Brian Callahan confirms suspicion about Will Levis' shoulder injury that kept him out of Titans vs Bills
Fans of the Tennessee Titans, as well as the rest of the NFL world, spent the lead-up to Week 7 confused and suspicious of Will Levis's shoulder injury management. It was announced on Friday that Levis would be QUESTIONABLE heading into Tennessee's meeting with Buffalo, and then on Saturday we learned that Mason Rudolph would […]
Fans of the Tennessee Titans, as well as the rest of the NFL world, spent the lead-up to Week 7 confused and suspicious of Will Levis's shoulder injury management.
It was announced on Friday that Levis would be QUESTIONABLE heading into Tennessee's meeting with Buffalo, and then on Saturday we learned that Mason Rudolph would be getting the start. Levis wouldn't even be dressing for the game.
There were suddenly a lot of serious questions the Titans needed to answer: Why did Levis play in Week 6 if he's not healthy enough to play in Week 7? Did his injury impact his ability as a passer against the Colts or didn't it? Did he reinjure or reaggravate his shoulder since he first hurt himself in Miami? Whose decision was it to play him in Week 6 off less than 2 weeks rest, and are the Titans implicitly admitting they made a big mistake in doing so?
Well, Titans Head Coach Brian Callahan is nothing if not forthright and open with the media. So credit where it is due, because he wasted no time in his first availability since the news broke to explain the situation in detail. Here is the full video if you'd like to listen for yourself, but let's break down what he had to say about his QB situation:
"So here's how this happened" Callahan began, "came off the bye week and 10 days rest, started practice that week getting ready for Indianapolis. Felt like he was good enough to go, everything in practice seemed like it was good, felt kind of fresh because he came off the rest."
There's our first answer already: the Titans didn't have any reason to believe Levis wasn't healed enough to play in Week 6. Now, you could argue that their reason should have been that it hadn't yet been even two weeks of rest for a Grade 2 AC joint injury, which according to the Titans (or Titans sources) is a 4-5 week injury, per Adam Schefter. But in terms of putting Will through the paces in practice, they were getting green lights.
Callahan continues, now to the Colts game. "Ended up feeling it towards the end of the game on a couple of those throws. It's hard to simulate what that feels like with pressure in your face and having to make that throw. Came out of the game and bothered him."
This is a slight reversal on what Callahan himself said last week when asked about Levis's ability being hampered in the game. Levis made mention of "perhaps on a healthier day…" in his postgame presser when discussing a couple bad throws, and we asked Brian about this on Monday morning. "I didn't think there was any real ill effect… I don't know that an arm strength or a healthy shoulder would have made much of a difference, truthfully" he said. Though he did parse it with "but whatever he had to say is how he felt."
Callahan went on to explain what the week of practice leading up to Buffalo looked like. "Then you take the whole load of a week, a game, and then try to come right back on Wednesday and play again, and he felt it. It was sore, it hurt, his mechanics were not where they needed to be, his arm strength felt weakened, he didn't feel great. So we limited him on Wednesday, tried to see if he could come back on Thursday and go. Went full Thursday with pads on, had him try every throw we could possibly throw. Every downfield throw, all over the place in practice and came out of that practice and didn't feel great. And then we limited him again on Friday and that's when we made the decision to go with Mason (Rudolph)."
In the wake of the news last week that Levis was questionable again, some wondered aloud how much of this was an injury issue and how much could possibly be a convenient excuse to softly bench the struggling QB.
Callahan made it clear that "the injury is real, he tried to fight through it, I appreciate the toughness and the willingness. But felt good coming off the break, felt good last week, and then as the game went along and he ended up feeling what it felt like with pressure to make the throw, didn't feel as good as he maybe thought he did going into it."
Callahan finished by taking full responsibility for the situation. "So I made the decision, it was my decision to sit him. Just because I didn't feel like he could play at the level he needed to play to come in here and win in Buffalo. That's usually how those injuries go, and he tried to fight through it, and ultimately I decided it wasn't in his best interest to go out there if he wasn't all the way healthy."
Good on Callahan for being so honest about what happened, which now was clearly the Titans coaching staff (in conjunction with the medical staff) making an error in deciding to play Levis in Week 6. All of this is easy to say in hindsight, of course. And while its nots always fair to play Monday morning quarterback, the team does have to live with taking this gamble and getting burned. It's understandable that his practice seemed good enough to go, but the context of the situation should have made them err on the side of caution. You were less than 2 weeks removed from what you yourself deemed a 4-5 week injury, and you were playing an utterly beatable divisional foe at home. Hindsight is 20/20, but it looks pretty bad.
Callahan finished by saying that Will Levis' status will be week-to-week going forward, so he could miss even more time depending on how this week goes.
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