With Jordan Love listed as questionable for Sunday’s game, the Colts have had to prepare for two quarterbacks this week, not fully knowing whether it would be Love or Malik Willis under center for the Packers.
When it comes to the prep work for Willis specifically, there’s not a lot for the Colts to go off, which can create a bit of a challenge when putting the gameplan together.
For starters, there just isn’t a lot of tape on Willis at the NFL level to go off of. In his two-plus years in the league, Willis has played just over 200 snaps with only 67 career pass attempts.
Another wrinkle to this is that Willis has only been in Green Bay for just over two weeks. So when it comes to how the Packers want to utilize him in their offense, there is zero tape on that.
In addition to all of that, Willis brings a different play-style to the Packers offense than Love, specifically with that added mobility, another element the Colts will have to account for.
Really, when it comes to game-planning, what he Colts can do is look back at Willis’ college and Tennessee film, see where he found success, and pair that with the core principles of the Matt LaFleur offense to get an idea of how the Packers could try to attack the Colts’ defense.
“Right now, we’re studying Malik and getting prepared for him (and) kind of the style when he did play,” Gus Bradley told reporters on Tuesday. “It’s tough, right? You don’t know exactly (how) they (are) going to utilize him.
“Some of the skill-set that he had from college? Are they going to have him be the quarterback and then say, ‘Hey, this is our system. Let’s go operate it, but we may throw a few wrinkles or two in there.’ So, we’re looking at him now, just the style of play, the athleticism that he has and the styles of throw that he makes and what he’s good at. Then we’re getting back to really the scheme that Green Bay is running.”
As the Texans did, we could see the Packers use a heavy-dose of 11 personnel against the Colts in an effort to keep Indianapolis lined up in nickel, potentially giving the Packers’ the advantage in the run game.
Although the Packers have the matchup advantage when it comes to their receivers against the Colts’ secondary, the Colts ultimate goal should be to put the game in Willis’ hands and not Josh Jacobs.
Doing so may create one-on-one matchups on the outside, but forcing Willis to make those throws versus allowing the Packers to lean heavily on Jacobs–who averaged 5.3 yards per rush last week–seems like the more prudent decision.
Regardless of how the Packers use Willis or construct the offense around him, success for the Colts starts with slowing the Green Bay running game, and putting Willis in predictable passing situations where the pass rush can pin its ears back.