NASHVILLE — Through the first three starts of his NFL career, Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis has performed admirably despite challenging circumstances around him .

Levis has showed exceptional poise in the pocket, the willingness to take big hits, and the physical ability to deliver good passes through contact. The moment is never too big for Levis and he does not shrink under pressure.

And given the amount of pressure he is regularly facing and the Titans’ recent tendency to put him in a position to fail, that’s probably a good thing.

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The lack of protection for the rookie quarterback is concerning, to put things mildly. In just three career NFL games, Levis has been pressured a shocking 59 times on 118 passing drop backs. That’s an even 50 percent of his drop backs being sacked, hit, or hurried and 47 of those 59 pressures have come in the last two games.

In Week 10, Levis was the NFL’s second most pressured quarterback behind only Tommy DeVito of the New York Giants. In Week 9, Levis was under the third most duress behind Zach Wilson and Justin Herbert. 

To put thing in perspective, Tennessee has gotten just 11 pressures on opposing quarterbacks in those two games while Levis has been pressured 47 times. The deck is stacked against Levis before every opening kickoff.

Impacting Levis' Future

Because of the lack of talent on the offensive line, a series of injuries to that same group, and the overall weakness that has been pass protection, the Titans may not win many games the rest of the way. And that’s okay. At 3-6 and 15th in the AFC, mounting a comeback that results in a playoff birth is highly unlikely anyway. While winning is nice and being led to victories by a rookie quarterback would be a huge building block for the future, Levis should not be judged by wins and losses at this juncture.

For the Titans, it’s all about building for 2024 and the years beyond. It’s about developing Levis into a franchise quarterback and building a roster around him that is championship caliber. But while the results of the remaining games in 2023 are less relevant, the way Titans players perform around the young quarterback is not.

Given the amount of pressure Levis has had coming at him, I’d be lying if I said I was not concerned that Levis could get hurt or have his development stunted by the poor offensive line. There are numerous examples from the past of NFL quarterbacks who had talent without protection and never figured things out in the league. Tennessee cannot afford for that to happen.

Titans head coach Mike Vrabel acknowledged those situations of the past when speaking with the media on Monday, but said he was not personally worried about that occurring with Levis. Vrabel was, however, worried about the rookie quarterback's health.

"I think that any time you have a quarterback that shows that type of toughness and is willing to stand in there and not stare at the rush, I think everybody appreciates that and values that," said Vrabel of Levis on Monday. "That's not the plan, that's not the goal, nobody wants that to happen. I've said this to our team since I've been here. When somebody misses a block, or doesn't go to the right ID or the right linebacker, it's not the seven yards on a sack or four yards on a run that bothers me, it's the fact that somebody could get hurt."

As I mentioned earlier, Levis has proven to be about as tough as they come. He doesn’t shy away from a hit and continues answering the bell. That’s a quality that veteran quarterback Ryan Tannehill also possesses, and has been praised for in the past. But as Titans fans have seen both this season and last, you can only take so many hits before something goes wrong. Tannehill is one tough cookie, but taking sack after sack resulted in a high ankle sprain in two consecutive seasons. My worry is that Levis will have a similar fate playing behind this poor excuse for an offensive line.

For Titans fans, there are still a lot of reasons to be excited. But I’d still be holding my breath every Sunday. As currently constructed, the Titans are setting will Levis up to fail. They’ll need to do some serious work in the offseason to give the young quarterback a fighting chance at being successful and staying healthy. 

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