NFL rumors: The real reason Will Levis dropped to Titans at No. 33 in NFL Draft

Will Levis was expected by many prior to the 2023 NFL Draft to be not just a first-round pick but someone who'll get to hear his name...

Will Levis was expected by many prior to the 2023 NFL Draft to be not just a first-round pick but someone who'll get to hear his name called inside the top five. That's the furthest thing that happened to Levis, as his name did not even get taken off the board in the first round. His time came in the second round when the Tennessee Titans decided to use the 33rd overall pick on the former Kentucky Wildcats quarterback.

Contrary to general speculations that the reason why Will Levis was not selected in the first round was that he's someone that, in the eyes of NFL teams, simply did not have the talent to be a Day 1 pick, Peter King said that it's more because most teams just did not have the need for a quarterback.

Via King's latest Football Morning in America column:

“The draft is about supply and demand. Will Levis didn’t go 33rd instead of 11th or fourth because he stinks,” King wrote. “It’s mostly because the teams between four and 33 didn’t have an essential need for a quarterback who’s not a sure thing. ”

The Carolina Panthers were always expected to draft either Bryce Young or CJ Stroud and they ended up going with the former for the No. 1 overall pick. That left the Houston Texans to select Stroud at No. 2. The Indianapolis Colts, another QB-needy franchise, decided to take Anthony Richardson for the fourth-pick overall, and it wouldn't be until the second round (Will Levis) until a team would draft another signal-caller.

“Seattle and Vegas have signed vets to manage in the short-term, Washington and Atlanta have committed to give young kids a legit chance, and Tampa Bay had many bigger needs than replacing Baker Mayfield. Plus, you heard so much about how great the tight end class was. But there was only one tight end picked in the first round because, of course, the supply was so deep. Levis didn’t sink like a stone. He was the fourth-most-desired quarterback in a year when the vast majority of teams had bigger needs,” added King.