Will Levis returns to the Titans lineup for the first time in a month

Welcome to the 615 Sessions podcast on this Friday, November the 8th

Lovely to have you guys in here for another episode of the pod, just you and me

This afternoon, no guest co-host from Titans Media, though that is the custom typically around here

We've got a Titans game to talk about that is more interesting than most for a variety of different reasons

We will get into the idea of Will Levis' return and what that means for the offensive momentum, question mark, that this team has been able to make

I'll remind you that the podcast is presented by Zen Sports, where we talk about recapping the week of Titans news here on the 615 Sessions podcast

sometimes with a guest co-host from Titans Media, sometimes not, but that's okay

We can discuss our thoughts amongst one another today. A reminder that it is presented by Zen Sports

November, month of November, officially underway. The big game not too far in the distance

The big game sweepstakes is what's going on right now at Zen Sports

where you could win a grand prize of two tickets to Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans or $10,000 cash

I'll tell you more about that later on in the podcast if I don't knock my computer off the desk today

So that's right. The Los Angeles Chargers, five and three winners of three of their last four will be hosting the Tennessee Titans this weekend

And in the lineup will be the mailman. Will Levis returns. It is a huge variable in the middle of all of this

And as you guys start to trickle in here, if you're watching on the YouTube or Facebook or Twitter or Twitch live stream today

Today, it is just, I'm curious to know, genuinely, what Titans fans want out of the rest of this season

Because I was talking about this today on, or I guess that would have been yesterday, on the radio show

If Will Levis comes back into the lineup, it's one thing, right

For me, you guys know I've made my mind up on Will Levis, how I feel about him

It's not a personal situation, but as I watch him with the professional evaluation mindset

what I look at is a player that I don't trust. So that's a really hard thing for me to wrap my head around, especially when he's returning

to the lineup that seems like it's making some incremental progress under Mason Rudolph

It's not perfect. It's one and two under Mason Rudolph. It's technically two and two under Mason Rudolph

Will Levis got credit for the Miami Dolphins win because he started the game. You know how this works

But Mason has been steady, right? It's four touchdowns, but it's also four interceptions

It's more passing yards than Will Levis had thrown in the six games that he had appeared in

Levis has 699 passing yards right now. Mason Rudolph has just a tick over 800 with those four touchdown passes and a rushing touchdown

as well as those four interceptions. The turnovers have not completely subsided, right

We're talking about 10 straight games dating back to last Sunday. or culminating last Sunday where the Tennessee Titans

no matter who's playing quarterback, has thrown an interception. It's the first week where they've won the turnover battle

but they won the turnover battle. And you're looking around and you're saying, all right, maybe there's something here

Maybe there is the opportunity for this coaching staff to further prove proof

of concept for this team that is trying to figure things out and a coaching

staff that is also being very heavily evaluated right now without the

quarterback in the lineup, this will be three weeks that Levis has missed since the Indianapolis

Colts game where he gets hurt in Miami. They have the bye. They put him back out there. He's not

fully ready. And whether or not his shoulder outright inhibited them from being competitive

in that game down the stretch, it impacted his performance. And you're discussing, all right

should he have been out there at all? But with Levis, man, I just, I don't know what to do

with him because it's about what's in his head. And that has to be the most difficult evaluation

at all. Now, I've made up my mind on the guy because I don't believe that he can be trusted

in game. Doesn't mean that he's a bad person or that he's an untrustworthy character in

his normal day-to-day life, but the football field is an entirely different matter where

you are entrusted with guiding your team, managing a game, if you listen to the primetime

show, you know that we probably got into the term game manager too much this week, but game manager

for Will Levis would be a huge step because there's no way to realistically evaluate, even if you're

the coach or the coaching staff. I mean, outside of bringing in a sports psychologist to meet with

this guy on a regular basis and try and deconstruct what's going on up there, there's no real way to

determine what decisions he is going to make in real time. And if the, we call them maniac moments

around here if they're going to subside, if he's going to take better care of the football and not

try and press too much, because he's coming back into the lineup under much different circumstances

