The Tennessee Titans’ decision to move on from Will Levis landed on CBS Sports’ list of surprising roster cuts, but the move looks a lot less dramatic when you trace how quickly his standing in Nashville slipped.
Levis was once supposed to be part of the Titans’ future. Tennessee took him with the No. 33 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and at one point he was viewed as the franchise quarterback in waiting.
As recently as 2024, he was the unquestioned starter when healthy. But by the time the 2026 NFL roster cut deadline arrived, he had fallen all the way to third on the depth chart.
That alone told the story. The Titans kept Mitchell Trubisky and Hendon Hooker as their backups behind Cam Ward, leaving Levis on the outside looking in. It was a steep drop for a quarterback who, early in training camp, had said he believed he was one of the 32 best quarterbacks in the NFL.
The end in Tennessee comes off as especially unceremonious considering where Levis was just a few years ago. He entered the league with real buzz after Tennessee drafted him in the second round in 2023, but that momentum faded after a rough 2024 season as the full-time starter. The turnovers and inconsistency kept showing up, even when the arm talent flashed.
Once the Titans committed to Ward as their franchise quarterback last season, the path back for Levis got narrow. Tennessee signed Mitchell Trubisky this offseason to back up Ward after a coaching change brought Brian Daboll, Trubisky’s former offensive coordinator, to Tennessee. From there, Levis was fighting an uphill battle just to stay in the room.
The Titans also had a broader reset underway. Ran Carthon, who drafted Levis, was replaced by Mike Borgonzi in 2025, and the new direction clearly favored Ward as the future while Levis became part of the old one.
A fresh start elsewhere could still give Levis a shot to show that Tennessee was more about timing and development than ability. But from the Titans’ side, waiving him wasn’t some head-scratcher. It was the natural result of a quarterback who had already been pushed out of the picture.
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Now Restrepo is off the active roster, which changes the conversation around one of the clubs feel-good depth pieces. The move does not appear to close the door on his Tennessee future, since he is still expected to be a candidate to return on the practice squad, but it does underline how fluid the Titans final roster picture remains. For a team still balancing immediate needs against longer-term development, even a relatively modest receiver decision can ripple into a bigger debate about where the roster is strongest, and where help is still being prioritized. [Read more 🡒]
Will Levis Drama Just Pulled Titans Fans Back Into That Era
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Now that Levis is no longer on Tennessees roster and has entered free agency, the spotlight around that chapter has shifted in a different direction. Duddy recently posted a video from Nashville Stadium, and with rumors also linking her to Bengals wide receiver Andrei Iosivas, it has only added another layer to a story Titans fans had probably filed away until now. [Read more 🡒]
Titans Cut Day Left One Roster Move Fans Will Debate Most
The Titans have mostly wrapped up the churn that always follows cut-down day, and the shape of the offseason roster is starting to come into focus. Keeping Jeffery Simmons on the defensive front was never really in doubt, but the rest of the moves offered a clearer picture of what Tennessee values right now: depth in the secondary, some added flexibility on the edge, and a willingness to keep reworking the back end of the roster until it feels right.
What will linger longest for fans, though, is the decision to move on from Kyle Philips, a player whose fit and role had already been debated for months. At the same time, the additions of Elijah Molden and Amani Hooker give the defense more familiar pieces to lean on, while the signing of offensive tackle James Hudson adds a lineman with prior experience and some coaching staff familiarity. It all adds up to a roster that looks more settled than it did a day ago, even if one of the bigger calls is the one people are most likely to argue about. [Read more 🡒]