Breakouts: Will Levis - TEN

For my 2024 breakout quarterback, I'm going to go with Will Levis from the Tennessee Titans. After a disastrous fall in the draft to the second round, Will Levis ended up being picked up by the Tennessee Titans. Midway through the year, they made the switch to him and made him the quarterback of the future. This offseason, they spent a lot of time trying to build around him, but his work down the field last season is the reason why he could be the breakout candidate of 2024.

Will Levis took over as the starting quarterback in Week 8 and worked all the way through Week 16 before suffering an injury. During that time, in fantasy, he was the QB16—not a ton to write home about, but his work down the field absolutely grabbed my attention. During that time frame, he attempted 47 passes of 20 or more yards down the field, the highest number among quarterbacks. He completed 19 of those passes, second most among quarterbacks, for 621 yards on those passes, also second most among quarterbacks. When you take a look at every single quarterback from Week 1 through Week 18, Will Levis finished second among quarterbacks with 22.1% of all of his throws being 20 or more yards down the field.

Now the question becomes: who’s he going to be throwing to that deep consistently? DeAndre Hopkins doesn’t really fit that role, but like I mentioned, Tennessee is building around Will Levis, and they went out and got him Calvin Ridley to be that deep threat on the outside. So let’s take a look at Calvin Ridley and see how he did when it came to targets 20 or more yards down the field. He had 32 of those targets last season, which was tied for fourth, and he caught 13 of them, which was tied for seventh among wide receivers. He picked up 388 receiving yards on targets 20 or more yards down the field, which was 14th among wide receivers as well.

And don’t forget, back in 2020 during Calvin Ridley’s breakout season, he was one of the best deep threats in all of football. In 2020, he was first in both targets and receptions on 20 or more yards down the field, and he had 475 yards on those targets, which was tied for second among wide receivers.

The biggest factor here is going to be Will Levis himself. Yeah, he can go deep, but can he be consistent? How is his accuracy looking? Can he get it done over the middle of the field? The Tennessee Titans are building around him—they have DeAndre Hopkins, they got Calvin Ridley on the outside, they still have Chig Okonkwo at tight end, and Tony Pollard was signed to pair with Taji Spears in the backfield. Everything is set up perfectly. What’s the offensive line going to look like? Yeah, there are some questions, but I think Will Levis is going to have some absolute huge games.

To me, Will Levis may be a good late-round pick in best ball, but if you find yourself in a superflex or two QB league, he definitely could be worth a risk later in your draft.