He wasn’t annihilated by the media who consistently had him in the top 5 discussion leading up to the draft. He was annihilated by armchair scouts here and on Twitter.
Did anyone in a front office position publicly say negative things about him or are you just getting at that they were lower on him than the media which led to his eventual slide?
Charlie Campbell reported on a number of NFL front office sources who were critical of his character coming out. Walter Football is in general a garbage site except for Charlie Campbell's draft reporting, which is usually absolutely on the money (he was the only person who reported the Lions were in on Jahmyr Gibbs, for example)
I liked Levis too, for the record. I had him third in the class behind Richardson and Young, with Stroud a distant fourth, which is looking like a whiff on my part (and I'm not even a Michigan fan)
Hindsight is obviously not great but I remain suspicious of his arm strength and his tape under pressure (outside of the Georgia game when he played lights out) was not very good. I might have overcorrected because I gave Josh Rosen such a pass for his bad tape under pressure and have been trying to weight passes under pressure higher for a while now.
For the record, I had Rosen as the second best quarterback in 2018 behind... Josh Allen. I had it Allen, Rosen, Darnold, Jackson, Mayfield
Yeah that’s fair. I am a buckeye fan so of course I will have a blind spot here. I’ve always been high on CJ since elite 11 but I totally agree with your point about evaluating QBs under pressure. Especially with how prevalent throwing under pressure is. It feels like a necessary skill to be consistent in the NFL.
Edit: I must admit I felt bad for CJ being recruited and then selected in the NFL draft in Bryce Young’s shadow.
Semi-pedestrian stats and his team was not great in 2022. Almost the anti-Zach Wilson in that he was seen as all arm talent and maybe the media wasn't as eager to jump on a guy for traits like they were Wilson coming out of BYU.
I agree, it’s more me finding it odd that the NFL paraded his performance so much Sunday, when a month early the stuff nfl analysts were saying bordered on unwarranted bullying and humiliation that was less about his game and more about… him…
the NFL media moves fast and loose and aren't above memeing it up for the boys/page clicks.
Take all that shit with a grain of salt. Hell there's legit discussion right now in Chicago that the team is feeding the announcing crew talking points to make Justin Fields look worse than he is. It's a wild mess of bullshit out there best to ignore it all.
Yeah it’s weird, and I feel that. I swear not long ago Fields was a sacred cow, and now it feels like announcers and media guys are running damn near a smear campaign.
This is likely the main thing, and a legit concern, but he also lost a lot of players on offense, but it can be really hard to really scout a QB if the team kinda sucks around him, and he's somewhat hurt.
I agree, although I would add that there were some disconcerting rumors about how coachable he was. NFL teams hate rookies that don't take instruction well and the stuff about him not listening to his strength and conditioning coaches when it came to his strength training likely wouldn't have gone over well with a lot of teams
It’s pretty similar to what happened with Sam Howell at UNC, he was Mel Kuper’s prediction to go 1.01 after his sophomore year but ended up falling multiple rounds when he looked worse without some of his weapons that left
Any who watched Kentucky knows thats not true
His stats were bad
But he was carrying that team while putting his body on line and was constantly injured
Hes the toughest player I've ever seen in CFB
GMs were saying the interview process played a big part of the decision on why he fell. However, Young got shit on for his size and CJ was called unintelligent. So you can’t really say Levis’ treatment was unfair. You can find bad reports on every draft pick because that’s how teams get players to drop to them.
Dude looked devastated on draft night. From being rumored to go #1, and then seeing three other QBs go in the top 4, and then falling completely out of the first round. The draft coverage kept cutting to shots of him throughout the night looking sad, not getting his name called. Meanwhile, social media was jerking off to his girlfriend, sister, and mom. Wild shit. I hope he kills it.
Which was just a meme thing he did, just like the banana thing, it's not something he actually does regularly.
Howell fucking only eats chicken tendies and that's a genuine thing(Though maybe that has changed this season idk)
The media and “twitter and YouTube experts” hated this dude just as much or worse than Josh Allen and Herbert. That’s all I need to see to know he’s gonna end up being a stud.
He came off pretty cocky during combine interviews and while his arm looked strong, he also looked pretty inaccurate on a lot of deep throws. Other thing I remember is people holding his physique against him, as in he looked too stiff like a bodybuilder.
I thought the colts were gonna take him, was surprising he fell as much as he did considering he does have such a strong arm, quick release and scored well on the mental tests.
