One year after selecting Malik Willis to be Ryan Tannehill’s eventual replacement, the Titans swing once again on a talented quarterback with iffy finishing potential. Levis has all the physical attributes you want, and a lot of the mental intangibles, but he leaves a lot of stuff on the field, and he’ll need everything clearly defined for him early in his NFL career.
Height: 6′ 3⅞” (67th percentile) Weight: 229 (75th)
40-Yard Dash: N/A
10-Yard Split: N/A
Bench Press: N/A
Vertical Jump: 34″ (79th)
Broad Jump: 124″ (95th)
3-Cone Drill: N/A
20-Yard Shuttle: N/A
Wingspan: N/A
Arm Length: 32″ (48th)
Hand Size: 10⅝” (96th)
Bio: An alum of Xavier High School in Madison, Connecticut, Levis was a three-star recruit who didn’t start getting serious offers until he was named Football Rating MVP at Nike’s The Opening in 2017. He committed immediately to Penn State when he got that offer, and graduated in three years with a degree in finance. He struggled to get starting reps and transferred to Kentucky in 2021. In four collegiate seasons, Levis completed 478 of 739 passes for 5,880 yards, 46 touchdowns, 25 interceptions, and a passer rating of 95.8. He also gained 742 yards and scored 17 touchdowns on 312 rushing attempts.
Stat to Know: We are all up in our feelings comparing Levis to Josh Allen apparently, so consider this: In Levis’ final collegiate season, he completed 16 of 39 deep passes for 541 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 75.5.
In 2017, Allen ‘s final collegiate season, he completed 15 of 46 passes of 20 or more air yards for 441 yards, eight touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 90.7.
If you’re going to compare Levis now to Allen then, you’d better go looking for those seven missing deep touchdowns.
Strengths: You’re going to hear a lot about Levis’ relatively mediocre supporting cast when excusing his inefficiencies, and that does show up on tape. If you’re going to throw deep to the boundary, you need at least one receiver who can beat tight boundary coverage.
There were times when Levis’ targets could do that, as seen by receiver Barion Brown on this 31-yard completion against Georgia cornerback Kelee Ringo. Browning did a really nice job of separating at the right moment to get the ball Ringo couldn’t.
And here’s Levis throwing to Brown against Ringo from the slot in that same game — this time, for a 42-yard gain. One might call this an underthrow to a point — I tend to think that if Anthony Richardson was throwing this ball, it might have been a touchdown — but we’re splitting hairs there.
Now, there are times when timing, touch, and accuracy come together for Levis, and you can see where all the love comes from. This 47-yard guided missile to Brown over two defenders is a great throw, no matter who’s throwing it. Levis had to move in the pocket and reset to make the throw, and he did so beautifully.
Weaknesses: The problem with the throw we just saw is that Levis is too inconsistent in putting the timing/accuracy/velocity equation together. He will veer towards arm talent, and then regress back to arm strength, where you’re just not sure what you’re going to get. As this interception against Youngtown State showed, Levis struggles with the combination of these three aspects too often.
Levis can throw to any area of the field in which his receivers are decidedly open, and he will make the occasional big-time throw with outstanding velocity. But the finishing touches that make great NFL deep-ball throwers are not on display nearly enough.
One thing Levis will absolutely have to fix if he’s ever to become a top-tier NFL quarterback is a first-read fixation that got him in trouble too often at the NCAA level. His throwing windows are about to be reduced exponentially, so the processes that lead to plays like this just can’t happen. On this end zone incompletion against Vanderbilt, Levis followed tight end Jordan Dingle through his route, and when that was closed, he didn’t avail himself of any other options. Had he seen Brown’s backside crosser in time, it was open for a touchdown. Alas.
This end zone interception against Georgia had Kelee Ringo retorting for other sins in that game. Here, Levis started off reading Dingle on a similar route — taking the linebacker up the seam — and before that progressed, Levis threw to his outside read, the aforementioned Mr. Brown. Problem was, Ringo and safety David Daniel-Sisavanh were all over that, and it was obvious as the routes developed.
This interception against Tennessee had Levis giving perfunctory looks to his front-side reads (Brown and Tayvion Robinson), then traveling to the back side and making this inexplicable throw to Dane Key — which was picked off by cornerback Brandon Turnage. This was a third-and-seven situation, so maybe Levis thought he had to nuke one in there, but he also had a metric ton of room to run to that side, so… I dunno.
Levis isn’t doing himself any favors with these random plays predicated on a developmental ability to see — and react to — the entire route palette. His NFL coaches will have to put in work to get him where he needs to be in that regard.
If we want to label Levis a “winner” or a “finisher” as opposed to a “gritty, tough guy,” it might behoove us to look at his red zone performance in the 2022 season. And that, my friends, is a problem. Levis threw 14 touchdown passes from the opposing 19-yard line and in, but he also led the nation with four interceptions in such instances, and he tied with North Carolina’s Drake Maye and San Jose State’s Chevan Cordeiro for the nation’s most red zone sacks, with 10.
We’ve already shown a couple examples, but here’s another red zone interception against Miami of Ohio in which Levis has tight end Keaton Upshaw open to the boundary on a well-executed pick play, and Levis can’t time it up. If he feathers the pass to Upshaw earlier, or zings it to Upshaw to make up for the elapse of time, maybe defensive back Eli Blakey doesn’t have an easy turnover. Upshaw’s WTF reaction is one that I suspect a lot of people would have at the end of this play.
This sack at the Georgia 16-yard line with 4:51 left in the fourth quarter of that game was notable because cornerback Javon Bullard got the takedown with a blitz from the slot. Rule No. 1 when you have a blitzer from an area of the field is to check for easy openings to the area of the field vacated by said blitzer. Dane Key had sone free real estate in the left slot, and if Levis had simply capitalized, maybe that’s a touchdown.
At this point in his progression, Levis’s slow reading ability, and his inability to capitalize on easy stuff in compressed areas, could be fatal at the NFL level. Again.., yes, he has tools, but his NFL coaches have their work cut out for them.
Conclusion: My evaluative process generally has me watching more tape of players who give me a negative hit right off the bat than the guys who just wow me. Because with those negative examples, I want to make sure I didn’t start with an atypically bad game. You don’t want to miss on a prospect because your evaluation started out on the wrong foot. So, I’ve watched a crapton of Will Levis, and I’m not any more sure of his NFL potential now than when I started. There are absolutely examples of Levis putting his athletic traits together in a compelling package, but they didn’t happen nearly enough, especially repeatedly enough, for me to be confident in his NFL future. Levis will need to be with NFL coaches who define things for him on every down. There’s nothing wrong with that per se — it’s not a professional death sentence. But when I weigh Levis’ experience against the rawness that’s still obvious… it’s a tough go.
NFL Comparison: Carson Wentz. Like Wentz, who was selected with the second overall pick in the 2016 draft out of North Dakota State, Levis brings a compelling bag of attributes that look good on their face until you dig underneath. Wentz has played at an MVP level when he operated very specifically in a defined offense with the Eagles, and he’s been mystery meat ever since in a variety of systems. Quarterbacks like Wentz and Levis, whose athletic traits pop off the tape, are always attractive until it’s time to successfully operate outside of structure, and then you just never know what you’re going to get. Not a great thing for the game’s most important position.