Titans coach Brian Callahan voices his displeasure with second-year quarterback Will Levis after Levis’ costly mistake that cost the team an early field goal against the New York Jets.

-- Photo By George Walker Iv | Ap

Dear Will Levis, You told everyone that it wouldn’t happen again. Couldn’t happen again.

Yet here we are wondering why it happened again. Being too reckless and rattled with the football is no way to go through life as an NFL quarterback. The league is littered with physically talented guys like Carson Wentz, Zach Wilson and Trey Lance who simply didn’t cut it because of costly mistakes.

Believe me when I say that Titans fans want to believe in you and that you can be a true franchise quarterback, something this organization has lacked since Steve McNair departed in 2006.

Titans fans have lived through the wild peaks and valleys of Vince Young, the kamikaze physical style of Jake Locker and the decline of Marcus Mariota after his leg injury. That’s not to mention the brief flash from Zach Mettenberger and the disappointment that Malik Willis was too much of a project to develop.

In between all of those quarterbacks, the Titans found themselves turning the offense over to bridge quarterbacks until the next possible franchise QB hopeful arrived.

The coaching staff, the organization and the fan base all want you to be good because it would solve a whole lot of problems that otherwise would cripple the organization for another few years while they either turn to Mason Rudolph as another stopgap while they ready to draft the next guy.

Look, it wasn’t all bad Sunday. The 40-yard touchdown to Calvin Ridley that tied the game was a great-looking play, the type for which Titans fans have been starving for years. And the dart to Tyler Boyd for 17 yards that took place just before the ill-fated fumble was a real NFL throw.

Plays like that give people hope that maybe you will figure it out.

But that can only come by eliminating the errors that are avoidable. Plays like the deep pass to Treylon Burks that was picked off are going to happen. That’s a part of football. It’s the unforced errors that are driving your coaches crazy and have the fans putting their palms to their faces and yelling things like what the TV cameras caught Brian Callahan saying to you after that latest mistake.

“I was upset. It was dumb. It was the same exact thing he did last week, and it cost us points in the red zone,” Callahan says “That is what it is. He’s a grown-up and he knows better. I was really irritated that he cost us three points in a game that we probably needed it.

“We can’t have it. He’s got to protect our team better. He’s got to protect the ball better. It’s inexcusable to do those types of things.”

And again, you showed postgame remorse. But when you take the field again Sunday against Green Bay, will you have at last learned your lesson?

“It’s got to be something that’s more second nature to me,” you explained after the game. “I’m going to do everything I can to rewire my brain to make sure that when I’m in those situations, I’m not making those decisions.

“I think throughout my career, I’ve gotten a lot better of not forcing things, or at least forcing balls into windows, but that’s a different kind of play. That’s something that is not going to show up as much but is obviously much more important because the ball is put in jeopardy, and an opportunity for the other team to get the ball.

“So I’m going to keep working to just be better for my team.”

Hey, don’t take my word for it. There was a guy on the other sideline Sunday in Aaron Rodgers who has been doing this for a while. He knows a thing or two about quarterbacking and the type of demeanor it takes to have a cool head when everyone else is panicking around you. Hear him out.

“A lot of times people freak out,” Rodgers said after the game. “You have to be the calming force in there, you can see it in their eyes sometimes. I feel like all game, we were frustrated at times, but never got down on each other.”

And Rodgers also reminds you – while talking about his own team – to not neglect this part of the process either.

“It’s not just on game days, it’s every day. It’s how do we stay loose and then be able to lock in when it is time to lock in,” Rodgers explained. “There’s been sometimes, I think last year, where there were some negative vibes going at times, where it felt like ‘here we go again’ or ‘we’re not going to win this one.’

“I just don’t want us to ever get in that spot. I think there’s ways of doing that, some of it is through humor, some of it is through stoicism, some of it is through just taking charge,” Rodgers continues. “You just put your pulse on the team, on the energy, and try to do the right thing as a leader.”

Are you listening, Will?

Terry McCormick covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com