The Titans waived Will Levis during Sunday roster cuts, deciding to roll with just Cam Ward and Mitch Trubisky as their quarterbacks on the 53-man roster.
In the three years-plus that Levis was with the Titans, he went from zero to hero and back with the fan base, some of whom were skeptical from the start about him as an NFL quarterback.
For the segment of the Titans fanbase that bleeds orange on Saturdays, Levis was a tough sell from the beginning – having played at rival Kentucky and having struggled as he played through injuries his senior year for the Wildcats.
When that helped to precipitate a draft-day free fall in 2023, the Titans threw out a lifeline by trading up in the second round to select Levis and deem him their potential quarterback of the future to succeed Ryan Tannehill.
Things started off well when Levis got his chance midway through that season, replacing an injured Tannehill and tossing an NFL record-tying four touchdown passes in his first start.
He shares that record with Marcus Mariota, another Titans quarterback who also didn’t live up to expectations in Nashville.
Levis performed well enough that Mike Vrabel named him the permanent starter soon after, and Levis showed promise, particularly in a fourth-quarter comeback win in Miami on Monday Night Football.
Then the relationship between Vrabel and owner Amy Adams Strunk went sour, and the coach was fired after the season. New coach Brian Callahan was brought in with the idea of developing Levis into a top-tier quarterback.
But the Levis-Callahan marriage didn’t work. A poor roster (especially the offensive line), Levis’ own critical mistakes that helped cost the Titans chances to win in Chicago in the opener – and then again the next week against the New York Jets – seemed to seal his fate with Titans fans.
Nothing from those incidents forward could erase those nightmarish plays from the minds of the fans, who were initially skeptical of Levis.
Levis was not going to recover, and the chaos of a poor roster and constant turnover among coaches and the front office only made it worse.
After that season, the Titans drafted Cam Ward and decided to start over again. Levis, knowing there was virtually no path toward playing meaningful snaps, opted for shoulder surgery and missed all of 2025.
When he came back this spring, he was a healthy third-stringer. The only amicable solution was for the Titans and Levis to go their separate ways. The Titans had done that from the moment they called Ward’s name on draft night.
For Levis, the process took a little longer, but he is now free to see what the next chapter of his NFL career will be.
He seemed to know that, speaking to reporters after the preseason finale.
Asked about his time in Nashville and all that he had gone through, he said he was “Very grateful. Very, very grateful. I mean, Ms. Amy (Adams Strunk) brought me in here and welcomed me with open arms as well as everyone else here in Nashville and the team.
“I was able to grow a lot just throughout the couple seasons I’ve had while I was playing here and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”