The Titans Wasted Three Years and a Second-Round Pick on Will Levis, and That's On Them, Not Him

The Tennessee Titans made a decision three years ago that has officially blown up in their face. They drafted Will Levis in the second round of the 2023 NFL Draft, believed he was their franchise quarterback, and gave him chances to prove it over multiple seasons. Now he is gone, looking for a new home, and the Titans are left holding the bag with nothing to show for the investment except wasted time and diminished draft capital. This is not a referendum on Levis as a player, though he clearly did not have it at the highest level. This is a referendum on the Titans organization for making a decision that was wrong from day one and then compounding that mistake by not admitting it sooner.

Let me be direct about something. Will Levis was never going to be a franchise quarterback in this league. Not because he lacked physical tools. Not because he could not move around or throw the football. The problem with Levis was something much more fundamental. He did not have the processing speed to play quarterback at the elite level. He did not understand how to go through progressions quickly. He did not have the anticipation that separates good quarterbacks from great ones. When the pocket started to move, Levis became uncomfortable. When he had to make a decision with defenders closing in, his mechanics fell apart. These are not things you fix in your mid-twenties if you have not developed them by now. The tape was available to anyone who wanted to look at it before the 2023 draft. The Titans looked at the same tape and convinced themselves they could develop him anyway. That was the first mistake.

The second mistake was giving him meaningful opportunities to start when he clearly was not ready. The Titans put Levis in games as a rookie and expected him to figure it out on the job. That does not work. Quarterback development requires a plan, a structure, and proper sequencing. You do not throw a young quarterback who has not mastered the fundamentals into NFL games and hope he learns through repetition. Levis needed to sit. He needed to watch. He needed to learn the system inside and out before taking meaningful snaps. Instead, the Titans rushed him, played him too early, and let his confidence get shattered when he inevitably struggled. Now he is damaged goods because the organization failed him just as much as he failed to develop.

The third mistake was not pulling the plug sooner. Any competent front office knew by midway through year two that this was not working. Levis was not getting better. He was getting worse. His decision-making was regressing. His accuracy was inconsistent. His ability to handle pressure was deteriorating. The Titans could have made a move in the offseason after year two to reset the situation. Instead, they held on to hope. They told themselves they had invested too much to move on. They convinced themselves that one more offseason, one more training camp, one more chance might be the difference. That is how front offices talk themselves into staying the course when the course is clearly taking them off a cliff.

Now we get to the part where this entire situation becomes even more frustrating. The Titans had an opportunity to fix this problem in free agency. They could have signed a veteran quarterback to come in and compete with Levis. They could have traded for a proven player who at least had some track record of success at this level. Instead, they brought in Tony Romo as a backup and called it a day. Tony Romo. A retired quarterback who had been out of the league for years. The Titans were hoping that having a veteran presence around would somehow unlock Levis and allow him to become the player they drafted him to be. That is not how this works. Veterans do not transform broken quarterbacks. Only honest evaluation and significant development can do that. The Titans had neither.

This is where I need to address something that a lot of people are going to push back on. Some folks are going to say that the Titans were right to move on from Levis and that this is a wise decision. I agree with the moving on part. I disagree completely with the timing and the way this situation was handled. A first-year head coach should not have inherited a quarterback situation this messy. A new general manager should not have been forced to clean up a mess this expensive. The Titans could have handled this situation like professionals instead of like an organization that was frantically trying to plug holes after the ship had already started sinking.

The real issue here is that the Titans organization does not understand evaluation. They do not understand how to identify talent. They do not understand how to develop young players. They do not understand how to build a winning football team. These are not small problems. These are existential problems for a franchise. When you get your quarterback evaluation this wrong, it impacts everything. It impacts your salary cap. It impacts your draft capital. It impacts your credibility in free agency. Other teams know you cannot evaluate talent, so they are less likely to trade with you or work with you on deals. The damage extends far beyond just Levis.

Look at the bigger picture. The Titans have been spinning their wheels for years now. They made the playoffs once in the last five seasons. They are perpetually in flux. They fired Mike Vrabel, who is one of the better coaches in this league. They brought in a new coaching staff. They brought in a new general manager. They brought in new players. Yet the underlying problem persists. The organization does not know what it is doing at a foundational level. Will Levis is just the latest symptom of that larger disease.

Here is what should have happened. The Titans should have evaluated Levis honestly after year one. They should have concluded that he was not the answer. They should have either drafted a new quarterback in 2024 or traded for one. They should have moved on decisively and given themselves a clean slate. Instead, they limped into the 2024 season hoping for improvement. They got worse. They benched Levis. They demoted him to third string. They let him sit around knowing he was not part of the future. Now they are releasing him and sending him out into the market like he is damaged goods.

The thing that really gets me is that none of this was necessary. This entire disaster could have been avoided with better decision-making at the top. The Titans could have been two years ahead of where they actually are in the rebuilding process. They could be in a better draft position. They could have already moved on to their next option. Instead, they are still digging out from the hole they created by selecting Levis in the second round in the first place.

Will Levis is going to go to another team. He might have some success. He might wash out. That depends on the situation he lands in and the opportunity he gets. But regardless of what happens to Levis, the Titans are going to have to live with the consequences of their poor evaluation and worse handling of the situation. That is the real story here. This is not about Will Levis. This is about an organization that made a bad decision, failed to manage that decision properly, and is now trying to move forward without acknowledging the full scope of the mistakes they made.

The Titans wasted time. They wasted money. They wasted a second-round pick. They created an unstable quarterback situation that is going to hurt them for years. All of that lands squarely on management, not on Levis. He was put in an impossible situation and failed to overcome it. That is not entirely his fault. The organization bears far more responsibility for this mess than anyone else.

VERDICT: The Titans made a franchise-altering mistake three years ago when they selected Will Levis. They made it worse by not acting decisively once they realized their error. Now they are cutting their losses, but the damage is already done. This organization is not ready to compete for anything. They need to bottom out, rebuild completely, and find some competent people in the front office who actually understand how to evaluate talent and build a winning team.