It wasn't a secret that Malik Willis would have to try to prove himself worthy of becoming the Miami Dolphins' long-term answer at quarterback this season without a ton of help on offense, and seven games in that's pretty much how it's played out.

And because of it, it continues to be an unfair to gauge his first season with the Dolphins purely on statistical measures such as passer rating.

It's also worth noting that he has shown on the injury report this season with separate issues — toe, thumb and most recently groin. And the latter, even if head coach Jeff Hafley or Willis ever would admit it, more than likely played a role in his rushing attempts going from eight against both the Bengals in Week 5 and Jets in Week 7 to only one against New England last Sunday, and that one being a third-and-1 QB sneak that didn't require a lot of running.

So for those Dolphins fans and media analysts who were bemoaning Willis not taking off out of the pocket more often agains the Patriots — never mind the fact that New England defenders almost invariably were close by — don't overlook that factor.

This isn't to absolve Willis of any and all criticism because his performance clearly has been a bit uneven, particularly in the early weeks of the season, but it should provide some context.

THE SUPPORTING CAST STORY

We're always wary of putting too much stock into analytics, but one that we saw Friday was pretty startling, and it dealt with the supporting cast for every quarterback around the NFL.

It came from Fantasy Points Data, and measured eight factors that affect a QB's performance, from quick pressure percentage, to route win rate for receivers, YAC, non-QB rush success rate and average drive start.

The Dolphins came in 31st in that supporting cast ranking, ahead only of the winless Los Angeles Chargers under first-year offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel.

The Dolphins came in last in the NFL in pressure over expectations and non-QB rush success rate, as well as 31st in average drive start and 28th in quick pressure percentage.

The only category where the Dolphins fared well was in YAC per reception, where they were ninth.

And this has nothing to do with analytics (because it's non-debatable numbers), the Dolphins' average of 3.14 yards per first-and-10 rushing attempts is the third-worst in the entire NFL, which means second-and-longer for Willis than most quarterbacks.

Which again makes his job harder.

It's probably not a coincidence that seven of the top 10 teams in the supporting cast rankings featured QB in the top 10 in passer rating.

It is possible to succeed without a top 10 supporting cast because C.J. Stroud and Drake Maye are ninth and 10th in passer rating, respectively, despite Houston and New England being 26th and 27th in supporting cast.

Stroud and Maye are not first-year starters, though.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR WILLIS

Like the entire Dolphins team, Willis remains a work in progress and the goal is for him to get better week after week, same as it is for his teammates on offense.

He's done fairly well in that regard because he's a lot better now than he was in the season opener against the Las Vegas Raiders even if he wasn't as good against New England as he was against the New York Jets in Week 7 in the team's only victory of the season.

But the slight downturn could have been expected considering the quality of the opponent, with a groin injury certainly not helping matters.

There are still 10 games left in the 2026 regular season and the Dolphins need to accumulate a lot more data on Willis before they put together a draft strategy to include a quarterback selection in one of the early rounds or punting that move to 2028 or beyond.

Until then, what we need to see are more moments from Willis that suggest he can be "the guy," and those will be easier to produce no doubt in the second half of the season if his supporting cast raise their game along with his.