The Tennessee Titans are 1-6 and already making plans for 2025. The No. 1 pick in next spring’s draft is more likely than any kind of run to the fringes of playoff contention.
But unlike a couple of teams that have benched their young starters at quarterback to play veterans, Tennessee is committed to playing Will Levis as soon as he returns from a right shoulder injury. That could happen as early as Sunday, when the New England Patriots visit Nashville in a battle of teams that are a combined 3-12.
Levis has shown little of the big arm that made him a pleasant surprise last year when he took over in late October. He has averaged two turnovers in five games, tossing seven interceptions and losing three fumbles.
Brian Callahan is a first-year coach with a hall pass for now. He and the franchise can afford on some level to play Levis and let him — and the team — take lumps now in hopes they can learn from mistakes later.
“There’s not a lot of patience in pro sports in general,” Callahan said. “Sometimes, it does take a little bit of time to learn all these things. You’re balancing winning with developing and that’s a very, very hard thing to do in pro football and probably every professional sport because fans want success.
“It’s a really tricky thing, but it also stems mostly from (quarterback) is just such a difficult position to play and there’s so much demand on the position that you have to play a good amount of football to learn those lessons.”
Levis is actually completing 66.4 percent of his passes, up eight percent from last year, but he is averaging less than nine yards per completion. Backup Mason Rudolph is hitting nearly 59 percent of his attempts but averaging just over 10 yards per completion.
New England (2-6) has quarterback questions of its own, even after snapping a six-game losing streak last week with a 25-22 win over the New York Jets. Rookie Drake Maye suffered a concussion late in the first quarter and practiced in a limited role on Wednesday.
Veteran Jacoby Brissett, who led a late fourth-quarter touchdown drive to secure the victory, will start if Maye is unable to make it all the way through the league’s protocol.
“I feel very comfortable putting Jacoby in there as he is a professional and always stays ready, as you could see from the last game,” first-year Patriots coach Jerod Mayo said of Brissett. “However that plays out, we’ll see.”
One thing that became clear last week is that Mayo found the right button to push after a blowout loss to Jacksonville in London on Oct. 20, when he called his team soft. The Patriots displayed a renewed purpose against the Jets, an opponent that beat them 24-3 in September in New York.
“I would say those guys answered the challenge,” Mayo said. “I don’t think we have soft guys in the locker room.”
The Patriots listed 13 players as limited at practice on Wednesday, including Maye and safety Kyle Dugger (ankle). Three players didn’t practice: linebacker Christian Eliss (abdomen), offensive tackle Vederian Lowe (ankle/shoulder) and defensive tackle Jaquelin Roy (neck).
Levis was a limited participant while nine of his teammates missed practice on Wednesday, including wide receivers Tyler Boyd (shoulder) and Calvin Ridley (shoulder), running back Tony Pollard (foot), cornerback L’Jarius Sneed (quad) and nose tackle T’Vondre Sweat (hip).
The Patriots own a 26-18-1 advantage in the all-time series with the Titans, including four postseason games. New England won the teams’ last matchup 36-13 in 2021 in Foxboro, Mass.
