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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — If you’ve ever tried to type the name “Will Levis” into any modern electronic device that autocorrects spelling, you’ve had to deal with a pesky apostrophe that might bring you back to the days of shopping for school clothes.
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Those of us who type his name often — and are about to be typing it at a much higher rate — know well the name “Will Levi’s.” The denim deliveryman. The stonewashed stallion. Or, and credit this to a Nashville sports talk radio caller who should try to monetize it as quickly as possible, he’s the man they call Billy Jeans. This is a perfect nickname for a rookie NFL quarterback who was especially polarizing as a draft prospect because it works as endearing. And it works as derisive.
If Levis’ NFL debut is a sign of things to come, the fine football-following folks of Nashville are going to need to make a song out of it for him. Levis was spectacular in Sunday’s 28-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons in front of 68,008 at Nissan Stadium, overtaking center stage for a franchise that has so much going on right now. Much of it isn’t encouraging. Levis just pushed it all to Page 2 in three wild hours of fun.
“He was playing out of his mind,” Derrick Henry said of the rookie and second-round pick from Kentucky, whose stat line (19-for-29, 238 yards, four touchdowns, no picks, 130.5 rating) doesn’t quite do justice to the results of the eyeball test.
“He plays the game like he’s been here before,” said DeAndre Hopkins, who was on the other end of 128 of those passing yards and three of the touchdowns.
Hopkins hat trick!
📺: #ATLvsTEN on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/oZuDFrFylX— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
There’s nothing like hope at that position to change the feeling around an NFL team, and Levis delivered it to Tennessee Titans fans like the billowy, effortless deep balls he launched into the air for three of the four scoring tosses. There’s nothing like an actual game as a tool for the evaluation of a young quarterback. College film, combine testing, interviews, practice reps, meetings, film study, locker room relationships, it all matters.
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Add it all together and there’s still nothing close to certainty on how a quarterback will perform when a game plan is installed, an opposing game plan is in place, the pressure is on and the guys on the other team are flying around, trying to fool him and do him harm.
“You can only learn it out there,” said Titans coach Mike Vrabel, who called Levis’ performance “not a bad debut” and “good” in terms of poise and decision-making.
Vrabel typically downplays individual performance, good and bad, especially if that’s the primary topic after a game. Also, this is a good time to remind everyone that the entire menu of possibilities remains in play for Levis’ NFL future, that plenty of careers at this position have started auspiciously on their way to a loud thud.
Perspective should be ample in Nashville, considering it was eight years ago that another No. 8 — Marcus Mariota — threw four touchdown passes and finished with a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in his rookie debut at Tampa Bay. Levis joins Mariota and Fran Tarkenton as the only quarterbacks in NFL history to debut with four touchdown passes. Titans fans can only hope Levis is much more like the latter than the former.
Sunday guarantees nothing. Levis just put things on film for NFL defensive coordinators for the first time, and they tend to find things that can help them. He’s got ups and downs ahead and physical battering to endure. Still, I might suggest this to the Titans fans who showed up at Nissan Stadium with “Levis” written on tape and placed over the “Mariota” on their aging No. 8 jerseys: Save up for a new No. 8.
Actually, if you’ve got the means, think about a No. 8 in the sweet Houston Oilers throwbacks the Titans wore. Think of all that was swirling around this franchise heading into this first look at the guy the Titans moved up to No. 33 to draft. On the positive side, those uniforms are among the best in NFL history, and about 170 former Titans and Oilers players and coaches were in attendance for a reunion weekend.
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On the negative side, let’s see: The Titans came in with a 2-4 record; they traded star safety and primary team leader Kevin Byard last week, though Vrabel refused to acknowledge the 2-4 start had anything to do with it; former Titans star AJ Brown, who is on one of the all-time tears for a receiver in this league, told Byard he’s “a winner now” when he got to Philly; Vrabel dunked on an NFL Network report that Levis would start and spent much of the week selling a “two-quarterback approach” in this game with Levis and Malik Willis both stepping in for injured starter Ryan Tannehill, which sounded like a bad middle school football idea; conflicting reports on the QB situation and trade rumors made it look like the Titans had different people telling different reporters different things, which is never a good sign; and the talk around Henry had Titans fans especially concerned that his incredible run in Nashville might be coming to an abrupt end.
