Tennessee Titans rookie Will Levis made his NFL debut Sunday afternoon, immediately impacting the team in their 28-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Levis completed 65 percent of his passes, threw four touchdowns for 238 yards and zero interceptions. It was a great showing by the rookie quarterback out of Kentucky, so here’s your warning for what’s about to happen Monday:. The hype train for Levis should be off the rails by tomorrow morning on sports talk shows nationwide.
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Nothing against Levis, who will likely have a fine career, but this sets up some jabroni on First Take (probably Mad Dog Chris Russo) with the opportunity to go overboard predicting and pontificating about the Titans QB. It never fails in this era where everything needs to be instantaneous.
Everyone wants to be the first to say, “I had this guy being great before he was truly great,” or something to that effect. Be happy he isn’t playing for one of the more established franchises, especially the Dallas Cowboys. If Levis had done this filling in for Dak Prescott, they’d be preparing his jacket for the Hall of Fame after one game.
This doesn’t mean Levis won’t be great, and it has nothing to do with him personally. It’s more about where we are in society and as a sports culture on a constant hunt to crown a new king. If Levis has a couple more massive games like Sunday’s against the Falcons, someone will compare him to Patrick Mahomes. Just wait, it’ll happen. Maybe Levis will be that good. But no one has time to let him play even a handful of games, let alone an entire season, before predicting his career.
Hopefully, we can get another Russo retirement “pledge” based on what Levis does in the next couple of games. While it’s doubtful Mad Dog keeps his word, we can only hope. With Ryan Tannehill likely missing more games with an ankle injury, we’ll find out soon how much potential this kid really has.