The 2023 NFL Draft takes place April 27-29 this year, emanating LIVE from Kansas City, Missouri. As it stands, the Tennessee Titans have one first round draft pick. New general manager Ran Carthon and head coach Mike Vrabel currently hold the 11th overall selection. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be taking a look at some of the prospects who are either rumored to be tied to, have met with, who make sense for the Titans, or who are for some reason being mocked to the Titans even though they don’t really have a need at the position. Whatever – there are no rules here. Today, we’re lookin’ at Kentucky quarterback Will Levis.
Alright, we’ve just about reached the end of the road here on Titans First Round Options. There’s only one more name on my list of guys I wanted to take a bit of a deep dive into, and there’s a couple of reasons for that. For one, the Titans have met with Levis, and they continue to do their due diligence on this quarterback class. He is a realistic option for the team at #11. For another, Levis was actually the first prospect I wrote about in this year’s class. Yeah, I started the big board back in November after watching some games against the Mississippi schools and the Georgia games from the last two years. I felt like Levis was going to be a more polarizing guy even back then, and boy, has the conversation surrounding him NOT disappointed in that regard. I wanted to revisit my initial eval to see how I felt about it now that the Scouting Combine and pre-draft nonsense is just about in the books.
Here’s my initial read on him from my Big Board, which you can read in its full 30K-word form on the SoBros Network Patreon:
I get the vision. And, man – Levis can make some true NFL throws. He has the frame to be a punisher in the run game. People want Levis to be the next Josh Allen, and sure, if he gets in the right situation, he could get there one day. That’s going to be a roll of the dice, though. He can throw some rifles. He throws a pretty ball, and he’s accurate on the mid-range stuff. There are some deep overthrows on his tape, so I’d like to see him a little more accurate in that regard. And, I’d like to see him operate with a little more urgency against the rush. Felt like he’s a little slow in the pocket sometimes – as if he’s operating 0.5 seconds behind the rest of the field. His best fit would be in one of the “Shanahan offenses” around the league – throwing screens and swing passes, intermediate routes, and being involved in the run game. This guy looks like he was tailor made to be a Los Angeles Ram under Sean McVay. He also looks like he could be EJ Manuel 2.0.
I’m surprised that no one seems to really be talking about Levis as a rusher anymore. He’s not the most explosive guy with the ball in his hands, but I think there’s definitely upside there. Nonetheless, you’ll notice that it wasn’t even really about the turnovers for me. No, I don’t like a quarterback being careless with the ball, and it’s up to a coaching staff to get in there and determine the cause of that in order to coach it out of him. But, to me, it was something different about his game that just felt unnatural.
I felt like there was some weird thing going on where Levis was just a little slow to react to and process what was happening in front of him. And, yeah – he’d scamper off, barely escape a sack, and land this fantastic throw that makes it look like he’s this Houdini play-maker. But, I’m still stuck on the first part over here like, “why didn’t he get that ball out sooner when it was easier to hit that throw?“
His arm talent allowed him to get away with this at times, too. A second late? No problem – “let me just fire this bazooka and make that second up in the air.” I may seem like I’m being overly critical, but for me, it comes down to feel for the game inside the pocket. Bryce Young is elite at it. Anthony Richardson is underrated at it. CJ Stroud is CJ Stroud at it. And, Levis just seems a little behind. Now, it’s been said he had a pretty damn good S2 Cognition score, which is a measure of mental processing. So, maybe my instincts are just off here. Maybe I just can’t get over the mayo in the coffee thing or the eating a banana with the peel on thing. Maybe I’m watching videos in slow motion without realizing it. But, I see a quarterback who is closer to Hendon Hooker in the “what do we really know about this guy?” category.
I’m not usually “supporting cast” guy, but you can make an exception for Levis here without much argument from me. Kentucky’s offense was ass – Levis had no one to throw the ball to, and his offensive line had him running for his life regularly. I acknowledge that it’s entirely possible that that could be a reason for this processing “issue” that I raise, but I also saw this in 2021 when the offense was much better. If all the things that other people project about what Levis does well actually come to fruition, yeah, you’re looking at a pretty damn good quarterback. I’m just not there with him. I wouldn’t say “red flags” per se…but I’d say there’s a lot of nitpicks, and eventually, those things add up.
Further Reading: The Case for Will Levis
2023 TITANS FIRST ROUND OPTIONS
- Steve Avila
- Christian Gonzalez
- Paris Johnson Jr.
- Broderick Jones
- Cody Mauch
- Michael Mayer
- Kelee Ringo
- John Michael Schmitz
- Peter Skoronski
- CJ Stroud
- Lukas Van Ness
- Darnell Washington
- Wide receivers
- Tyree Wilson
- Devon Witherspoon
- Bryce Young
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Stoney Keeley is the Editor in Chief of The SoBros Network, and a Dogs Playing Poker on velvet connoisseur. He is a strong supporter of Team GSD, #BeBetter, and ‘Minds right, asses tight.’ “Big Natural” covers the Tennessee Titans, Nashville, Yankee Candle, and a whole wealth of nonsense. Follow on Twitter @StoneyKeeley.
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