As terrific as Will Levis was in his NFL debut last week in a victory over the Falcons (a 65.5% completion rate for 238 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions), the Titans rookie quarterback had the power of unfamiliarity on his side. There was no NFL regular-season film on him, just tape from Week 1 of the preseason.
That magnifies his challenge this week.
Levis is set to make his second career start for the Titans (3-4) this week against the Steelers (4-3) on Thursday Night Football, with Ryan Tannehill still sidelined due to an ankle sprain. Not only does Pittsburgh have four quarters of film on the former Kentucky star, but it’s also Levis’ first experience on a short week and primetime in the NFL. The league will be watching.
The big question is whether Levis, who provided hope to a franchise that has been desperate for it, can do it again. And not necessarily to play as spectacularly as he did last week, but to put together another encouraging performance and show a level of consistency as QB1.
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“Everything is just sped up,” coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday of the challenges on a short week. “We’ve talked about what it is physically, but just the mental preparation that goes on to a new opponent. New scheme, new players they have to learn.”
There’s an argument to be had that Levis, the Titans’ hopeful franchise quarterback, showed enough in his debut to be Tennessee’s starter for the rest of the season, even when Tannehill returns. What he did Sunday was better than what Tannehill has shown all year (Tannehill hasn’t thrown four touchdown passes in a game since Week 18 of the 2021 season). This roster is posed to look very different in the upcoming offseason anyway, and Levis needs the in-game reps.
But a good performance from the second-round pick against Pittsburgh, in the spotlight on three days’ rest and the high of last week, should, in theory, erase any uncertainty from Vrabel about giving Levis the reins for the rest of the season.
While Levis’ confidence and cannon arm were the biggest talking points coming out of Sunday — he threw three of the 10 longest touchdown passes by air distance this season in his debut, according to Next Gen Stats — equally impressive were his command and poise at the line of scrimmage.
In his first start, Levis had the power to make checks.
“I think it’s just a testament to him,” offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said. “Coming in and studying and taking advantage of being able to sit back a bit and really learn. He’s got great guys in the room. [Pass game coordinator/quarterbacks coach] Charles [London] does a great job of getting him ready. Being able to sit there and talk to Ryan and talk to Malik [Willis]. He did a good job taking advantage of those opportunities to continue to learn and make sure he had a full grasp of the offense.
“There was definitely a certain confidence, swagger — whatever you want to call it — when you watched the tape when we were back evaluating him [in college],” Kelly said. “He does a good job of not crossing the line, because there’s a fine line between being confident and being on the wrong side of that. He’s done a good job of coming in here and working and earning the respect of his teammates.”
Dave Helman breaks down Will Levis’ historic debut
While Levis was inactive the first six games of the season as the No. 3 quarterback, his teammates saw the habits he’d built that made the debut he had possible.
Fellow 2023 draftee Colton Dowell, a seventh-round receiver, was Levis’ roommate during rookie minicamp in the spring. Levis’ intense focus on football stood out to him, so much so that Dowell didn’t want to turn the TV on in their hotel room to disturb the QB.
“He’s always the one that said, ‘Hey, let’s look through the script before this next practice,'” Dowell told FOX Sports. “He’d always get through the script, go through all his different checks.”
On off days during the season, Levis will find someone to throw to in the Titans’ indoor facility so he can work on his mechanics.
“I think he treated the scout team like it was game day,” practice-squad receiver Mason Kinsey told FOX Sports.
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Levis knows playing at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium will be a unique experience. It’s one of the NFL’s most iconic venues, and Steelers fans will be enthusiastically rooting against him. But it won’t be completely foreign territory. Levis played in some of college football’s loudest stadiums at Kentucky.
The key, Levis said, is making sure the communication is clear and that the execution is clean.
“Playing or not, I’ve had this game circled on the schedule just because of how great the environment is going to be,” he said. “I know that the fans are going to come out and it’s going to be a nice environment. We’re ready to handle it. Just looking forward to taking it all in and just doing my thing.”
Like he did in his debut.
Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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