It didn’t appear to be a big secret that the Tennessee Titans wanted to come away with a potential future franchise quarterback in the 2023 NFL Draft.
There were draft day rumors and reports of Tennessee trying to make a bold move all the way to No. 2 to draft Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud. That was simply too steep a climb.
But Ran Carthon, Mike Vrabel and the scouting staff had done their homework on Kentucky QB Will Levis. And when Levis began to tumble down the draft board all the way out of the first round, the Titans pounced, selecting him with the second pick on the draft’s second day.
The pick of Levis was polarizing. But thus far, Levis has shown enough glimpses of his cannon arm and surprising mobility that it’s not hard to see him – if all goes well – as the franchise’s future at quarterback.
But Levis is still a rookie, and rookie mistakes come aplenty in practice and preseason games. That said, Levis comes finds himself in a good position.
Barring an injury to Ryan Tannehill, or the Titans starting the season 1-6, Levis won’t be expected to play much this year. Maybe not at all, if the Titans are comfortable with Malik Willis manning the backup role.
So that leaves Levis to use all his time to soak up knowledge from practice reps, preseason games and film study. Levis has an advantage coming into the NFL that Willis did not, having played in a pro-style offense at Kentucky, rather than a spread system that so many quarterbacks now run on the college level. It’s an edge, but Levis says the work and the practice time still has to be put in in order to succeed.
“It’s really just repetition,” Levis says. “I think regardless of how familiar you might have been with running something like this before, it’s a new offense and you need to get those reps with the new language and even the procedure of getting the play in the headset and getting in the huddle and getting more used to that. All in all, I definitely think I’m improving. I’ve just got to keep working.”
Vrabel has seen lots that he likes from Levis, but knows there is still much work to be done.
“I’ve seen him make some really good throws. I’ve seen the command of the huddle,” Vrabel says. “I think that – just explaining to these quarterbacks that the other 10 players are responsible for your performance. So, you need to make sure that they know where to line up. Sometimes guys make a mistake, a lot of formations. But the quarterback’s job is to make sure that everybody is helping them do their job. It starts with lining up.
“The operation at the line of scrimmage, I think is better. I’ve seen him move receivers into splits that they’re supposed to be in,” Vrabel continues. “Throwing with different speeds and layering the football or being able to use his arm talent when he has to and put it in there in tight windows. But again, there’s some other things that have to improve.”
Much like Willis, Levis is still very much a work in progress for the Titans. The good news for him is that it appears he will get the time and the opportunity to make that progress.