Sticking to draft board led Tennessee Titans to Will Levis

The NFL Draft is all about big boards. Professional football organizations rank players just like fans and media. From there, a balancing act takes over as personnel decisions are made between most talented to biggest need.

As the draft starts to play out, NFL general managers go to their big board ranking to make selections. That is the process Tennessee Titans GM Ran Carthon stuck to during the first two days of the NFL Draft. In round one, Northwestern guard/tackle Peter Skoronski fell to the Titans at No. 11 overall. The consensus top-10 player in the draft also happened to play a position of need for the AFC South franchise. That took the Titans out of the QB market early in the process.

However, the Titans always had a high grade on Kentucky quarterback Will Levis. Value played a big role in Tennessee’s drafting strategy.

“It’s a value thing,” Carthon told the media on Friday night. “Again, he’s a player that had we wanted to choose him at 11 we most certainly could have. Like we talked about last night, didn’t expect for Peter to be there. He was a guy that we highly coveted so we were able to make that move. Happy that we were able to move up to get a player like Will.”

“Had Peter not been there, Will was amongst the conversation. That’s really all I can give on that right now.”

After seeing three quarterbacks taken in the first four picks of the 2023 NFL Draft, there was a long wait before the next quarterback was selected. Levis was forced to play the waiting game and that ultimately ended with the prospect falling out of the first round while sitting in the Green Room. Despite this fall, the Kentucky product still had a lot of value.

With the QB available to begin the second round, Tennessee was more than willing to trade giving up a third-round pick (No. 72 overall) to move up eight spots in the second round to select Levis. For Carthon, it was all about evaluating value and trusting the big board his personnel staff and coaches spent months building.

“Trusting our board,” Carthon told reporters when asked why the Titans traded up in the second round. “He was a player that was highly ranked on our board and we had the opportunity to do so. So why not do it? It was a chance to improve our football team.”

Will Levis will arrive in Nashville as QB3 behind Ryan Tannehill and Malik Willis. Tennessee just spent some valuable draft capital to land the rookie quarterback. Don’t be surprised to see the Kentucky quarterback starting games next season.