It's still his job. They don't want to, at least internally, put pressure on him to say, no

you're going to lose your job if you don't perform. No, this is the week that we're going to pull you. That's a really difficult thing to do if you've already told the guy, hey

we're here this season to try and get you better, to try and improve you

to try and figure out whether you can be a part of our long-term solution or not

And then if you yank the cord on him after he gets injured, which not, I mean

it's not too often that players outright lose their job after an injury

Will Levis not being an exception in this case, it's a really hard thing to do to set out or to go out with this season

with the mindset of, okay, we're going to try to be meaningfully competitive, but we're also going to try and make this about evaluating the quarterback

And if you bail on the evaluation when he got hurt, not even halfway through the season

and he's missed the last three games, and you feel like you're starting to build on something with the rest of the

pieces and parts, then it's really not fair to him, even if he hasn't outright earned it

And it's tough to say that he's earned another opportunity, but he's going to get another opportunity

And I appreciate that as a coaching staff, if I'm Will Levis

I appreciate that as a coaching staff that, hey, you gave me your word. This is what we're going to do

This is the plan that we're sticking to. This is how I'm going to handle the injury. And we'll try and put everybody in the best possible position to succeed

So it's going to be weird. I mean, it's going to be entertaining in all likelihood

And that's not necessarily something that you can say about Mason Rudolph football. But to Mason's credit, he manages situations so much better than we've seen Will Levis do to date

I trust Mason Rudolph to do his job well enough to put his team in position to succeed

I do not trust Will Levis' decision-making, though I reserve the right to allow him the

opportunity to earn it back. So we're going to play you Will Levis' media availability yesterday

This is of course prior to him being given the outright green light that he going to be the starting quarterback on Sunday though it been trending in the right direction just to kind of catch you up on where this player has been as he been rehabbing from the sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder

Feeling good? Having a good week so far? Taking more reps? Yeah, see how it goes this week, but I've been feeling good

What do you want to do differently this time around? If your number's called on Sunday

what do you want to do differently this time around, maybe than you did the first go around

I'm just going to keep trying to operate the offense the best way I can. I feel like I've gotten better, and I think I'll show improvement in that area

but I'm not going into this, you know, second sin of the season being like, oh, I have to play this way or another way

I think I can get into trouble when you think like that. So I'm just trying to operate the offense and be the best quarterback I can for this team

And the preparation and leading side of things, like what has to happen differently for you to be able to go out there this week

Sorry, what do you mean? As far as, like, in the past, like, you felt like you were ready

Oh, yeah. And then, you know, we all thought, and then it didn't happen. So for you, what has to happen differently

I just want to make sure that I can go out there and make all the throws the way that I could before I got hurt

It's an everyday process of testing different things and coming off the field and monitoring soreness

or pain level throughout the day. So it's just been that. I don't know when I'm ready, when I know I'm making those throws

So there was pain last week and soreness last week? Yeah, yeah

No, I mean, there's a point where I feel like I can get it to where it will be manageable

like the soreness at least, but it's more so the strength and the ability of my shoulder and my arm

Seems like the offense has made some strides, at least during your timeout

How do you plug back in and make sure it's kind of picking up on that growth curve

instead of kind of going back to where you left off when you came out

It's awesome for the guys to be able to get those reps and continue to get more comfortable in the offense

And, yeah, I'm just going to be the best quarterback you can for this team. What's it been like trying to be patient

and how much you're kind of chomping at the bit to get back out? Yeah, it's tough

I'm competitive as heck and I want to be out there every week. And, you know, it sucks when you're out there and you can't be playing

So hopefully being able to go this week. I've been chomping at the bit, like you said

Decided to go out there and, you know, lead our team. Brian said that while you were out

he feels like it was an opportunity for you to gain perspective was the word that he used

Do you feel like you gained perspective and in what areas, you know

have you potentially grown while watching from the sideline? Yeah, just seeing, you know

the different ebbs and flows of the game and, you know, how that can call for different decisions

or different kind of pre-snap thought processes. It's nice of them, every single play

being hip-to-hip right there with Bo and Trevor, just talking through the situation, going through the call

what's the thought process, what's the look, all right, it's this look, what are we doing here? playing quarterback from the sideline, essentially

