Titans’ Will Levis went from Penn State backup to sparkling NFL debut, now faces Steelers

When Will Levis produced two touchdowns — one rushing, one passing — during a unique Christmas-week home game in front of no fans at Beaver Stadium on Dec. 19, 2020, who would have thought then that the next game Levis would play in Pennsylvania would come almost three years later.

And few could have imagined it would be as an NFL starting quarterback. Fewer still could have foreseen the path Levis would take to Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, making his first NFL road start for the Tennessee Titans.

When the covid-impacted 2020 college football season ended, Levis remained Penn State’s backup quarterback. Though Nittany Lions coaches had worked Levis into the game plan (he appeared in eight of Penn State’s nine games that season, throwing 55 passes and rushing 82 times), Levis entered the transfer portal.

He ended up at Kentucky, where his career ascended from subpackage-backup to elite NFL prospect.

Though Levis slipped to the second round, his pro debut suggests it might ultimately work out best for him with the Titans. During Sunday’s 28-23 win against the Atlanta Falcons, Levis became the third player in NFL history to have four touchdown passes in his NFL debut, the fifth to have a passer rating of better than 130.0 (minimum 20 attempts).

“He’s a guy who has a lot of confidence,” Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “After the performance that he had last week, I think that’s only going to make him play batter and continue to get the guys around him to buy into what he’s doing.”

Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel complimented Levis’ work over the summer in learning the offense, which by extension earned him the respect of his teammates. The 6-foot-4, 229-pound Levis was considered to have an upper-echelon NFL-caliber throwing arm in addition to prototypical size and above-average athleticism inside and out of the pocket.

Projected as a high first-round pick, a combination of factors contributed to a tumble in the draft for Levis. He and former Penn State teammate Joey Porter Jr. were among four invited guests by the league projected to be first-round picks who were not selected in Round 1 on April 27.

After three of the top four picks were quarterbacks, Levis remained on the board as Round 2 began the following night.

The Steelers held the next pick and grabbed Porter Jr. That left Levis at No. 33 for the Titans, whose incumbent quarterback (Ryan Tannehill) turned 35 this fall. But Tennessee had spent a third-round pick the year prior on electric quarterback prospect Malik Willis, again leaving Levis’ spot on the depth chart unclear.

Similar to how he initially couldn’t beat out Sean Clifford at Penn State, Levis lost out to Willis in a camp competition to be Tannehill’s backup when the season began.

But after Tannehill suffered an ankle injury Oct. 15 that prevented him from playing last week, Vrabel bypassed Willis and made Levis the starter.

“He’s been able to handle the volume of (game plan/scheme) that we put in,” Vrabel said.

Though Willis did play some against the Falcons, Levis had what was one of the best debuts for a quarterback in NFL history. He went 19 for 29 for 238 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions. The touchdown throws were for 61, 47, 33 and 16 yards.

NFL Next Gen Stats has been measuring air distance of passes since 2016. Levis became the first quarterback to have three touchdown passes of 50 or more air yards in a game.

“That’s a strength of his,” Vrabel said. “He’s got good arm strength.”

Levis has the kind of pure talent that makes it baffling to believe not only that he fell in the draft or did not start at Penn State but he also was only a three-star recruit out of Xavier High School in Middletown, Conn. His offer list was heavier on FCS schools than Power Five programs.

While that, in part, is attributable to Levis hailing from New England — not a hotbed for recruiting — it seems as if Levis has found his NFL path.

“He can spin it,” Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said this week. “He throws that ball, it’s a pretty ball, gets there fast. I think when you look at his arm talent is really what kind of stands out to me when you watch him. He’s not afraid.”

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.