on me.”

    And, apparently, some subtle attacks on him as well.

    “He made some big throws that, again, every NFL quarterback should be able to make,” Callahan said. “He did a good job. We didn’t do a good job.”

    Malik Willis: ‘You have to be ready’

    LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: How did Brian and Bill Callahan end up coaching together? Starting with hockey and ping pong

    Willis said he is still in touch with “a lot of those guys” but promised that would not be the case in the days leading up to the game.

    “Not this week,” he said.

    After the match, however, he spoke to ‘those guys’ again.

    MORE: Why Malik Willis was traded from the Titans to the Green Bay Packers last month

    He paused to chat and share a hug with Titans quarterback Will Levis — the old buddy his new buddies have sacked eight times — linebacker Jack Gibbens and a few others.

    What Willis’ immediate and long-term future holds remains to be seen.

    “Just working hard every day to take advantage of my next opportunity, which is what I’ve been trying to do the last two weeks,” he said. “Just keep working hard and realize you don’t know when an opportunity is going to come.

    “You have to be ready.”

    Just like he was last week in a win against the Indianapolis Colts. Just like he was this week in a win against the Titans.

    Paul Skrbina is a sports reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina. Follow his work here.

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