So it's cool getting all those reps from that perspective. And, yeah, no, I think Mason did a good job

and I'm able to take some of the things that he did and apply that to our offense and continue to develop it

So you see the pack that he's wearing on the shoulder there. That's Will Levis in the locker room from Thursday

Brian Callahan says it's the best that he's looked in weeks, talking about Will Levis, and he'll make his return

So we'll see how it goes. I'm generally excited to see him back in the lineup, I'll be honest with you

I don't know what to make of it, and I guess the unknown is what's exciting

and I could strike a very, very different tone by the time we next meet for primetime here in a couple of days

after this Los Angeles Chargers game. But I am generally excited to see whether it works or not, right

Because they have made offensive progress. Now, the biggest place that he could set them back where he is most likely to set them back based on the precedent that we have for Will Levis is the turnovers, right

Ten total turnovers in the games that he's played in seven interceptions, three lost fumbles

He's got five touchdown passes on the year in those five starts

And, you know, he's tired of the questions about the turnovers. you can tell that, I mean, I don't know that you necessarily need to read in too much to his body

language there, talking, sitting, looking a bit, I don't know, he just doesn't look, that video

that media session does not project overwhelming confidence, but it's, who cares if he looks

overwhelmingly confident in a press conference, as long as he goes out there, does his job

to the best of his abilities, then that's all that you can ask of the guy, and who wouldn't

You know, who could blame him for being sick of our shit, right? We've been asking him, how's your shoulder, bud

What are you going to do to not screw this up? It's basically the tone that that media session struck, right

Hey, they've made progress. How are you not going to screw it up in not so many words

And he understands that to an extent. Because the biggest complication out of this season that could arise

as far as I could tell, is that Will Levis plays well on Sunday. And then you're like, okay, what do I do with that

How am I supposed to factor that into the evaluation? You absolutely have to factor that into the evaluation

But what do I do with a quarterback that, and I'm speaking for me personally

that I feel like I've made up my mind on, right? But I reserve the right to change my opinion based on new information

as we all should. I feel like a lot of Titans fans based on the way that you guys interact

based on the phone calls that we've gotten on the radio show, the comments that we get on primetime or all these other things

It feels like you guys are also in the mode of, okay, well, he's not the guy

Let's just survive this season and get to this off season where we can finally get our quarterback of the future

Like that's any kind of guarantee. So the biggest complication that could arise here is we'll have us playing well

And then, you know, it would still allow you, it would still provide for eight more opportunities because we still have nine more weeks

nine more games of this season ago would provide eight more opportunities for him potentially to

show you that he could do it again or to prove to you that he can't and that it's an anomaly

because the whole thing with will levis is is you have the atlanta sample size right it's the four

touchdown debut as a rookie it's the baby it's the baby blue oilers uniforms it's like all the

good vibes in a home debut in a season that also felt like shit in 2023 right tannahill injured

offensive line play horrendous you know Vrabel miserable uh ran Carthon not necessarily

not necessarily being having a ton of flexibility with their financial situation to add a bunch of

impact free agents so they're putting a bunch of band-aids on it in free agency some took some

didn't obviously Andre Diller three-year contract still one of the biggest black marks on this

organization's entire existence but Will Levis came in provided you some hope but that hope

was fleeting right and you almost bought too much into the hope idea because the rest of the the

rest of the year played itself out he beat the carolina panthers and the miami dolphins in a in

an improbable game which he gets credit for absolutely but he hasn't quarterbacked the team

to a win since then that was december 12 2023 the last time that will levis he unto himself not him starting a game and then mason rudolph coming in and helping them win He has not quarterbacked his team to a win or any team to a win since December 12th 2023

That's an eternity ago. And now we're talking about him coming off a throwing shoulder injury where later in that media session with us that we that you heard a part of, but you didn't get the entirety of

