The Tennessee Titans have ruled starting quarterback Ryan Tannehill out for the team’s Week 9 Thursday Night Football game against the Pittsburgh Steelers due to an ankle injury, allowing rookie QB Will Levis to make his second consecutive start.
Tannehill injured his ankle in Tennessee’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens on October 15, and Levis took over as starter in Week 8. The rookie did not let us down. In his first NFL start, Levis passed for 238 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions, leading the Titans to a much-needed 28-23 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
“I’ve been dreaming of this moment as a kid my entire life,” Levis said after the game. “Even to just touch the field in an NFL game, let alone get a win, is incredible.”
The Steelers (4-3) host the Titans (3-4) at 8:15 p.m. ET Thursday. The game will air on Prime Video, meaning Levis will start in front of a prime-time audience for the first time in his professional career.
Played College Football at Penn State, Kentucky
Levis set school records for passing yards, passing touchdowns and completions in a season during his senior year at Xavier High School in Connecticut. The three-star recruit and No. 23 pro-style QB in the nation, per 247Sports, committed to Penn State and joined the program ahead of the 2018 season.
But Levis sparingly saw the field during his time with the Nittany Lions.
The 6-foot-4, 229-pounder redshirted his first season, then spent the next two years largely sitting behind starter Sean Clifford. Levis appeared in 15 total games and made two starts during his time in State College before transferring to Kentucky. Levis started the 2021 and 2022 seasons in Lexington, finishing with 43 touchdown passes as a Wildcat—fifth-best in program history—and garnering some NFL attention.
Fell During the 2023 NFL Draft
Levis attended the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City, Missouri, likely assuming he would hear his name called during the first round. But he didn’t.
The Kentucky product was widely considered one of the best players at his position heading into the draft. And ESPN analytics said there was a 92 percent chance Levis would be among one of the first 10 players drafted this year. Instead, he fell all the way to the second round. The Titans traded up to select Levis at No. 33 overall after a long 24 hours or so for the Levis family.
Levis was the fourth QB drafted this year after Bryce Young (Carolina Panthers), C.J. Stroud (Houston Texans) and Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis Colts).
Idolizes Tom Brady
Growing up as a quarterback in the Northeast provided Levis with a pretty natural sports idol to look up to—former New England Patriots QB Tom Brady.
Levis’ admiration for Brady was even noted on his bio page at Kentucky. So it couldn’t have gotten much better for Levis than when he and some other rookies had lunch with the seven-time Super Bowl champion over the summer.
“Going in the second round, in the end, that’s not really that big of a deal,” Brady told Levis during the meeting, before turning his attention to Young. “Going first overall, in the end, is not a big deal. It’s great. You’ve got an opportunity, you’re probably going to be paid more than anyone for a time period. But I was drafted [199th overall]. I just outlasted everybody.
“There’s another me out there, right, so how do I keep my edge on everybody. I had to keep working. I didn’t go, ‘Hey, I’m good.'”
Levis later told reporters that Brady shared stories from his playing days, as well as a few business tips, throughout the lunch.
Lifetime Supply of Hellmann’s Mayo
Several NFL quarterbacks have endorsement deals of some kind. But Levis is the only one who has a lifetime contract with Hellmann’s Mayonnaise.
Levis caused a stir on social media when users saw a video of the QB putting mayo in his coffee rather than, say, cream or sugar. The signal-caller from Madison, Connecticut, told USA Today that the habit started when he and his girlfriend were out to breakfast and she playfully suggested he put mayo in his coffee when there wasn’t any cream on the table. Levis clarified earlier this year that he doesn’t actually put mayo in his coffee on a regular basis.
But the unusual combination has worked out fine for him. Hellmann’s announced in August that it had partnered with Levis and supplied him with a lifetime supply of the product.
“That video went viral, and I raised some eyebrows from that,” Levis told USA Today. “From there, mayonnaise has been irreplaceable with me and my brand. Must have caught the eye of the people over at Hellmann’s and it’s turned into this, which is pretty cool.”
Joined Rare Company in First NFL Start
Levis became the seventh rookie quarterback to start a game this season, the most to start in the first eight weeks of a campaign since the NFL merger—excluding the 1987 strike season—according to the Associated Press.
And the second-rounder’s debut may have been the best.
The Titans QB became the third player in NFL history to record four touchdown passes in his first NFL game, according to the team, joining Marcus Mariota and Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton. And Levis is the first former Kentucky quarterback to have at least four touchdown passes in an NFL regular season game since George Blanda in 1968, according to Kentucky’s sports information department.
Levis already has more touchdown passes than Tannehill had (two) in six games.
“He was ballin’, huh?” Titans All-Pro running back Derrick Henry said of Levis. “He was playing out of his mind. It was good to see, because he works so hard. I could tell he was locked in, and we were excited to see it come together for him and the offense.”
The rookie threw a touchdown in each quarter of last Sunday’s game, three of which went to Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Levis completed TD passes of 47, 16, and 61 yards to Hopkins before connecting with Nick Westbrook-Ikhine for a game-clinching, 33-yard score with just under seven minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Levis threw three of the 10 longest touchdown passes by air distance this season in his first start, according to Next Gen Stats.
“We obviously knew he could do what he did today,” Hopkins said of Levis after the game. “And that’s how he practices. That’s how he approaches the game.”
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