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Maybe it was the Houston Oilers throwbacks.
Maybe it was an Atlanta Falcons defense that looked out of sorts more often than it should have been.
Maybe it was just the vagaries of football.
Or maybe, rookie Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis has developed to the point where he can do this more than once. But what Levis did against that Falcons defense was indeed historic. With Ryan Tannehill sidelined due to an ankle injury, and backup Malik Willis playing like… well. Malik Willis, Titans head coach Mike Vrabel made the call to give evis not only his first NFL start, but his first actual NFL snaps.
It’s been a interesting journey for the 2023 second-round pick out of Kentucky, but Levis clearly stored up some explosive plays for that debut. He became the third quarterback in pro football history, following Fran Tarkenton in 1961 and Marcus Mariota in 2015, to throw four touchdown passes in his NFL debut. And his passer rating of 130.5 was the second-highest for a pro quarterback in his first game, trailing only Robert Griffin III’s 139.9 in 2012.
“It was a lot of fun,” Levis said after the game. “Like I’ve been saying: This is the game I love, and there’s nothing better than winning a football game.”
“He was ballin’, huh?,” running back Derrick Henry said of his new starting quarterback. “He was playing out of his mind. It was good to see, because he works so hard. I could tell he was locked in, and we were excited to see it come together for him and the offense.”
“He’s a very talented quarterback, confident,” said receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who had four catches for 128 yards and three touchdowns. “He plays the game like he’s been here. [Offensive coordinator] Tim Kelly and those guys did a great job getting him prepared today.”
“I think you can build off a win,” Vrabel concluded. “Now we have to recover, we have to get back, and go on the road to Pittsburgh. We know how hard that is to win, at night, on a short week.
“But I am excited. I am excited that we won.”
What did we really learn about Will Levis’ NFL potential? Because when you tie a record previously get by one Hall of Famer (Tarkenton) and one career journeyman (Mariota), it tells you all you need to know about judging a young quarterback based on just one game. The Thursday night matchup between the Titans and the Pittsburgh Steelers gives Levis a quick opportunity to capitalize… or with Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett out, ostensibly replaced by Mitch Trubisky, this could be one of those games that sets offense back 50 years.
But here’s what we saw in Levis’ first meaningful NFL reps.