Titans to play Malik Willis entire Week 2 preseason game vs. Vikings, while Will Levis won’t play, per reports

For their preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday night, the Tennessee Titans will be rolling with just one of their two young quarterbacks. According to multiple reports, Tennessee will use Malik Willis for the entire game, while Will Levis won’t play at all. 

The Titans drafted Willis in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Liberty. He started three games in place of Ryan Tannehill as a rookie, completing just 31 of 61 passes (50.8%) for 276 yards (4.5 per attempt), zero touchdowns, and three interceptions while also rushing 27 times for 123 yards and a touchdown. Willis was also sacked on an astronomical 14.1% of his dropbacks.

While it seemed like the Titans might be getting Willis ready to eventually take over for Tannehill, reports leading up to the draft indicated that they were almost desperate to come away with one of the top quarterbacks in this year’s class. They ended up taking an offensive lineman in Peter Skoronski in Round 1, then traded up at the top of the second round to select Levis out of Kentucky. 

Willis has reportedly shown some improvement during training camp and the preseason, and he outperformed Levis in the preseason opener: Willis went 16 of 25 for 189 yards and an interception while being sacked four times, and Levis went 9 of 14 for 85 yards and an interception while also being sacked four times.

We don’t yet know what the fact that Willis is getting a chance to play an entire contest (assuming that happens) means in terms of the competition for the No. 2 role behind Tannehill, but it could be an indication that Willis has a leg up, even though Levis was both more recently and more highly drafted.