He's talking about, you know, making sure that he maintained how the different ways that he's had to maintain his strength and his endurance in his arm

Because, of course, that's going to wear down the more that he's throwing throughout the course of the game, especially if he's had light duty to next to no throwing work

We saw him throw pregame before the Patriots game. He's out there warming up

That's the first time that we'd seen him do that in a couple of weeks. Right. He obviously still didn't play

He was inactive for the game. but there are just so many different things compounded with the idea that

he's going to be without Lloyd Cushenberry. The rest of the injury report we'll get to here in just a second

We still do not have as of we're live streaming this podcast today at four

o'clock central time. We still do not have the Chargers side of the injury report

but we do have the full Tennessee Titans injury report. So Dylan Radins is listed as questionable

He practiced limited all week. Fair to expect that he's got a pretty good shot to go

He is going to have to account for the idea, though, that he's without his center, Lloyd Cushenberry

And Lloyd Cushenberry is kind of the de facto leader on offense since the quarterbacks have been shuffling around

And Lloyd is one of the most experienced players on the team. Calvin Ridley obviously has a good deal of experience

But it's just there's different kinds of personalities required to kind of guide this thing forward

and Lloyd is about as slow and steady as you could find a guy out there

from a personality standpoint. But he goes out there, he does his job to the best of his abilities

and this offensive line was just starting to settle in. So a couple of things that I'm looking for from Will Levis

I guess that's probably the place that we should kind of round this thing out to

since I really don't know what to do with him. He's probably – there's a couple of really hard quarterback evaluations

going on in the NFL right now. Richardson, but that seems to be over for the foreseeable, over for this season, right? They're

going to ride things out with Flacco, but they can still evaluate Richardson and his progress. That's less pressing now than this situation with Will Levis. So it's Will Levis, it's Anthony

Richardson. I had somebody in the league text me today while we were having this conversation

on the radio show that Daniel Jones was also a difficult evaluation. And I didn't necessarily

agree with that because Daniel Jones, you know, ever since that buyer's remorse quote that was

floating around around the combine after they gave him that contract. He played a couple of games, he got hurt

And then they said, you know, there was a quote from somebody basically alluding to ownership

that they had buyer's remorse on the Daniel Jones contract, which makes me think that

that evaluation is done. Bryce Young, I felt it was kind of over when they benched him after week two, but he's

returned to the lineup and he's quarterbacked his team to a win last week

Whatever you want to make of that. I don't know if that means that Bryce Young is going to get better

but Bryce Young and Will Levis kind of seem like two of the most difficult quarterback evaluations ongoing in the NFL right now

where they tried the Richardson thing, didn't work out. They have time to sit him because essentially he's two years in

to what could be a five-year contract if they pick up his fifth-year option

But what I want to see from Will Levis is obviously, you know, can you protect the football

Like, it is just as simple as that. your decision making does not have to be overwhelmingly pristine. Maybe you get sped

up a couple of times, but hopefully you see him start to settle in. But the turnover thing is the

thing that's killed them the most, right? It is the thing that makes him the biggest liability

that they've had, because we've been talking a lot about what's the Tennessee Titans identity

Have they found an established identity as a football team? And, you know, we determined today

that the Tennessee Titans football identity in 2024 is their a mean, right? Because of him

and not just exclusively because of him, because he's not the only reason they've lost games

but he is a big part of that. He is the most front-facing person, whether he's playing or not

He's got a nationally televised mayonnaise commercial campaign, and he's out there, right

It's no longer Derrick Henry. It's Will Levis on your televisions, whether he's playing or not

So that's who the most amount of people associate the Tennessee Titans with. They think of him and you as a result

It sounds a little harsh to say, but like the butt of a joke, right

Not an outright laughingstock, but there's many jokes being made at the quarterback's expense

The quarterback is the most front-facing member of the Tennessee Titans franchise right now

And so transitive property, the two and six football team, is pretty easy to make the butt of the joke as well

So now how can he disprove that narrative while not trying to press

And that's the thing that I have no idea how to project because that's simply up here. So the turnover thing is the thing that I'm looking for most