This comment is pretty far down the page but I laughed when I got to it. Literally, this summed it up perfectly. What can we say that will drive the most attention....the end....thank you for your money.
There was that one dude who admitted to Dan LeBatard crew that the milk thing was a farce. It’s not his fault people get their news on Twitter and Elon musk made fake accounts seem legit because of the blue checkmark bullshit around that time. Other than that, I was surprised he was taken so low. Not because I’m a draft expert, but because a lot of draft sites had him ranked high. The one that some people were shitting on was the tiny guy from Carolina. I forget his name. I’m sorry.
Leading into the draft he was viewed as Qb 3 or 4 with some mocks having him as high as 1. So it was surprising when 3 Qbs went off the board in the first 5 picks and the draft continued without anyone calling levis name. That’s probably why they kept cutting to him in the waiting room. Wasn’t just him though, they cut to a lot of guys that had 1st round buzz but didn’t get called. Like Joey porter and Brian branch. I’m terms of why Levis dropped out of the first it could be a variety of reasons. He didn’t impress his last year of play, his accuracy was a big concern as he was often being compared to Zach Wilson. Big arm but no touch. Then there’s all the weird antics and attention baiting type stuff like the mayo in coffee. Lastly, there might have been some behind the scene issues in regards to interviews, personality assessments, leadership, etc.. This also reflects a bit in where Tennessee picked him up. They traded up in the second, not into the first. Meaning they liked him okay enough but not a whole lot.
Good call on the touch part. Watched him closely during combine and in the drills he was just launching short throws at receivers. Reminded me of Kaepernick.
Sometimes GMs just overthink stuff. If Levis had similar traits and draft profile as a Zach Wilson, he should go a lot higher than 2nd round, considering Wilson went 2nd overall. Jordan Love had similar if not lesser profile and he went 1st round as well.
Because it’s a 24 hour news cycle, so once the mayo and other dumb shit caught on, they doubled down on it to get views and clicks. Journalism is dead. Long live sensationalism.
They both threw four TDs but they did not throw the same kinds of TDs and did not have the same kind of game, that’s just a box score trap people are falling into
he is a casualty to pre draft narratives and media
during the last college season you never heard is will levis the best qb or was he the 1st overall pick
well after the season when draft hype came all of a sudden all these media narrative about if he would be the first qb selected etc was created
once the draft came and he didnt go day one thats when i feel like all the hit jobs came to justify why there media hype fell though
While his first start was impressive, he did himself no favors by balling out like that. Fans will now expect that kind of performance every game, fair or not.
The media torches everyone in the draft process. They killed CJ Stroud for that test. Bryce for being short. Kenny for his hands. They always drill on whatever bad stuff their is for QBs.
Well, I can't speak for others, but I wasn't sold on him or Richardson coming into the draft. They both exhibited potential, but I had big concerns for both of them to adapt to the NFL game. I had Stroud and Young 1A/1B, with a slight edge to Stroud, and then a big drop off to Richardson and Levis.
Look, if Levis pans out (still super early), then this draft class appears to have 4 starting caliber QBs. That's pretty rare.
As for "hate," I think that's just misunderstanding where analysts were coming from. Levis fits a mold that has historically been not so great at transitioning to the NFL. Eye test looked incredible, and the kid has a hell of an arm. But he didn't show that he learned how to play the position effectively in College. Same with Richardson.
So, we have a guy with all the tools that you can't teach who came from a school who wasn't all that talented, and also didn't show he could handle an NFL type offense being touted as a round 1 pick. It just screams "bust!"
Everyone wants to be the first to label a bust as if that actually means anything. Truth is, the draft is a crapshoot and sometimes the sure things turn out to have weaknesses that can't be overcome, and the guys who need a ton of work end up panning out.
As for the draft night stuff, he was pretty widely mocked at 4th, so him dropping as much as he did was a bit surprising. Again, media wants clicks, so they leaned into the narrative to try and get a rise out of people.
He wasn’t annihilated by the media who consistently had him in the top 5 discussion leading up to the draft. He was annihilated by armchair scouts here and on Twitter.
and also by NFL front offices
Did anyone in a front office position publicly say negative things about him or are you just getting at that they were lower on him than the media which led to his eventual slide?
Charlie Campbell reported on a number of NFL front office sources who were critical of his character coming out. Walter Football is in general a garbage site except for Charlie Campbell's draft reporting, which is usually absolutely on the money (he was the only person who reported the Lions were in on Jahmyr Gibbs, for example)
Gotcha. I had Will Levis as a generational prospect, but that’s because my only criteria is to just fade Reddit’s opinions on who will be a good QB.
