NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Every team in the NFL wants Superman at quarterback.
A few have him.
Will Levis thinks the Titans are one of them. They very clearly are not.
For the second consecutive week, the second-year quarterback showed signs of a serious case of Superman complex, taking on an unhealthy degree of responsibility and helping key a 24-17 loss to the Jets at Nissan Stadium.
Levis said he didn’t think that’s the case. Brian Callahan said he didn’t think that’s the case. So did Calvin Ridley and Nick Westbrook-Ikhine.
Such denial of the obvious is another big issue.
“He’s going to do what he has to do to get the job done,” JC Latham said.
Latham is saying nothing bad there, he’s stating the obvious, saying what everyone says about his quarterback.
The trouble is, in the instance of Levis, in two games of his new offense his vision of what he has to do to get the job done has too broad of a scope.
His underhanded backward pass, which wound up being ruled a sack and a lost fumble in the second quarter, is in no way getting the job done.
Levis flips it backwards and its a Jets fumble recovery!
— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
📺: #NYJvsTEN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/nZ38jEOfOo
Taking the sack would have put the Titans at the 9-yard line, setting up Nick Folk for a 27-yard field goal and giving the home team a 10-0 lead with less than 9 minutes remaining in the second quarter.
“It’s got to be something that is more second nature to me,” Levis said of not trying to make a play there and taking the sack.
He failed to do so a week earlier in Chicago, flicking a pass intended to be a throwaway as he was being taken down by a defender and watching Tyrique Stevenson grab it on the sideline and take it back for a game-winning touchdown.
“I’m going to do everything I can to rewire my brain to make sure when I am in so that when I am in those situations, I'm not making those decisions. And I think throughout my career I’ve gotten a lot better at not forcing things, or at least forcing balls into windows.
"But that’s a different kind of play. That’s something that is not going to show up as much but obviously is much more important. Because the ball is put in jeopardy and it’s an opportunity for the other team to get the ball. So I’m going to keep working to just be better for my team.”
The Jets went three-and-out, so the lost points didn’t turn into points.
But on the next offensive play from scrimmage, Levis was late and short on a deep ball up the left side to Treylon Burks. Burks did what he is supposed to do, coming back to the ball and going up to muscle it away from defenders.
For a second. And then Burks did what he too often does.
Somehow, he lost a ball he had. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound receiver let corner 5-10, 179 corner Brandon Echols come away with it. A 48-yard gain was instead a change of possession.
.@matayo_echols got it!
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 15, 2024
📺 #NYJvsTEN on CBS & @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/zC6vL6xfvj
Levis’ hero ball effort and a blocked punt allowed by the Titans for a second week in a row – this one by Irvin Charles who beat Julius Chestnut – were problems we saw seven days earlier.
The failure to adjust Levis’ mindset and fix the punt protection are both bad indicators of the work Callahan and his staff did between games and of what they are working with. The results buoy Levis’ critics, a group that’s reasonably growing, and show that the depth of the Titans roster relied on for special teams duty is not sufficiently suited for the job and/or coached to do it well enough.
Julius Chestnut was accountable on the punt block. #Titans pic.twitter.com/43JuxJzwY5
— Paul Kuharsky (@PaulKuharskyNFL) September 15, 2024
The Titans kept Chestnut over Hassan Haskins because Chestnut was clearly a better running back. But Haskins is a superior special teams player. Chestnut recovered a botched kickoff that was muffed right to him last week at Soldier Field. But his gaffe against the Jets is likely one Haskins would not have made, and it led to 3 points.
Craig Aukerman’s units failed multiple times during the Mike Vrabel regime, and he was fired after Week 13 of 2023, when the Colts got to Ryan Stonehouse twice, injuring him badly the second time.
Stonehouse has now been hit twice in two games upon his return, twice in 11 times he’s taken the field to punt with Colt Anderson running the unit as Callahan’s special teams coordinator.
Shrugging with his hands extended in a WTF position, Stonehouse went to the sideline confused at how his life has become so complicated and his body has become so at-risk.
Speaking of WTF, after Levis’ inexplicable blunder, CBS captured his coach’s question to him as he returned to the bench.
Brian Callahan after the latest Will Levis maniac play:
— Sam Monson (@SamMonsonNFL) September 15, 2024
"Hey, what the fuck are you doing??" pic.twitter.com/vVKuS3aLVG
It was not hard to read his lips.
“Yeah, I was upset,” Callahan said. “It was dumb. It was the same exact thing he did last week, and it cost us points in the red zone. That is what it is. He's a grown-up and he knows better. I was really irritated that he cost us three points in a game that we probably needed.”
Levis made some good throws in this game: One that went through Calvin Ridley's hands, another that Ridley went low for and caught behind and under two defenders for a 40-yard touchdown. The QB ran well, with four carries for 38 yards, including this one where he pulled off a great escape to set the Titans up for four chances at a tying TD from close range.
Magic 🎱 ball @will_levis
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) September 15, 2024
📺: Watch #NYJvsTEN on @NFLonCBS stream on NFL+ pic.twitter.com/15TfVmMiVn
In the build-up to the game, I wrote I have some trouble believing that Levis will reform his decision-making on plays like the giveaway in Chicago because he had not reformed his decision-making on sliding as a runner.
Callahan tried to give him credit for one versus New York. He did go down more smartly to avoid or limit contact. But no, he did not slide.
Minor progress at a too slow pace.
If that’s what’s to come with the rest of it, he’s got no chance of making it on a team with a good defense and a reasonably good run game that can use his deep-ball arm. More than anything the Titans need a guy thinking he’s Superman to realize he’s a lot closer to Clark Kent and understanding that can be OK.