The second part of this, and this is almost as critical, is does the sack rate for the Tennessee Titans offensive line see an uptick with Will Levis in the lineup

They have put together, I'm not going to call it a good stretch of football, but they have been an improved unit where they're still the 31st out of 32 possible teams in terms of pro football focuses, pass blocking efficiency metric

We know they're not a good pass blocking team. We know that outright no matter who's playing quarterback

But there is a level of decisiveness to Mason Rudolph that Will Levis did not display early on, coupled with some of his, some of the things that were a part of the evaluation of him in college was that he didn't necessarily have great feel in the pocket

So he may take unnecessary sacks, and you've seen some of that at the NFL level

So do you see an uptick in the Titans offensive line sack rate with Will Levis back in at quarterback

And how much does that continue moving forward? Because not only are they not the best unit, but he takes more sacks than Mason Rudolph

Mason Rudolph has been pretty well protected, but also that's because Mason Rudolph is doing his job well enough to help protect that offensive line

And they're running the football, which is a big part of this. Now, to have Tony Pollard essentially off the injury report, he doesn't have a designation here, nor does Tajay Spears, who's missed a couple of weeks

That is obviously something that they're going to lean on. Running the football has been critical

This team is, if you're trying to assign them an offensive identity

they are a running football team first and foremost, so you understand that that is going to be a big part of the solution here

They were able to run at will, particularly in that drive and overtime. Now, would you like for them to have scored a touchdown

put the Patriots game out of hand, not giving the Pats the opportunity to even possess the ball

in that overtime period instead of kind of just leaning on your defense and praying to God that Drake May made the mistake that a rookie quarterback

had a high percentage chance to make. And he did that for you

He gave you that second Amani Hooker interception as a gift. But Tony Pollard has 622 rushing yards in eight games

He averaging 4 not quite 4 yards per carry three touchdowns He can have his third straight game according to the Titan supplemental notes with 115 scrimmage yards And now you have a bit

of a complimentary piece back with Tony Pollard. So, you know, all football teams, as they get

halfway through the season, have to experience some level of adjustment. You're not going to have

the team that you started out with in week one, that you are in week 10 or week 11 or week 15

right? Injuries are just going to start to chip away a little bit at what you have available to

you. So the Titans aren't the only ones trying to figure out, all right, how the hell am I going to

put together a winning formula when we've just started to figure things out? And then all of a

sudden, some of these critical components, like Cushenberry, Tony Pollard, Will Levis, they start

to move around again, and you're still trying to keep a handle on this thing, keep a lid

essentially, on the level of chaos that your offense has experienced through those first

couple of games. So how it's going to go, I'm fascinated to see how much Levis has a connection

with Calvin Ridley is also going to be a fascination there and Nick Westbrook-Akina

because let us not forget, nor should you forget that Nick Westbrook-Akina has had four straight

games where he has had four straight touchdown receptions. He's the most reliable playmaker on

the offense not named tony pollock levis had spent more time in a new offense in training camp

with traylon burks than he had with nwi not that he hasn't had any reps with nick whatsoever

but nick getting back into the lineup getting a higher percentage uh of the of the target share

of the play uh of the of the snap count with will levis out so mason rudolph and and uh nwi they

start to figure things out. Can Will Levis also plug into that and have that same level of

comfort with a guy who he's had a relationship before, with who he's worked with before

who he knows. It's not like they're completely foreign entities to one another, but it is Levis

in a new offense, not looking comfortable at the start of the year, and now you're dropping a

different component into it than he's previously had a lot of time spent with this offseason

That's a big part of this. Also the defense, Jeff Simmons, starting to just to take things away

and make it not a completely Levis-centric conversation because he's not the only thing that's out there

He's not the only reason that they've won games. He's not the only reason that they've lost games, obviously

Defense getting turnovers in this game. Jeff Simmons impacting the quarterback. The Titans impacting the quarterback

Had Arden Key on the radio show this week. You can go check that out via the podcast. You can go back and watch it on 104.5, the Zone's YouTube channel