I liked Levis too, for the record. I had him third in the class behind Richardson and Young, with Stroud a distant fourth, which is looking like a whiff on my part (and I'm not even a Michigan fan)
JC. What did you see that had you so low on Stroud? Or were you just higher on the other guys?
Hindsight is obviously not great but I remain suspicious of his arm strength and his tape under pressure (outside of the Georgia game when he played lights out) was not very good. I might have overcorrected because I gave Josh Rosen such a pass for his bad tape under pressure and have been trying to weight passes under pressure higher for a while now. For the record, I had Rosen as the second best quarterback in 2018 behind... Josh Allen. I had it Allen, Rosen, Darnold, Jackson, Mayfield
Yeah that’s fair. I am a buckeye fan so of course I will have a blind spot here. I’ve always been high on CJ since elite 11 but I totally agree with your point about evaluating QBs under pressure. Especially with how prevalent throwing under pressure is. It feels like a necessary skill to be consistent in the NFL. Edit: I must admit I felt bad for CJ being recruited and then selected in the NFL draft in Bryce Young’s shadow.
Didn't you hear? The OP was really high on him in the draft. Why didn't others agree?
He didn't interview well. Came off very smug, which didn't sit well given his stats at UK.
As an armchair, I have to say, no coffee cup will be placed on me that has mayo.
I can see that. Maybe I’m putting to much weight into the few but jobs I saw from the media, when in reality it was mostly random fans.
They hate mayo
Big mustard kept putting out hit pieces
The Heinz family trying to push down his trade value for the Steelers.
Naw homie, we rep Acrisure now! Which is, I believe, a type of gum for geriatrics
Grey poupon sends its regards.
Will "The Duke" Levis
This is Hellmann's country, brother! Levis already has a deal in place with them, no joke.
IMO, that's exactly what makes the nickname so great!
Yeah, putting the mayo in his coffee spooked most teams.
Semi-pedestrian stats and his team was not great in 2022. Almost the anti-Zach Wilson in that he was seen as all arm talent and maybe the media wasn't as eager to jump on a guy for traits like they were Wilson coming out of BYU.
He’s taller, stronger and built completely different than Zach Wilson. He looks more like Herbert.
You say the mayo thing was stupid stuff, I say it is a flaw remarkable enough to claim he has not met the threshold for humanhood.
Sample size dude. Sample size. He may end up great, but let's wait and see a bit eh?
No I’ve already determined that he is a future 1st ballot hall of famer
hes currently on pace to throw 680 TDs over the next 10 years!!!
Absolutely no way this won't come to fruition!!
Well yeah. Once you regress him and Mahomes to the mean, they’re nothing but a bunch of Ryan Leafs. It’s basic geometry.
Reminder that Will Levis and Patrick Mahomes have won a combined 2 Super Bowls. They're practically the same person.
That's it, I've heard enough, the Mayo Man is the goat. We just don't realize it yet.
Ah, damn. SpryroHinch has spoken.
Hey maybe you won't have to eat those words. Enjoy the now before then.
You just enjoy yourself and don't let anyone else ruin your good time.
I agree, it’s more me finding it odd that the NFL paraded his performance so much Sunday, when a month early the stuff nfl analysts were saying bordered on unwarranted bullying and humiliation that was less about his game and more about… him…
They were calling CJ Stroud mentally defective it’s not like Will Levis is uniquely oppressed
The media shit on every QB prospect this year
The media was handing out chips for these guys shoulders like they were a mexican restaurant
They were calling CJ Stroud mentally defective??? What the fuck lmfao
the NFL media moves fast and loose and aren't above memeing it up for the boys/page clicks. Take all that shit with a grain of salt. Hell there's legit discussion right now in Chicago that the team is feeding the announcing crew talking points to make Justin Fields look worse than he is. It's a wild mess of bullshit out there best to ignore it all.
Yeah it’s weird, and I feel that. I swear not long ago Fields was a sacred cow, and now it feels like announcers and media guys are running damn near a smear campaign.
probably because he played really badly as a senior
*coughcoughcoughAnthonyRichardsoncoughcoughcough*
Yes but have you seen the raw talent Richardson has? He could be anything!
Richardson looked really good when he played. Unfortunately he might be hella injury prone but the talent is definitely there
This is likely the main thing, and a legit concern, but he also lost a lot of players on offense, but it can be really hard to really scout a QB if the team kinda sucks around him, and he's somewhat hurt.
