In a reaction to his latest turnover struggles, Will Levis was benched by the Titans earlier this week. The second-year quarterback’s future with the franchise is uncertain as a result, but he still views himself as a QB1 option at the NFL level. 
“I still believe that I can be the franchise quarterback for this team,” Levis said (via ESPN’s Turron Davenport). “I have the utmost confidence in myself and my ability to lead any team in this league.”
2024 marked Levis’ first full season as the Titans’ starter, and a number of moves made by the organization – including the hiring of first-time head coach Brian Callahan – were centered on his development. Things have not gone according to plan, though, and in the aftermath of a three-interception outing he was benched midway through Sunday’s loss. Mason Rudolph is therefore in position to handle starting duties the rest of the way.
Callahan declined to get into specifics when speaking about Levis’ status beyond the 2024 season, noting that a lack of consistency held back his development in other areas this season. The team’s attention is on the final three games of the campaign, and two more years remain on Levis’ rookie pact. Given his performances to date, though, it would not come as a surprise if one or more quarterback additions were to be made this offseason.
The Titans are one of seven teams with either 11 or 12 losses at this point, making them a candidate to land the No. 1 pick in April’s draft. With only two passers (Shedeur Sanders and Cam Ward) seen as being worthy of a selection at the top of the order, though, Tennessee could wind up out of range for the top options in this year’s class. Given Rudolph’s status as a pending free agent, the veteran route could be taken in March to add a bridge starter or at least competition for Levis presuming he is retained.
The 25-year-old suffered a Grade 2 AC joint sprain earlier in the year, and it was made clear at that point he would reprise his role as starter once healthy. That proved to be the case, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes Levis reaggravated the injury in Week 14 before trying to play through a Grade 3 sprain on Sunday. That latest ailment will be healed by the start of the 2025 season, but it will be interesting to see what moves the Titans will have made under center by that point.
“I have the utmost confidence in myself.” We know, dude. We see it every time you decide to make a chaotically stupid throw that a more grounded QB wouldn’t.
Not every QB has the utmost confidence that he can lead his team to an early draft pick 🙂
I get that he’s a 2nd round pick so they don’t really care about his development, but everyone knew this guy had to sit for a year n a half.
He shouldn’t have 20 starts already, should be going into like his 4th start if he was properly handled
Still has a lot in the tool box and maybe another team can save him.
His numbers overall are actually solid, but the INTs are terrible
Yeah, that’s because Levis actually can string together good plays and has the talent to do so, until he makes a high school level decision and turns it over.
The in between is usually fine, he just makes an incomprehensible decision, and then gets strangled by the pressure of having made that decision and the poor results all season, and starts firing wildly or tossing the ball at the air during a sack or some other ridiculous thing. Continuing to start him was only going to make that worse, whether he gets a new start with Tennessee or elsewhere.
M Carthon hasn’t shown much as a GM. Traded up for this guy, traded for the KC CB followed by a big contract, his first two 1st round picks spent on OL but OL is still a massive problem. Ridley is an average WR. Lots of ‘meh’ from him.
And pretty much every other addition he made this offseason is either hurt or off the team
In fairness to Carthon, he inherited a roster in rough shape. They had a few good veteran pieces, but the last three drafts before he got there were extraordinarily bad, including three first round picks who contributed close to nothing at all. When Roger McCreary is the best player on your roster from the last three drafts, you’ve got a hell of a team building challenge ahead of you. I can’t quibble too much with taking the swing on Levis once he fell, even if it turned out to be a swing and a miss. I think it’s reasonable process. Latham and Sweat both look good. I’m not saying Carthon looks great right now, but a guy starting his job that far underwater deserves a bit of runway.
Ha ha! It was a roster in terrible shape.
Of their last three first round picks before Carthon took over, the most productive BY FAR has been Treylon Burks. Truly one of the most damning sentences I’ve written about a team in a while.
AJ for Burks is a black eye for Jon. Naturally, he’s interviewing for the Jets GM position.
I mean, Robinson had several missteps in his final years, but given how much Carthon made waves in the organization (such as the firing of Vrabel-if the team was talentless, and they overall did well in those three years, shouldn’t Vrabel get more credit?), it’s fair to hold him to a higher expectation.
I do think Vrabel deserves a lot of credit for his work with those rosters, and I think he gets a lot. I also think his firing was more about ownership needing to choose a philosophical path forward and choosing the other one for the rebuild. Vrabel’s successful teams were also heavily built around an aging running back and a quarterback who isn’t even in the league anymore.
Fair points, but I don’t know if firing him was right. Either way, even if it was, it puts the onus on the person pushing for that change indirection (presumably Carthon) to improve, right? Vrabel wanted Cowden as GM, so presumably they would have built for the post-Henry/Tannehill era anyway, albeit in a different direction than the high offense model that Carthon tried to go for with Callahan.
To be clear, I don’t think that the door is shut on Carthon already, but I do have a few concerns as an outsider.
To be clear, I don’t know if firing him was right either, and probably had more to do with ownership being tired of him personally than anything. And it’s hard not to have concerns with that situation. This time last year, I would have thought that if Tennessee wanted to move on from Vrabel, they would have been able to trade him elsewhere.
I agree with that.
Dude, hold the mayo …
Hopefully Levis can find the correct bench to sit on. He clearly has trouble differentiating between the jersey colors.
I feel badly for Levis, but that was funny.
Maybe it’s time for a change of scenery?
Dude has some pipes. Could open jars of pickles in the off season for the retired community. I have the utmost confidence he can do it.
Didn’t your team get rid of Derrick Henry?