Will Levis is falling victim to a deeply concerning trend for Titans

The best quarterbacks in the NFL remain calm under pressure. It's an innate trait that separates great quarterbacks from decent ones. It's also unfortunately a trait that Tennessee Titans sophomore quarterback Will Levis has yet to master, albeit just 10 starts into his professional career.

Titans head coach Brian Callahan installed an offense this offseason that's predicated on a high volume, quick-developing passing attack. When executed on schedule, it should limit Levis' exposure to pressure, because it's designed to quickly get the ball out of his hands. But like all things football related, everything doesn't always go according to plan, and that's when quarterbacks must thrive under pressure.

Callahan's offense, paired with offseason upgrades across the offensive line and at wide receiver, is supposed to make Levis' life significantly easier. That wasn't necessarily the case in Sunday's epic collapse defeat to the Chicago Bears. Levis faced pressures on 47.4% of his dropbacks in Week 1, second-most of any quarterback, per Next Gen Stats.

And Levis really, really struggled when facing pressure. According to Pro Football Focus, Levis went 4-of-11 (a 36.4% completion percentage) for 51 yards, two interceptions, and one touchdown when facing pressure. Extrapolating those numbers to blitz-only pressures, Tennessee's quarterback went 4-of-7 with an interception and a 16.7 passing grade. His yards per attempt plummeted from an already bad 4.0 to an unheard of 1.6.

In the most important pressure-snap Levis faced, one he arguably created for himself by unnecessarily drifting to his left, a bad habit the Titans tried to coach out of him this offseason, the second-year QB threw a horrid game-winning pick six.

It was the continuation of trends that emerged for Levis throughout his rookie campaign. In 2023, Levis had a completion percentage of 40.6 percent when under pressure, per PFF. His official season-long numbers when pressured were 39-of-96 for 493 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions. His passing grade was 36.1 under such circumstances and his yards per attempt was 5.1, significantly lower than his average season-long output of 7.1.

Quarterback numbers naturally suffer when facing pressure, because who doesn't like a clean pocket? But Levis' outputs under pressure are next-level bad. For example, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, a young QB in his own right, completed a more acceptable 53.7 percent of his pressure attempts (compared to Levis' 36.1) last season with 11 touchdowns and seven interceptions.

Levis must locate the ability to avoid crumbling when facing pressure if he's to assert himself as Tennessee's franchise quarterback. Callahan's offense is designed to help by hopefully limiting the amount of pressures he faces weekly, though that plan didn't come to fruition in Week 1, largely due to an underperforming offensive line.

The O-line and receivers should be better than they were on Sunday, but when things inevitably break down, Levis needs to start displaying better an ability to remain calm in the face of adversity.