How one Super Bowl-winning QB evaluates the good and bad of Tennessee Titans' Will Levis

You don't have to be a Super Bowl-winning quarterback to recognize Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis' potential.

If you are, though, it carries a little extra weight.

"Look, after the first two games I would say borderline he was killing it," two-time Super Bowl winner Phil Simms told The Tennessean about Levis. "Maybe if they would’ve found a way to win the (Pittsburgh) game, that would’ve been over the top. I’ve been very impressed. I like his look on the field."

Levis heads into the fourth start of his rookie year as the Titans (3-6) prepare to face their AFC South rival Jacksonville Jaguars (6-3) on Sunday (noon, CBS). He has thrown for 699 yards and four touchdowns, although all four of them came in his debut win against the Atlanta Falcons.

Since then, he has thrown two interceptions, without a score, in a pair of road losses to the Steelers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with the caveat that both of his interceptions came late in the fourth quarter with the Titans in comeback mode, and one was the result of being hit while he was throwing.

Teammates, coaches and analysts like Simms have raved about Levis' poise, confidence, command of the offense and natural ability. He holds himself to a high standard, though.

"I want to do a better job of being clean when I can with the operation and getting these dudes’ minds set on what their task needs to be done at the line of scrimmage and eliminating as much confusion as possible," he said. "There’s been some times where myself or other people have been a little unsure. Eliminating those and getting us in a spot where we can play fast, I think that’s going to be a big thing for me."

What Will Levis is doing well

When evaluating what has worked for Levis at the start of his career, the big plays are the natural place to start. He has completed 12 passes that gained 20 or more yards, including 10 in his first two games.

Simms singled out one as the most impressive. Against the Falcons, Levis connected with receiver Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a 33-yard touchdown that traveled 55.2 yards through the air after Levis rolled to his right and then uncorked a rainbow throw across the field into the back left corner of the end zone.

"That’s big-time NFL stuff," Simms said. "There’s probably 10 teams in the league that would even design a play like that for their quarterback. That was awesome."

Simms says he tries not to be a "prisoner of the moment" with plays like that, but says Levis has caught his attention. Context matters. The Titans have a struggling offensive line, a less-than-stellar receiving corps and focus on playing a brand of complementary football that isn't as wide-open, pass-happy or up-tempo as some of the league's top offenses.

While fellow rookie quarterbacks Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud play on teams running the eighth- and ninth-most plays per game in the NFL, the Titans average the third-fewest offensive snaps per game. Despite this, Levis has been pressured two more times per game than Young and six more times per game than Stroud.

Levis' teammates haven't seen the burden of the pressure get to him.

"Will showing that confidence to go out there to play is amazing," veteran guard Daniel Brunskill said. "You love to see a guy out there with confidence. If you’re in a huddle with a guy who’s kind of shaking and stuff, now you get a little nervous. But like, if you’ve got a guy out there with some confidence, it’s amazing what he can do. As much as we can get that experience for him, he’s going to do really good things."

Where Will Levis needs to be better

The best quarterbacks know how to balance making their reads and playing within a scheme against trusting their instincts and making off-platform throws when the time is right. Levis isn't quite there yet.

"He’s been doing a really good job of really protecting the football up until late in games," Titans offensive coordinator Tim Kelly said. "That’s something we’re going to continue to build on and hopefully he can continue to learn no matter what the situation is, we can’t just throw the ball up for grabs. We can’t do that."

In the two losses, Levis is completing 52% of his passes and averaging 5.9 yards per attempt. To put that in perspective, no qualified passer has a completion percentage lower than 58% this season and only two of the 33 are averaging fewer than 6 yards per attempt.

But again, context matters. He is pressured at the second-highest rate in the league, and it's tough to pin those pressures on Levis. Pro Football Focus calculates a stat called "allowed pressure" that puts a percentage on how often quarterbacks are to blame for being hurried, hit or sacked compared to their blockers.

Among quarterbacks who have been pressured 40 or more times this season, Levis actually has the fifth-lowest allowed pressure percentage at 6.3%. The only passers better are all established stars: Joe Burrow, Matthew Stafford, Kirk Cousins and Justin Herbert.

But Levis' response to pressure could be better. He has scrambled for gains only twice, which is a big departure for someone who did so 50 times in two years as a starter at Kentucky. Simms says he admires the impulse to stay within the game plan and prove he can be a process quarterback, but he believes Levis can become a more multi-dimensional threat if he incorporates his athleticism more.

Levis agrees.

"I definitely feel like I can use my legs more when it sees fit," Levis said. "As part of the self-scout, I’m going back and looking at when I could’ve escaped or where the lanes are. That’s just a continuation of feeling out what’s going to be best for us in the game plan and what I need to do in certain situations to put the ball in play and make things happen."

What's next for Will Levis?

Five of Levis' next eight games come against teams ranked 22nd or worse in pass defense. He'll have opportunities to put up big numbers, but more important, he'll have opportunities to stack NFL reps.

Hiccups will come. Simms says he's "1,000% confident" that Levis will have some bad games. He'll turn the ball over a few times. Fans and media may start scrutinizing his mistakes a little more closely or vocally doubting his potential.

But Levis and Simms agree that all that's going to matter is evaluation within the Titans' building. Levis says only he and his coaches know what the standard is for every play, and through film study he'll continue to evaluate how close he's coming to matching that standard.

He doesn't dwell on the good or the bad. He sure as heck doesn't care about the statistics. He's focusing on being a better leader, a better communicator, a better processor and just plain better.

Better, mind you, for a guy who's already pretty good.

"I see a very confident guy in his ability and his presence," Simms said. "We’ll see if he can get it done."

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nickusss.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: How a Super Bowl-winning QB grades Tennessee Titans' Will Levis so far