How Will Levis impressed Titans teammates amid difficult Cam Ward situation

As recently as June 30, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer claimed "it’s fair to say" that the Tennessee Titans will name 2025 first overall draft pick Cam Ward their Week 1 starting quarterback over 2023 second-round choice Will Levis before August concludes. 

However, Titans right tackle JC Latham indicated during a recent appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio that head coach Brian Callahan keeping the competition alive through the start of training camp will ultimately benefit both signal-callers. 

"Will’s just not going to sit over here and say, 'Oh, we drafted him, go ahead take it,'" Latham said about Levis, per Pro Football Talk's Josh Alper. "Cam’s not gonna expect it to be just given to him. Throughout the spring, I think that’s the one thing all the coaches and players on the team have seen. Both of them taking the challenge of trying to really earn the spot and really fight for the spot. It’s made them better." 

Levis publicly acknowledged in late May that, seemingly having no realistic chance of starting Tennessee's Week 1 game against the Denver Broncos on Sept. 7, "sucks." Since that time, Breer and other reporters have revealed that Ward "checked every box since becoming the No. 1 pick in April" and was "everything the Titans hoped for" throughout spring workouts. Meanwhile, Levis spent much of the offseason attempting to improve aspects of his game after he was benched due to poor play this past December.

On the same day that Alper shared Latham's comments, ESPN's Turron Davenport noted that Ward is still a work in progress in terms of moving defenders off receivers with his eyes, realizing that "defenders pick up tendencies quicker at this level" and adjusting to a wide range of blitz packages. Perhaps Ward going through expected growing pains during the offseason program helped convince Callahan that naming a QB1 before training camp wasn't the right move for anybody involved. 

Logic suggests Levis may need to be perfect during preseason contests, beginning with Tennessee's opener at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Aug. 9, to have any shot at getting the nod for the Broncos matchup. While the job is Ward's to lose, it appears he won't be able to secure it before he faces at least one opposing defense in August.