Malik Willis on Dolphins fans: ‘They Want Us to Win Really Badly’
Quarterback Malik Willis hasn’t even made his Miami Dolphins debut yet, but it seems he’s already quite familiar with the fanbase.
NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe recently caught up with Willis, who demonstrated a real understanding of how desperate Dolphins fans are to cheer on a successful ballclub. He said that Dolphins fans want the team to win games “really badly” and that all he and his teammates can do is “work hard and give them what they want.”
“We keep hearing, the people of this city they want to win really badly, they want guys to play Miami football like it was back in the day,” Willis said (h/t PhinPhanatic’s Matt Fitzgerald for the transcription). “All we can do is work hard and give them what they want. These are the people that are behind us every day, and throughout the ups and downs, they are still here waiting.”
Willis is now playing for a Dolphins fanbase that has been starved of any semblance of playoff success for decades now.
One has to travel all the way back to the year 2000 to find the last time the Dolphins have been on the winning side of a playoff game. Since the 2000 NFL playoffs, they have appeared in only five playoff games and lost every one of them. Their most recent playoff appearance came during the middle of the Mike McDaniel era in 2023, and they got shellacked by the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in a Wild-Card matchup.
There’s arguably no fanbase that has suffered more since the turn of the century, and while it’s great that Willis wants to help the Dolphins return to their former glory days, when they won back-to-back Super Bowls in the 1970s, ultimately, they are in no position to contend for titles anytime soon.
A lot of people believe that the Dolphins’ roster is the most devoid of talent in football and that they would be lucky to win more than a few games in 2026. And even though Willis plays the most important position in the game, he’s just one player, and some great performances from him alone won’t be nearly enough to make them a winning team next season.
