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Nathan Aronoff

What Did We Miss About Will Levis?


Titans v Falcons:

On October 29th, Will Levis made his NFL debut in a week 8 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. Coming into the game, nobody had high hopes for Levis, not even his own coaching staff as the Titans planned to platoon him with 2nd year quarterback Malik Willis. Levis quickly proved everyone wrong by throwing for 4 touchdowns without giving the ball away once. Levis’s 130.46 passer rating is by far the best number put up by a rookie so far this season, so why wasn’t he drafted in the first round? In order to answer that question we’ll have to go back a few years.


Will’s Penn State Days:

Will Levis committed to Penn State as a three-star recruit. Entering the 2019 season Levis was second on the depth chart and expected to get some playing time. However, Levis got a very limited amount of opportunities, and to make things worse, he didn’t do much with the few opportunities that he did get. As a result, Levis stayed put as QB2 entering the 2020 season as well. After two seasons at Penn State, Levis had thrown for 644 yards, 3 passing touchdowns, 6 rushing touchdowns, 2 interceptions and a college passer rating of 118.6 (79.86 on NFL scale). Levis understood that he wasn’t making any progress at Penn State and after two lackluster seasons as a Nittany Lion, Will Levis entered the transfer portal.


Will’s Kentucky Days:

Prior to the 2021 season, Will Levis transferred to Kentucky. Upon his arrival in Kentucky, Levis beat out Beau Allen in a quarterback competition and never looked back. In his first season with the Wildcats, Levis took the SEC by storm, leading his team to a 10W-3L record. Levis finished the 2021 season with 2,826 yards, 24 passing touchdowns, 9 rushing touchdowns, and a college passer rating of 148.3 (97.76 on NFL scale). Levis wanted to solidify himself as a top pick in the NFL and therefore elected to play another year for Kentucky before heading for the NFL.

Levis’s 2022 season was very odd. Due to losing a handful of key pieces around him, Levis wasn’t nearly as productive as the previous year, however he was more efficient. The Wildcats only went 7W-6L as Levis threw for over 400 yards less and scored 12 fewer touchdowns. Yet on the flip side, Levis saw an increase in his yards per attempt and passer rating, going up to 151.9 (99.64 on NFL scale).

*Being efficient but not productive means playing mistake-free yet not making big plays, low-risk low-reward.


Will’s Pre-Draft Process:

After the 2022 season, Will Levis declared his entrance to the NFL draft. Leading up to the draft, experts were very unsure about how his odd 2022 season would impact his draft stock. I personally believed that it showed a couple positive traits, such as his ability to continue being efficient despite not having a good offense around him and his ability to face adversity. Levis had a pretty solid combine and entered the draft with a prospect grade of 6.34 and “Will Eventually Be Plus Starter” as his draft grade description (for reference, Bryce Young’s prospect grade was 6.82 and CJ Stroud’s was 6.70).

Most mock drafts had Will Levis being taken in the top 10. However, on draft night that was not the case. Levis sat in the green room and waited all night as the first round came and went without him being selected. Finally, on day 2, the Tennessee Titans traded up to select Levis with the 33rd pick. Being drafted by Tennessee wasn’t much of a relief to Levis since the Titans already had two other valuable quarterbacks.


Will’s Post-Draft Process:

Upon his arrival in Tennessee, Levis found himself third on the Titans’ depth chart behind Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis. Neither quarterback is going anywhere anytime soon. Tannehill has been the Titans’ “franchise guy” since 2019 and under a massive 118-million-dollar contract, while Willis was just drafted the previous year and will most likely be developing in the Titans’ system over the next couple years. While the hype and excitement around other rookie quarterbacks grew, Will Levis slowly became an afterthought. When the Titans released their official week 1 depth chart, Levis was still number three, indicating that his career may have peaked in college.


Titans v Falcons:

After the Titans week 7 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the team announced that their starting quarterback, Ryan Tannehill had suffered an ankle injury and will miss the team’s week 8 matchup against the Atlanta Falcons. In his limited NFL action, Malik Willis had seemed overwhelmed causing the Titans to not trust their second string quarterback to orchestrate the offense alone. Due to the concerns, Titans’ head coach decided to platoon both his young quarterbacks.

The two quarterbacks split snaps relatively equally throughout the first quarter. Things changed when with three minutes left to the quarter, the NFL got its first taste of the 2021 version of Will Levis. On a 1st and 10 from the Falcons’ 47-yard line, Levis threw one deep and found veteran receiver Deandre Hopkins in the endzone for his first career touchdown pass. Head coach Mike Vrabel decided to ride the hot hand and give Levis some more snaps. Vrabel was instantly rewarded as Levis found Hopkins again on a crosser for a 16-yard touchdown. Late in the third quarter, Levis launched his furthest pass of the day and found Hopkins again for a 67-yard score this time. Just as speculation that the success was to be credited exclusively to Hopkins started to grow, Levis found a new playmate in Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a 33-yard touchdown, his fourth on the day. Behind Levis, the Tennessee offense cruised to a 28-23 victory over the Falcons. Will Levis had a spectacular debut and should be the Titans’ starting quarterback moving forward.


My Breakdown:

Prior to the draft, experts raved about Levis’s arm strength and athleticism, yet there were always major concerns regarding his accuracy and ability to read the field. After reviewing the film I definitely see why some teams were scared away by those concerns. Against the Falcons, Levis relied heavily on his ability to throw the ball past the defense rather than beating it from within. No matter how strong your arm is, you will not always have a man open deep and you will not make it as a quarterback in the NFL without being able to hit all different types of throws. However, I don’t believe that this will prevent Will Levis from being a successful NFL quarterback. Athleticism and arm strength are very difficult attributes to improve while accuracy and football IQ can definitely be fixed with proper coaching and good mentorship from a veteran quarterback, making Levis a perfect “project quarterback”. Going into the draft, Levis was ranked as the 4th best quarterback prospect. All three of the quarterbacks ranked ahead of him were taken with the first three picks, but then a 28-pick QB drought took place. Based on the team’s rosters before the draft, I can’t imagine that Levis was passed on due to a lack of talent. Rather, those 28 teams simply didn’t want to waste their top pick on a “project quarterback”. All 28 had either drafted a quarterback within the past few years and didn’t want to focus on developing two guys at once, or were in “win-now” mode and wanted a player who will be ready to play right away. After 32 picks, the Tennessee Titans could no longer watch the potentially franchise-altering player sit there untouched and traded up to get him. Doing so despite being in the middle of developing Malik Willis. The Titans’ current starting quarterback, Ryan Tannehill’s strengths are his accuracy and his quick decision making. If even a little bit of Tannehill’s upside rubs off on Levis, he’ll become a very dangerous and complete player.

In his week 8 performance it was evident that Tannehill is already having a positive impact on Levis. If we take away the three deep touchdown passes, Levis still has a solid statline, especially for a second round rookie: 16/26, 91 passing yards, 11 rushing yards, 1 touchdown pass, no turnovers and a passer rating of 80.77. Will Levis will continue to work with Tannehill and progress over the remainder of the season and hopefully next year as well. Even though Levis doesn’t yet possess the tools required to be an elite quarterback, I believe that the Titans have found their new “franchise guy”.


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