Malik Willis making his mark, applying his lessons

That kind of smooth delivery also comes through on the field. His ability to run is obvious, but sometimes in draft evaluations that becomes almost a negative, as if he’s choosing to run rather than staying back and doing the harder thing.

“Like I always say, I try to take what the defense gives us,” Willis said. “If somebody’s in the backfield with me, I probably shouldn’t stay in the pocket. But if it’s a clean pocket, I can probably stay in the pocket. I try not to have a set thing in my mind where, ‘OK I’m going to run this play, or OK I’m going to throw this play from the pocket.’ I kind of just try to play the game of football.”

He admitted he didn’t watch many NFL games the way fans do, but would try to focus on the way defenses played, to pick up small nuances about coverage.

He admitted his admiration for a number of quarterbacks, picking out specific qualities he wanted to bring to his own game.

“Russell Wilson, his deep ball, his touch on those passes, I mean that’s a really cool thing I always looked up to,” Willis said. “Aaron Rodgers, his crazy arm angles and just his mobility and keeping the play alive without having to run for a lot of yards. And Matt Ryan’s anticipation, I just try to focus on little aspects that can help me in my game.”

He also asked the group of reporters if they could get him in touch with the recently retired Tom Brady.

“Just to talk about ball and get in his brain, for real,” Willis said. “There’s no way you can play that long without having everything you need, cerebrally, and I just want to be that way.”

But as much as he wants to get inside Brady’s head, he doesn’t appear to be inside his own. At least in talking about football, and his journey, he gives no indication of making things harder than they have to be.

“I try not to overthink a lot of stuff,” he said. “Life’s hard enough as it is.”

There are times, however, when Willis makes it look easy on the field. There was another kid from Westlake who used to be like that, one who helped Willis along the way.