Malik Willis to IR, Kyle McCord steps in and Dolphins coach says there’s no QB debate

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Dolphins are hopeful quarterback Malik Willis' stint on injured reserve will not be an extended one, and coach Jeff Hafley said when and if he returns, he will be Miami's starter.

Willis went on injured reserve Tuesday after an MRI Monday revealed he had a core muscle injury. Willis had been dealing with a groin injury that significantly limited his mobility against Detroit in Week 9, and Hafley said doctors determined it had progressed to the point of needing rest.

“You look back at Malik and you watch him in that last game and you could see it,” Hafley said Wednesday. “He couldn’t quite move the way he had done early in the year and he was gritting through it. He made some plays with his feet in that game to keep plays alive. But we want him to be healthy so he can play at a high level without risking further injury.”

It's not yet clear if Willis will play again this season. If and when that happens, Hafley shut down any notion of a quarterback controversy as backup Kyle McCord takes over.

“You guys will ask me,” Hafley said, “yes, he’ll be the starting quarterback if he returns."

The Dolphins signed Willis in March to a three-year, $67.5 million deal, intending to use his play this season to evaluate if he could be the rebuilding franchise's starter of the future. That question hasn't yet been answered through Willis' first eight games as a full-time starter.

He has completed 58.2% of his passes for 1,396 yards, with six touchdowns and six interceptions. He has shown the arm talent and mobility that led Hafley and general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan to bring him over from Green Bay, despite showing some inconsistency with his decision-making.

“I think you get through these four weeks, so it would leave four or five games left, and we’ll see,” Hafley said. “And we’ll see if he comes back and can play and how he does in those games. And if not, then we’ll have to evaluate in other ways.”

The Dolphins chose McCord as backup after moving on from Quinn Ewers in August. The 24-year-old McCord spent the 2025 season on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles, who drafted him in the sixth round. The Packers signed him on Jan. 20 then traded him to Miami in August.

“Excited, but obviously production on the field matters most,” McCord said at his locker on Wednesday, "so doing everything I can do get myself ready.”

He went 46 of 70 for 446 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions while getting sacked six times in three preseason games with Green Bay.

McCord played four college seasons at Ohio State and Syracuse. He passed for 4,779 yards at Syracuse in his final college season, breaking Deshaun Watson’s Atlantic Coast Conference season passing yards record.

“He’s got a strong arm, stronger than you think,” Hafley said. “He sees it well. The ball comes out fast. He’s decisive. He’s aggressive. I think you’ll see as you get to know him, he has this kind of quiet confidence about himself. And I think one thing that you just take, he has experience. Again, he does not have experience in this league and this league is very different, but he does have experience.”

With three of Miami's initial six captains injured, Hafley said linebacker Josh Uche was elevated to captain for the first time in his career.

Running back De'Von Achane has been on injured reserve since September with a knee injury. Veteran Zach Sieler went on season-ending injured reserve Tuesday with a ruptured biceps, and Willis' injury has sidelined him indefinitely.

Hafley said he met with Miami's remaining captains Wednesday morning, and they decided that Uche was the right fit. The edge rusher signed with the Dolphins in March and has been Miami's best free agent pickup with three sacks, 34 tackles and seven quarterback hits.

“It's still a dream just playing football," Uche said. "I've been dreaming about this since I was a kid. For guys to trust me as part of the leadership is a testament to perseverance."

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Miami Dolphins quarterback Malik Willis speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the New England Patriots in Miami Gardens, Fla., Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s $10 billion defamation case against the BBC remains on track, for the moment.

A federal judge in Florida ruled late Tuesday that Trump’s defamation claim could go forward, though he did not rule on the merits. The publicly funded British broadcaster had sought to dismiss the case.

Judge Jeffrey Kuntz did dismiss part of the lawsuit, tossing out a Trump claim that the BBC’s actions violated a Florida law concerning unfair business practices.

Trump filed his lawsuit against the BBC in December. The Republican president accused the BBC of defamation as well as deceptive and unfair trade practices related to a documentary, “Trump: A Second Chance?” The 33-page lawsuit accused the BBC of broadcasting a “false, defamatory, deceptive, disparaging, inflammatory, and malicious depiction of President Trump,” calling it “a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence” the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

The BBC acknowledged that filmmakers had spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump delivered to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before the storming of the U.S. Capitol, to make it seem that Trump was directly urging violence.

The broadcaster apologized over the editing, and that was something the judge made note of in his ruling Wednesday allowing the case to go forward. The head of the BBC and its top news executive both resigned. But the broadcaster denies Trump’s claims that it defamed him.

In October, a different judge in Florida ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in the case by Dec. 11. Lawyers for the BBC had complained that Trump was delaying his appearance in his own lawsuit. Charles Tobin, an attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”

The BBC said in a statement after Tuesday's ruling that it was “surprised by this decision but respect the court’s authority and note the case will now proceed to the next stage."

“We remain confident in our position and will continue to respond through the proper legal process," the broadcaster said.

Trump called Kuntz’s latest ruling a major victory.

“A Huge Victory against Fake News BBC, a terrible abuser of the truth, just handed down by highly respected District Court Judge, Jeffrey T. Kuntz, of the Southern District of Florida,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

“We will continue fighting against, and defeating, all of those who try to deceive the American People!” Trump wrote Tuesday evening.

In his ruling, Kuntz described the editing done in the documentary, splicing together two parts of the speech, as more egregious than mere routine editing.

“Editing is often required,” the judge wrote. “However, given the time disparity between the two statements, the distance itself tends toward a plausible inference that BBC knew or should have known that the segment they were creating would not and could not have been a truthful statement. This was not trimming around the edges but creating something different than what was stated in the speech. BBC also had the entire speech available to them for nearly three years by the time of the documentary.”

The judge also wrote that Trump might have a plausible argument to demonstrate malice — whether or not he can ultimately prove this at trial — given past BBC reporting about him.

“Trump paints a picture that demonstrates the BBC has a record of allowing the publication of false statements in their portrayal of Trump,” the ruling said. “BBC asks the Court to put on blinders and treat the Panorama team as if they were blocked off from the rest of the organization, ignorant of everything else going on at BBC.”

The lawsuit is one of several skirmishes between Trump and the news media during his second term. Through administrative and executive action and sometimes through lawsuits, he has chosen to take a more aggressive approach toward the press and toward coverage he dislikes.

President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)