Titans QB Will Levis reveals reason behind his improved play

Tennessee Titans starting quarterback Will Levis has played the best football of his sophomore season over the previous three weeks. Throughout that stretch, Levis has completed 68 percent of his passing attempts for 748 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions. In Sunday's upset victory over the Houston Texans, he completed 75 percent of his throws while hitting multiple big-time gains.

Levis is protecting the football with better success. He's hitting the explosive plays that were sorely missing earlier this year. Furthermore, the latest string of showings came against three top-11 passing defenses, per DVOA, coached by Jim Harbaugh, Brian Flores, and DeMeco Ryans.

Ironically, Levis' play is leading to more big-time plays when he stopped searching for them, a sentiment head coach Brian Callahan agrees with.

"If you've proven to be careless with the football, you're going to allow those secondary players to play with more depth," Levis said earlier this week, aptly criticizing his early-season play. "You have to take those [gains] underneath. The coaches have penciled up some downfield shots by setting them up [with shorter gains]. I'm not forcing it. I'm reacting. I realize how much more everything else will open up once you start doing the boring things," Levis wisely concluded.

Over the previous three contests, Levis has produced a league-leading 241 passing yards on 30-plus yard throwing attempts. Russell Wilson is the only quarterback within 100 yards. Levis' Week 12 passer rating (123.3) was second-highest among QBs, trailing just Tua Tagovailoa.

The advanced numbers certainly back Levis' self-assessment. In Weeks 1-6, he attempted six turnover-worthy plays, according to Pro Football Focus. Levis threw a league-leading six interceptions over that stretch despite missing the majority of Week 4 and being on a Week 5 bye. His turnover-worthy play percent (TWP%) of 4.7% ranked fourth-worst in the league. Meanwhile, he completed just two big-time throws (BTT) and his big-time throw percent (BTT%) of 1.9% was third-worst.

It's been a completely different story in recent weeks

Levis has attempted just two TWP and his TWP% (2.6) ranks a more middling 14th. Meanwhile his five BTT ranks fourth, trailing just Pro Bowl quarterbacks Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, and Joe Burrow, who have all attempted seven BTT over that same time frame. Levis' BTT% has risen from 1.9% to a third-best 8.5%. His average depth of target (aDoT) has also risen to 9.6.

Levis has also improved when facing pressure, despite taking a historic 20 sacks over the past three games. During his lackluster early-season stretch, his PFF passer rating was a league-low 25.8. All three of his TWP led to interceptions, and he completed zero big-time throws. In Weeks 10-12, Levis' PFF passing score under pressure has improved to 60.4, he's thrown zero interceptions under pressure, and he's completed a second-best three big-time throws under duress, with Allen, Herbert, and Wilson leading the way with just one more BTT each (4).

Levis' schedule is also about to lighten. After posting drastically improved numbers despite playing three of most difficult passing defenses in Weeks 10-12, per DVOA, he's about to encounter some soft ones. The next three opponents, the Washington Commanders, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Cincinnati Bengals all rank between 26th and 32nd in DVOA.

Levis is successfully becoming a more mundane quarterback, one that still invites occasional chaos, but while limiting mistakes under pressure by taking what the defense offers underneath. Just as Levis has stopped forcing downfield attempts, it's coincidentally leading to more explosive play success. This is the version of quarterback play Callahan craves.