By all accounts, it seems like Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis had a strong couple of days at rookie minicamp. To be perfectly honest, it’s the first time in a while that he’s been on the field with a handful of actual NFL-caliber teammates practicing alongside him.
It’s no secret that Levis significantly regressed from 2021 to 2022 in basically every possible metric.
Per Pro Football Focus, the Kentucky product finished the 2021 season with the 21st-highest quarterback grade in the country (90.6) out of the 294 who qualified that year.
The former Wildcat completed approximately 66 percent of his passes (232-of-352), totaling 2,827 passing yards, 516 rushing yards, 33 total touchdowns, and 13 interceptions.
Sadly, just one season later, his overall grade dropped 22 points (68.6), he finished with 411 fewer passing yards, five fewer passing touchdowns, 397 fewer rushing yards, and seven fewer rushing touchdowns.
As I discussed in a previous article, there are a handful of reasons behind this type of dropoff, with one of those being the lack of talent that surrounded him.
When watching film, it was glaringly obvious how bad Levis’ supporting cast was in comparison to the other three top quarterback prospects in this year’s draft.
Why did Will Levis regress so much from 2021 to 2022?
He definitely owns his fair share of the blame, but to say he was surrounded by an inconsistent supporting cast would be putting it mildly #Titans pic.twitter.com/ST83E3umAI
— Shaun Calderon (@ShaunMichaels31) May 1, 2023
However, I finally took the time to put objective research into that opinion now that the hectic draft process is in the rearview mirror.
During the pre-draft process I evaluated a handful of quarterbacks in the class and came away with the consensus conclusion that Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson, and Levis were the top four quarterbacks in the draft, and in that order.
But this time around I wanted to do something a little different since I didn’t personally evaluate each player on each team since the majority of them aren’t even draft-eligible yet.
Therefore, using PFF’s grading system, I went ahead and got the overall grades (2022) for the starting supporting cast of the top-four rookie quarterbacks.
I then went ahead and averaged those 10 individual grades into one whole grade. In total, there are three major categories worth noting:
- Average overall grade of each team’s supporting cast (11-personnel).
- Average overall grade of the starting wide receivers.
- Average overall grade of the starting offensive line.
Also, the starters were chosen based off end-of-season depth charts, snap counts, production, etc.
This article is going to compare the four starting units of this year’s top QB prospects (sans quarterback), along with their overall grades. I’ll follow that up with a brief breakdown discussing what stood out.
Some of these results were eye-popping, so let’s not wait any longer and dive right in.
2022 Kentucky supporting cast (overall grade)
RB: Chris Rodriguez (90.9)
WR: Dane Key (69.3)
WR: Tayvion Robinson (69.5)
WR: Barrion Brown (70.3)
TE: Jordan Dingle (54.5)
LT: Kenneth Horsey (67.4)
LG: Jager Burton (49.2)
C: Eli Cox (58.1)
RG: Tashawn Manning (69.7)
RT: Jeremy Flax (51.2)
- Average overall grade of Kentucky’s supporting cast: 65.01
- Average starting wide receiver grade: 69.7
- Average starting offensive line grade: 59.12
2022 Ohio State supporting cast (overall grade)
RB: Miyan Williams (89.3)
WR: Marvin Harrison Jr. (90.2)
WR:Julian Fleming (67.6)
WR: Emeka Egbuka (82.9)
TE: Cade Stover (69.1)
LT: Paris Johnson Jr. (83.0)
LG: Donovan Jackson (76.7)
C: Luke Wypler (82.5)
RG: Matt Jones (75.7)
RT: Dawand Jones (82.1)
- Average overall grade of Ohio State’s supporting cast: 79.91
- Average starting wide receiver grade: 80.23
- Average starting offensive line grade: 80.0
2022 Florida supporting cast (overall grade)
RB: Montrell Johnson (75.9)
WR: Xzavier Henderson (67.1)
WR Ricky Pearsall (80.3)
WR: Justin Shorter (74.0)
TE: Dante Zanders (45.1)
LT: Richard Gouraige (70.7)
LG: Ethan White (70.0)
C: Kingsley Eguakun (55.6)
RG: O’Cyrus Torrence (88.0)
RT: Austin Barber (79.3)
- Average overall grade of Florida’s supporting cast: 70.6
- Average starting wide receiver grade: 73.8
- Average starting offensive line grade: 72.72
2022 Alabama supporting cast (overall grade)
RB: Jahmyr Gibbs (82.6)
WR: Jermaine Burton (71.6)
WR: Ja’Corey Brooks (72.2)
WR: Kobe Prentice (69.1)
TE: Cameron Latu (58.0)
LT: Tyler Steen (69.6)
LG: Tyler Booker (67.0)
C: Seth McLaughlin (74.3)
RG: Emil Ekiyor Jr. (73.3)
RT: JC Latham (74.9)
- Average overall grade of Alabama’s supporting cast: 71.26
- Average starting wide receiver grade: 70.96
- Average starting offensive line grade: 71.82
Three things that stand out
The first thing that stood out is the noticeable difference in the overall averages of each supporting cast.
For example, Kentucky doesn’t reach an average grade of 70 in any of the three major categories, while Ohio state, Florida, and Alabama don’t go lower than 70 on any of their average scores.
The next obvious eye-opener is the drastic differences in offensive line play that each quarterback had in comparison to Levis, and that’s especially true with Stroud.
The Kentucky O-line finished with an average overall grade of 59.12, which was:
- 20.88 points lower than Ohio State’s (80.0).
- 13.6 points lower than Florida’s (72.72)
- 12.7 points lower than Alabama’s (71.82).
Lastly, Kentucky has their running back to thank for the much-needed boost because, without his grade of 90.9, the overall average is even lower.
Again, no one is denying that Levis shoulders his fair share of the blame for his regression, but it’s also safe to say that he wasn’t exactly put in a position to succeed in 2022.
Unfortunately, the Kentucky product won’t exactly be walking into a stacked offense his rookie year in Tennessee, but barring an absolutely disastrous first season, Levis’ addition is more than a one-year investment.
At the very least, he deserves the benefit of the doubt until he plays an actual snap and gives this fanbase a reason to doubt him going forward.
Because one thing is for sure: regardless of the Titans’ current situation on offense, having Derrick Henry, Chig Okonkwo and Treylon Burks at his disposal is a massive upgrade over what he had to work in college.
