The Malik Willis Dolphins debut lasted one possession worth remembering, and it was a good one: 14 plays, 93 yards, a touchdown, and a preseason opener that briefly looked like Miami had found something. Washington won 20-7. The scoreboard says one thing. The tape from that first drive says another.
Preseason openers are mostly a coaching staff's spreadsheet come to life. Series counts, snap counts, who gets the two-minute drill. But a 93-yard march that takes 14 snaps is not an accident and it is not a busted coverage. That is a quarterback taking what he was given, over and over, for the length of a football field. Small gains stacked into a big one. No heroics required.
How did Malik Willis look in his Dolphins debut?
Good enough that the loss is the second thing you talk about. Willis is Miami's new quarterback, and the resume he brought with him is more interesting than most people remember. Tennessee took him in the third round in 2022 out of Liberty, the arm talent was never the question, and the pro game came at him fast. Then Green Bay traded for him and he wound up under center when Jordan Love was hurt in 2024, and the Packers came out the other side of that stretch just fine. That is a real credential. Backup quarterback is the one job in football where the only meaningful test is whether the season survives you.
One drive is one drive. Miami scored seven points and lost by 13, and the rest of the night belonged to Washington. But if you are building a case for a quarterback in a new building, you would like the first evidence entered to be a long, patient, disciplined scoring drive. He got that.
What happened to Marcus Mariota?
The other headline out of the night is the one nobody wanted. Mariota, Washington's veteran quarterback, was injured. I do not have the specifics in front of me yet, and I am not going to guess at a diagnosis for a man who just walked off a field, so I will leave it where the reporting left it.
What I can say is what he means to a roster. Mariota went No. 2 overall to Tennessee in 2015 and has spent the second act of his career as exactly the kind of professional every front office claims to want and few actually have: prepared, unbothered by the depth chart, capable of running an offense on a Wednesday's notice. Those players get talked about in August and appreciated in November.
checked the almanac: mariota went second overall to tennessee in 2015, willis went to tennessee in the third round in 2022. two former titans draft picks, two different uniforms, same friday night box score.
The rest of the Friday preseason slate
It was a busy night across the league, and the scores tell you how uneven August football looks:
| Game | Final |
|---|---|
| Commanders vs Dolphins | Washington 20, Miami 7 |
| Broncos vs Falcons | Denver 27, Atlanta 7 |
| Bucs vs Jets | Tampa Bay 24, New York 16 |
In Denver, Jarrett Stidham threw a touchdown pass while making his case to keep the backup job and Jahdae Barron took an interception 97 yards the other way. In the Jets game, rookie fourth-rounder Cade Klubnik got a surprise start with Geno Smith scratched and put points on the board on both of his drives. Three quarterback stories in one night, none of them starters, all of them auditioning.
What comes next
For Miami, it is whether Willis gets a longer look and whether that opening drive was the shape of the offense or a nice sixteen minutes. For Washington, it is word on Mariota and what the room looks like behind him. Preseason answers arrive slowly and roster cuts arrive fast. I will be watching the snap distribution in their next look more than anything on the scoreboard.