(Don’t have a final exhale on that until Tuesday afternoon, by the way.)
GO DEEPER
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If you want to extend the negativity to Levis’ world, he lined up just hours after his Kentucky Wildcats lost at home Saturday night to the Tennessee Volunteers. Fans of the Titans and Vols were in some cases vocally displeased when the Titans drafted him instead of the UT quarterback who had a much better 2022 season amid much better conditions, Hendon Hooker.
Levis made it all secondary — and maybe won over some Vols lovers — with an impressive, encouraging performance. He led the Titans to their most points since the 2021 season. He made plenty of checks at the line and ran the operation efficiently. He made quick decisions. He only put the ball in harm’s way once, on an attempt to throw the ball away with pressure in his face.
The deep balls were effortless, touchdowns of 61 and 47 yards to Hopkins and 33 yards to Nick Westbrook-Ikhine. And there were more that just missed — one to Treylon Burks that was broken up at the last second, another to Burks on which he couldn’t get a second foot inbounds. Levis had a perfect pass to Chig Okonkwo that was dropped, taking about 30 yards and a chance at more points off the board. He found Hopkins for a 16-yard touchdown on a sharp crossing route.
He looked like a seasoned veteran. Except when he celebrated, which made it all more entertaining in front of more than 20 of his family members and friends in the stands.
What a moment for the Levis family 💙 pic.twitter.com/0w0oIp4Cjf
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) October 29, 2023
Levis was running around looking for hugs after a couple of touchdowns, like Jimmy Valvano after the 1983 NCAA basketball title game. He joined Hopkins for the yoga “tree” pose that Hopkins favors after reaching the end zone. And after arguably his best pass of the day, the flat-footed loft to Westbrook-Ikhine streaking right to left and into a corner of the end zone, he stayed on his back a bit — mind you, Levis was there plenty after the Falcons sacked him twice and hit him 11 times.
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He got up and did some jumping around with Nicholas Petit-Frere. He ran to find Westbrook-Ikhine, doing some improvised tumbling in the process. Once there, he mirrored Westbrook-Ikhine’s leg-shaking tribute to franchise legend Billy “White Shoes” Johnson.
“We were like ‘Yo, we just did that,’” Petit-Frere said of his words with Levis after the touchdown. “It’s awesome. He’s young, I’m young, and it was like being back in college. He’s an amazing guy, and it was just so much fun. Just great to see him play like that.”
Afterward, Levis got back into veteran mode. Unprompted, he brought up the fans’ booing Willis, who got on the field for two plays. On the first, Willis couldn’t get high enough for a bad snap and couldn’t jump on it before the Falcons did. On the second, he had a 4-yard run. After both, the booing was intense — and it was probably aimed more at Vrabel and the idea of using two quarterbacks. But it still came off as unnecessarily nasty toward Willis, and Henry and Hopkins mentioned it as well.
“There’s a lot of guys that did their jobs today that won us that game,” Levis said. “I mean, (Willis) being one of them. Malik really, that left a sour taste in all of our mouths when we were hearing those boos when he was coming on the field. We’ve got to know that he’s going to be a big part of us going forward to win games. So, let’s just come correct next time as fans and treat him correctly.”
That’s a bold statement for a rookie. But this was his day. The kind of day that suggested more good ones ahead. If you’re a fan who would like to appease him, and perhaps even make some money in this city full of songwriters, I’ve started a ditty for you:
Billy Jeans is not your quarterback.
He’s ours and he sure should have gone in Round 1.
’Cuz the kid can pass and run.
(Top photo of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine and Will Levis celebrating Levis’ fourth touchdown pass with a tribute to Billy “White Shoes” Johnson: Wade Payne / Associated Press)
