Titans should do right by Will Levis and shut him down for rest of the season
Most of Nissan Stadium collectively held its breath when Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis exited Sunday’s 19-16 loss to the Houston Texans with an apparent leg injury.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that Levis was suffering a high-ankle sprain similar to the injury former start Ryan Tannehill had earlier in the year that sidelined him and paved the way for Levis to take over as the starter.
While Levis may be tough enough to come back from the injury and gut it out in Tennessee’s final three games of the year, the Titans would be doing a great disservice to their future by letting Levis step foot on the field again this season.
There’s nothing more the Titans need to see from Levis, who’s averaging the second-most passing yards per game (224) among rookie QBs, that would likely change their minds about how to approach the offseason.
Subjecting the 24-year-old QB to playing three more games behind Tennessee’s dreadful offensive line, which is the eighth-worst pass-blocking unit in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus, is a risk the team just shouldn’t take.
“I want to make sure that he can protect himself, that he can do his job up to the expectations that we have,” Titans head coach Mike Vrabel told reporters on Monday. “Really, the most important thing is that any player can protect themselves out there during games.”
Levis has shown enough in his eight starts that the Titans have a good idea whether or not he’s their quarterback of the future moving forward (spoiler alert: he is).
He’s thrown for 1,792 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions while completing a shade under 60% of his passes with an 85.3 passer rating. Levis also has an upset win over the 10-4 Miami Dolphins to his name as well — a victory in which he led the Titans 64 yards on four plays in just 26 seconds to log his first-ever game-winning drive and fourth-quarter comeback.
The Titans offensive line has surrendered the fifth-most sacks (50) in the NFL this season, in addition to allowing 225 pressures, 138 hurries and 50 QB hits. The best thing for the team, and honestly for Levis, is to let him rest the rest of the season and let him begin taking snaps again once he has an offensive line capable of keeping him upright.
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