We talked to Arden Key about what Denard Wilson and the coaching staff are doing to scheme him up in one-on-one situations and to scheme Jeff up as well

In fact, that's something that we talked to Jeff Simmons about in the locker room this week on a variety of different fronts because you're looking at what they're creating

If they have to slide the protection of sweat, okay, then Jeff has an opportunity. If they have to slide the protection of Jeff, okay, then Arden has an opportunity

Herald. They aren't an overwhelmingly high percentage pressure defense on early downs

which is, you know, something that I've been curious about, given what they lack as far as

outright just horses up front to get to the quarterback. I almost thought that they would

have a higher percentage blitz on first and second down and then kind of try and keep the

numbers advantage and coverage on third down as best they can. The other component of this is that

Snead and Awuzie are still not playing. LeJarrius Snead going to miss his fourth straight game

That's a conversation we have to have at some point this week. Because, I mean, he's hurt, right

Like, nobody's disputing that he's hurt. But how hurt is he, I think, is a fair question to start to ask once you get to this point

Because it's not his knee. It's not the situation that they're, you know, trying to, that they have the specific maintenance

playing for. This is a quad. He took a helmet to the thigh. Been dealing with it for a period of time

but they need him out there, and he's one of the highest compensated players on the team

The money shouldn't outright put pressure on guys, but they should also

and I'm not implying anything here, but they should also be willing to go above and beyond

once you're making that level of money. Legereous need to somebody who I'm curious about

I don't have reason to outright doubt his level of willingness to get back out there

but I am curious about it. I do think, you know, once you start to get within the range of, okay

could you have just put him on IR at this point? What's going on there exactly

I'd like to just ask more questions throughout the course of the week of

practice and in the locker room when we have the opportunity to speak to him

So defense, created turnovers. Jeff Simmons impacting the quarterback. They had three turnovers in this Patriots game

Yeah, they're playing a rookie quarterback, and he's going to give you a couple of gifts. Justin Herbert's not going to give you as many opportunities

But that doesn't mean that you can't force fumbles. Try and impact the game that way. Create short fields for this offense

Try and make life as easy. And they shouldn't have to make it so easy on Levis

But try and just remove any level or any heightened degree of difficulty on this quarterback

Coming back into the lineup as humanly possible. Defense can continue to do their part

And then, I mean, we talk about special teams, right? Like, I don't know

Cole D'Anderson didn't say anything disastrous in his media availability yesterday, anything worth like harping on the way that he did last week

where he just seemed to talk himself into a circle. And it's tough, right? You're getting grilled. You're underperforming

It's your first time on this job. It's not like he's not looking for answers, but he's not finding them

And it's not like special teams were stellar in this Patriots game either. They just weren't outright disastrous the way that they were in Detroit

So all these things factor in to this situation. And then you kind of just, you know, throw up a Hail Mary

no pun intended, or say a prayer, however you want to look at this

whatever gods or God you pray to, and say, please, Will Levis

just graduate to game manager, because that in and of itself would do this team a world of good

You have some things that you can legitimately lean on, but can he help you sustain them

Can he help you avoid setbacks? And that's really what his job needs to start with in the meantime anyway

All right. That's going to do it for us this afternoon. Have a wonderful weekend. I'm off to Los Angeles Saturday morning as we record this

or as we live stream this on a Friday afternoon. Primetime will keep you updated

It's a later kickoff, and I've got a flight back right after the game

so it's probably just going to be the A to Z sports postgame show

And then Sam will get the opportunity to recap the game with you on Monday night

I'm going to take Monday night off this week because I'm going to be fried. My flag gets home at 1.30 a.m. Central time

I'm going to do three hours of radio and then probably go into a coma. So we will have the opportunity to rehash this game together at some point in the near future

It just may be until Tuesday before we can actually dive in

And then, you know, potentially we'll be talking about a bunch of different things that have yet to play out

Have a great weekend, like I said. And I will talk to you on in some form or fashion

if you listen to the lead company countdown to kickoff from Los Angeles