Will Levis isn't the Tennessee Titans' starting quarterback. But he still believes he deserves to be someone's starting quarterback.
"There are not 32 quarterbacks in this league better than me," Levis told reporters after Titans practice on Aug. 1. "I know that for sure."
Levis has been practicing as a reserve quarterback behind starter Cam Ward since returning to the Titans in the spring. The embattled former Titans second-round pick and once-anointed quarterback of the future missed all of 2025 recovering from shoulder surgery, and he's returned to a team with not only Ward as the new quarterback of the future, but also with veteran Mitchell Trubisky installed as the likeliest backup option.
That puts Levis in a precarious position. Levis says
one of his biggest emphases while away from the game was on learning how to express feelings he once would've suppressed. He's not holding onto his failures anymore. He's having difficult conversations. He's confronting himself and telling himself the truth. And it's letting him focus on having fun on the field rather than needing to constantly prove himself to the whole world, and to himself.
In Levis' mind, playing that way doesn't at all conflict with the conviction he's holding onto that he deserves to be a starter.
"You can have both," Levis says. "You can have that confidence, but that’s not what I’m thinking about when I’m stepping on the field. Maybe at one point in my career I was thinking about trying to prove that to people. But I have that belief in myself while still not trying to make that one of my main points of emphasis of proving that. I know that if I just go out and play with the abilities that I’m blessed to have and the capabilities that I have and I’m blessed to have developed as a quarterback, that’s just going to come."
Levis says he doesn't blame himself for the Titans' 3-14 campaign in 2024, his lone year as a primary starter. He concedes he could've played better (more turnovers than touchdowns isn't anybody's idea of a great season) but he's not wearing the past.
At no point did Levis say he's requesting a trade or that he doesn't want to play with the Titans. But Titans coach Robert Saleh and GM Mike Borgonzi have made it perfectly clear that Ward is the franchise's starter. Whether or not Levis thinks he's one of the league's 32 best, the path to him proving that in Nashville is pretty narrow.
Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X @nicksuss. Subscribe to the Talkin’ Titans newsletter for updates sent directly to your inbox.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Will Levis still believes he deserves to be an NFL starting QB. Here's why
