The Tennessee Titans arrived at their final regular-season game of the 2022 NFL campaign for a win-and-in showdown without No. 1 quarterback Ryan Tannehill.

The Titans chose to use Joshua Dobbs instead of Malik Willis at quarterback even though Dobbs had been on the roster less than three weeks after being signed off the Detroit Lions’ practice squad and Willis had been a third-round draft choice in April and already had made three starts.

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With Tannehill sidelined by an ankle injury, Tennessee’s season ended with a 20-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Jan. 7.

Despite their decision before the last of the NFL’s 272 regular-season games for 2022, the Titans don’t appear to be down on Willis this offseason.

Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel, general manager Ran Carthon and offensive coordinator Tim Kelly all had something positive to say about the former Auburn quarterback while attending the NFL Scouting Combine last week.

“The one thing I talked to Malik about was just continue to grow as a quarterback,” Carthon said, “and that’s not just throwing the ball, that’s not all these different things, but quarterback is so much more mental than it is physical. And I think from that standpoint, I talked to him about being able to lead that locker room, being able to have that presence and continuing just to reach out to some of the greats in our game and guys that are helping him, so we’ve been able to connect and he’s reached out to other quarterbacks in the league to kind of serve as mentors for him, which kind of shows who he is as a person and where he sees himself for where he wants to go.”

Vrabel said he liked what he’d seen from Willis off the field since the season ended.

“He’s already dove into the offseason,” Vrabel said. “He’s communicated with us about where he’s been and working with different coaches – a group in Jacksonville – and reporting back.

“And it’s just his demeanor. Walking through the building, I see him in the cafeteria. He understands what it’s supposed to look like being a starting quarterback or being a quarterback in this league. You have to be on when you come in the building. It’s a certain presence that you have to have.”

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Willis will work with a new offensive coordinator in 2023. Two days after the season-ending loss to Jacksonville, offensive coordinator Todd Downing was fired. Tim Kelly will handle that job in 2023 after working as the Titans’ passing-game coordinator in 2022.

“Malik’s doing a great job coming into the building every day, having a good routine right now,” Kelly said. “He’s so charismatic. He comes in, pops his head in with his big old smile. It’s exciting to see him in here building that routine and doing what it takes to be a professional quarterback.

“We’ll see where everything ends up, but we’re excited with the progress it looks like he’s making right now.”

Drafted from Liberty, where he transferred after two seasons at Auburn, Willis completed 31-of-61 passes for 276 yards with no touchdowns and three interceptions and ran for 123 yards and one touchdown on 27 carries in his first NFL season.

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Willis started in Tannehill’s place in a 17-10 victory over the Houston Texans on Oct. 30, a 20-17 overtime loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 6 and a 17-14 loss to the Texans on Dec. 18.

“You can say what you want to, but it’s my first year in the NFL, I think I progressed a whole bunch,” Willis said at the end of the season. “You may not think so, but I learned a lot, so just having that film and those reps — I’d never been under center before I got to the NFL. I got over 1,000 reps of being under center, and that is very helpful. That’s what it’s about — repetition and building that muscle memory.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.