Kentucky QB Will Levis has 'cannon,' but Colts need to know he can limit mistakes
https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...n/69935688007/
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INDIANAPOLIS — Will Levis knows exactly why he’s in this position.
Why he has a chance to be picked in the top-five of April’s draft, handed the keys to an NFL franchise and all the expectations that comes with that.
Levis knows, to borrow a phrase from “Bull Durham,” that the gods reached down and turned his right arm into a thunderbolt. When Levis was asked why he was going to throw in Saturday’s workouts at the NFL scouting combine, a decision that not every first-round quarterback makes, he essentially pointed to his right arm.
“Because I’ve got a cannon,” Levis said. “I want to show it off.”
Levis was given a golden opportunity to do that in the Combine quarterback workouts Saturday, placed in the first group of quarterbacks, a group that didn’t include Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud or Florida’s Anthony Richardson.
The former Kentucky quarterback took advantage of the opportunity, firing out throws that made the analysts watching the workout gush.
Doyel: Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson impress at NFL Combine (indystar.com)
And Levis thinks his arm can get even better by focusing on the rest of his body.
“Everything from the waist down. How I’m initiating movement, where I’m using force, which muscles I’m using,” Levis said. “I’m a pretty quick, mobile guy, but I kind of realized, just as I started my offseason training, how kind of weak I was in my adductor and low-core area. To be able to engage those, and push through those areas, and use my feet … to get a good platform and get the ball out efficiently without even having to worry about much of the upper half.”
Levis spent most of his interview session with NFL reporters projecting that kind of confidence, particularly in the thunderbolt hanging off the right side of his body.
As good as the line about cannon might have been, it might not have been the biggest statement Levis tried to make about his arm strength on Friday.
“I think I’ve got one of the stronger arms that’s come out of the draft in recent memory,” Levis said.
Kansas City superstar Patrick Mahomes was drafted in 2017. Buffalo snapped up Josh Allen a year later. Justin Herbert went to the Chargers in 2020.
If Levis is actually in that company — and that’s debatable, given that some NFL draft analysts believe Richardson actually has the best arm in the class — it’s good company to keep.
But there is another side to arm strength.
For every Mahomes, Allen or Herbert, there have been guys like Zach Wilson, Jacob Eason, Trey Lance, Drew Lock and Carson Wentz; cannon arms that didn’t have the rest of the necessary qualities to be franchise quarterbacks in the NFL.
Two of those quarterbacks were in Indianapolis recently.
And the Colts are all too aware that arm strength isn’t the only quality a quarterback needs to succeed. When new Indianapolis head coach Shane Steichen and long-time Colts general manager Chris Ballard were asked about the qualities they want to find in their next franchise quarterback, neither man put arm strength in the top three.
“You want guy who’s got a fast mind, who’s accurate,” Ballard said. “Like, we get caught up in arm strength, but (who are the) guys that are accurate, and then who makes plays when the game’s on the line?”
Levis, who transferred from Penn State to Kentucky after two disappointing years in Happy Valley, completed 65.7% of his passes in Lexington. Accuracy isn’t the biggest question he has to answer.
But the ability to make plays when the game’s on the line, and to avoid the back-breaking plays that can turn a game in an instant, is something that cost Levis at Kentucky.
Levis threw 23 interceptions and took 58 sacks in his two seasons under center in the Wildcats’ offense, and even though Kentucky had issues on the offensive line, plus an offensive coordinator change, the quarterback’s inability to rise above those obstacles are questions a team has to answer before drafting Levis.
“That’s the cause for concern, that’s the flag,” NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah said last week in a conference call with reporters. “I would want to sit there and go through all the sacks and turnovers when you sit down with him, because it’s a big number, and it needs to be explained. I don’t think that’s all on him.”
A team like the Colts should be acutely aware of the havoc sacks and turnovers can play on an offense after the struggles of Wentz and Matt Ryan the past two seasons.
But Levis’ physical tools are impossible to ignore.
Physical tools alone are far from enough to be the franchise quarterback the Colts and other quarterback-needy teams are trying to find in this draft.
Levis understands.
He’s been through some adversity in his career already, first at Penn State, then in last year’s disappointing season at Kentucky.
The decision to transfer away from Penn State after the 2020 season was difficult.
“The mantra I always live my life by is, ‘Never give up,’" Levis said. “When I made the decision to transfer, I kind of felt like I was going against that mantra, but at the same time, I realized I wasn’t giving up, I was going to stick to whatever was best for me, and I was going to take my shot and go play my cards somewhere else.”
Levis immediately shot to the top of draft boards after an impressive opening season in Lexington, then fell back to earth in 2022, hampered by turf toe and an injury to his non-throwing shoulder.
The injuries robbed him of one of the parts of his game that had NFL teams salivating. A big, bruising battering ram of a quarterback, Levis rushed for 376 yards and nine touchdowns, but the quarterback run all but disappeared from the offense in 2022 due to the injuries and coordinator switch.
“This past year, the season didn't go as well as we would have wanted it to, but (I) learned a lot from it,” Levis said. “Learned how to kind of battle through adversity and dealt with a lot of things physically, situationally that were tough, but just became a better player, better quarterback because of it.”
NFL teams, including the Colts, have to decide if Levis is right about his ability.
Or if the physical tools are masking issues that will keep Levis from reaching the ceiling his gifts seem to promise.
“I think right now, I can bring them a championship team,” Levis said. “That's the confidence I have, due to my experience and due to my physical tools. I think that I'm immediately able to be plugged into any offense, learn it well, and become a leader very quickly for whatever team I play for.”
Levis has the confidence, the arm, the frame and the athleticism.
The question is whether or not he can put it all together.
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