Titans To Waive QB Will Levis

This is a move the fourth-year QB sought, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler adds. Levis had been buried on Tennessee’s depth chart, with ex-Brian Daboll Bills charge Mitchell Trubisky coming in as the surefire Cam Ward backup. With just about everything in terms of the Titans’ football operations changing since Levis was drafted, it appeared the Kentucky product’s time had run out with the organization.

The Titans drafted Levis 33rd overall in 2023, doing so in Ran Carthon‘s first months on the GM job. As we covered in our Titans Offseason in Review piece, the team went through a spree of adjustments to this power structure over the next three years. Mike Vrabel was still the Tennessee HC when Levis was drafted; the team is two (three if Mike McCoy counts) HCs removed from Vrabel. Carthon has been replaced, and the Tennessee football-ops czar exiting the 2025 season — Chad Brinker — is no longer with the club. The Robert Saleh-Mike Borgonzi operation will move on from the Carthon draftee, years after it became clear he would not be the long-term QB answer.

Levis has not seen any game action since the 2024 season, when he struggled during a campaign that involved then-HC Brian Callahan benching him for Mason Rudolph. Levis came up in 2025 trade rumors but suffered a season-ending shoulder injury. The Titans had Levis splitting offseason reps with Ward, but the older QB’s injury crystalized what was already fairly clear: Ward had taken over as the team’s franchise-QB hopeful. This created more trade rumors ahead in 2026, but the Titans did not find a taker.

The Titans gave Levis the keys midway through his rookie season, when he replaced Ryan Tannehill. While some promise came out of that showing — to the point Carthon loaded up his roster with veteran contracts complementing the young QB’s rookie-scale pact — Levis regressed in 2024. Turnovers plagued the erratic passer, and Rudolph’s Nashville one-and-done involved starting assignments. The Ward pick essentially moved Levis out of the picture, as the Titans had signed Brandon Allen as a veteran backup.

With Levis seeing nearly his full contract guaranteed, the Titans will eat a few million in dead money from the salary and signing bonus proration. A team claiming Levis would move Tennessee off the hook for his remaining guaranteed salary, but it seems unlikely he will be claimed. A lower-cost free agency addition or even a practice squad signing would be the more logical path considering Levis’ pre-injury form and the health trouble he subsequently encountered.