Heading into the 2025 NFL calendar year, one of the biggest questions surrounding the NFC is the future of Matthew Stafford and his current franchise, the Los Angeles Rams.
One of the feel-good stories of the NFC West, who overcame mountains of early adversity to represent one of the toughest divisions in the NFL, the Rams came a fourth quarter completion by Stafford away from the NFC Championship game, where they would have been favorites to represent the conference in the Super Bowl.
On paper, the Rams could run it back and remain one of the better teams in the NFL, especially with even more reinforcements coming in free agency and the draft, but instead, Les Snead and company appear to be taking things in another direction, with Cooper Kupp set to be released if he isn’t traded and Stafford’s representatives being afforded a chance to gauge the market for a move.
While Stafford appears likely to return to LA one way or another, as it’s hard to see a clean fit for his services, regardless of how the 2025 season shakes out, the Rams will need to find their long-term replacement for the Georgia quarterback one way or another.
Could that come in the draft? Maybe so, but at pick 26 overall, they will be out of the range of Cam Ward, Shedeur Sanders, and potentially Jaxson Dart, who has been linked to the Pittsburgh Steelers by ESPN’s Field Yates over the past week or so. Maybe the Rams hit on QB4, be that Will Howard, Kyle McCord, Quinn Ewers, Jalen Milroe, or someone else, and land their long-term answer Jalen Hurts-style in the second round. But outside of signing a player like Daniel Jones or Zach Wilson and hoping they could become “the guy,” the Rams really don’t have a clear path to their next guy for when the Stafford Era comes to an end.
Enter Will Levis, the soon-to-be third-year quarterback who parlayed some great play at Kentucky into a second-round selection by the Tennessee Titans in 2023. With the Titans widely expected to either draft a new quarterback first overall or go in a different direction via free agency or a trade of their own, Levis could be available for a midround pick and may develop still into a certified gamer under one of the better offensive head coaches in the NFL.
Will Levis has untapped potential in the Rams’ offense
Over his first two seasons in the NFL, Levis was more or less a meme quarterback.
He advertised mayonnaise, which he apparently puts in his coffee, made bizarre gestures in games, and backed up his built-for-social-media game with some of the strangest turnovers you’ll ever see, looking like a modern-day Mark Sanchez without the New York market to make him a star.
Factor in some less-than-impressive stats, recording 3,899 yards, 21 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions over his 21-game run in Nashville and a QB record of 5-16, and the idea of Levis becoming anything more than a high-risk, high-reward backup feels rough heading into Year 3.
And yet, when you consider the situation Levis played through in Tennessee, can you blame him for struggling?
Levis looked pretty darn good as a rookie, throwing eight touchdowns versus four interceptions with 1808 yards through the air and 57 more yards on the ground. Levis relied heavily on a strong run game headlined by Derrick Henry plus DeAndre Hopkins as his QR1 and looked like a long-term upgrade over Ryan Tannehill in Mike Vrabel’s system, to the point where the former Texas A&M quarterback/wide receiver didn’t even play for a team in 2024.
But then, in Year 2, under Brian Callahan and offensive coordinator Nick Holtz, the entire Titans’ offense took a step back. Down Henry and, for much of the season, Hopkins, the Titans finished out the season with the sixth-worst offense and the third-worst defense in the NFL, with players like Tony Pollard and Calvin Ridley unable to fully fill the shoes that preceded them. Levis looked lost at times in this new scheme, but, to be fair, so did Mason Rudolph, who only secured one win as the Titans’ starter over eight appearances.
Is Levis a future top-5 quarterback? Unlikely, but is he worth at least a longer look in a scheme like Sean McVay’s, which helped to rehab Baker Mayfield’s career before he became a $100 million man in Tampa Bay? Considering Levis has a strong arm, the athleticism to be an RPO threat, and a much longer runway than Stafford, if the Rams want to invest a mid-round pick in a quarterback who could grow for two years in McVay’s scheme before they have to make a decision on his future one way or another, calling Tennessee could be an interesting play.
Mel Kiper Jr. believes in Will Levis over 2025 NFL Draft QBs
So why, you may ask, should the Rams try out Levis instead of a mid-round quarterback who they could control for four years via the NFL Draft? Well, because he might be straight-up better than any of those Day 2 or early Day 3 guys.
Need proof? Well, look no further than ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr., who made a pretty impassioned speech about why Levis should be the guy moving forward in Tennessee instead of pushing him aside for Ward or Sanders without key upgrades around them.
“I’m a Will Levis guy. I’ll go down with him. I’m gonna keep swinging and keep hoping, wishing, praying and all that that Will Levis can turn things around to the point where he can be a franchise quarterback in this league. But you’ve gotta have an insurance policy. I get it. Will Levis had some issues this year with turnovers. With inconsistency, pocket awareness, holding the ball a little too long. All that. But there were a lot of other factors that contributed to Will Levis, this year, having some issues. Because he did a lot of really good things that went way unnoticed,” Kiper said on First Draft via Yardbarker.
“With Will Levis, there was a lot of good. What (Titans coach) Brian Callahan has got to do is he goes out and says, ‘OK, Will. Go out with Jordan Palmer and work on some things.’ Brian Callahan, go back to coaching school, and you work on some things too in Year 2. Because you made a lot of rookie mistakes as a coach as well. Just like young players make mistakes, rookie coaches do as well.”
But what about Levis’ poor play in 2024? Well, Kiper addressed that too, noting that he believes it’s vastly overrated, as for a period between Halloween and Christmas, the Kentucky product played some very good football.
“I thought the overreaction to the play against the Jets — if you get into the mind of a young quarterback, you kill their confidence. …To me, for Will Levis, from Nov. 10 to Dec. 8 had seven touchdowns, two picks. He was playing good football, and he did it against the LA Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, Houston Texans, Washington Commanders, and then Jacksonville was his final game.”
Is Levis a perfect player or prospect? No, he certainly is not, but for a team like the Rams, who aren’t going to be picking in the top-5 anytime soon, he does present a very interesting buy-low opportunity that is worth considering if Stafford leaves and especially if he stays. Why? Because learning from Stafford for the next year or two could really unlock the 25-year-old quarterback heading into his prime.
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