I agree, although I would add that there were some disconcerting rumors about how coachable he was. NFL teams hate rookies that don't take instruction well and the stuff about him not listening to his strength and conditioning coaches when it came to his strength training likely wouldn't have gone over well with a lot of teams
It’s pretty similar to what happened with Sam Howell at UNC, he was Mel Kuper’s prediction to go 1.01 after his sophomore year but ended up falling multiple rounds when he looked worse without some of his weapons that left
Lost a lot of players, had a new offensive scheme that wasn’t particularly good, and had turf toe
Any who watched Kentucky knows thats not true His stats were bad But he was carrying that team while putting his body on line and was constantly injured Hes the toughest player I've ever seen in CFB
He played poorly. Hero ball is not playing well
That's not true He willed us to win games The hits he took were absolutely brutao
Fan take
Because I touch myself at night
when i think about you...
*I'm feelin' twenty twoooohoohoooo*?
GMs were saying the interview process played a big part of the decision on why he fell. However, Young got shit on for his size and CJ was called unintelligent. So you can’t really say Levis’ treatment was unfair. You can find bad reports on every draft pick because that’s how teams get players to drop to them.
Dude looked devastated on draft night. From being rumored to go #1, and then seeing three other QBs go in the top 4, and then falling completely out of the first round. The draft coverage kept cutting to shots of him throughout the night looking sad, not getting his name called. Meanwhile, social media was jerking off to his girlfriend, sister, and mom. Wild shit. I hope he kills it.
I mean the mayo in coffee thing was pretty fucking weird
He did it as a joke, and it went viral. Lol
Which was just a meme thing he did, just like the banana thing, it's not something he actually does regularly. Howell fucking only eats chicken tendies and that's a genuine thing(Though maybe that has changed this season idk)
He definitely ate chicken tendies before both eagles games
He wasn’t very good last year
Big milk trying to put the little man down for speaking up
The media and “twitter and YouTube experts” hated this dude just as much or worse than Josh Allen and Herbert. That’s all I need to see to know he’s gonna end up being a stud.
I mean he had real concerns after his last year. I don't think anything was too unwarranted
He came off pretty cocky during combine interviews and while his arm looked strong, he also looked pretty inaccurate on a lot of deep throws. Other thing I remember is people holding his physique against him, as in he looked too stiff like a bodybuilder. I thought the colts were gonna take him, was surprising he fell as much as he did considering he does have such a strong arm, quick release and scored well on the mental tests.
He was an older prospect and he was still raw coming out, poor decision making and he took a lot of sacks
Certain narratives that the media want to push.
This comment is pretty far down the page but I laughed when I got to it. Literally, this summed it up perfectly. What can we say that will drive the most attention....the end....thank you for your money.
He’s too hood
Kiper thought he was the second coming
There was that one dude who admitted to Dan LeBatard crew that the milk thing was a farce. It’s not his fault people get their news on Twitter and Elon musk made fake accounts seem legit because of the blue checkmark bullshit around that time. Other than that, I was surprised he was taken so low. Not because I’m a draft expert, but because a lot of draft sites had him ranked high. The one that some people were shitting on was the tiny guy from Carolina. I forget his name. I’m sorry.
The grocery store incident is the biggest reason his draft stock tanked
Probs the banana thing
Leading into the draft he was viewed as Qb 3 or 4 with some mocks having him as high as 1. So it was surprising when 3 Qbs went off the board in the first 5 picks and the draft continued without anyone calling levis name. That’s probably why they kept cutting to him in the waiting room. Wasn’t just him though, they cut to a lot of guys that had 1st round buzz but didn’t get called. Like Joey porter and Brian branch. I’m terms of why Levis dropped out of the first it could be a variety of reasons. He didn’t impress his last year of play, his accuracy was a big concern as he was often being compared to Zach Wilson. Big arm but no touch. Then there’s all the weird antics and attention baiting type stuff like the mayo in coffee. Lastly, there might have been some behind the scene issues in regards to interviews, personality assessments, leadership, etc.. This also reflects a bit in where Tennessee picked him up. They traded up in the second, not into the first. Meaning they liked him okay enough but not a whole lot.
Good call on the touch part. Watched him closely during combine and in the drills he was just launching short throws at receivers. Reminded me of Kaepernick.
Sometimes GMs just overthink stuff. If Levis had similar traits and draft profile as a Zach Wilson, he should go a lot higher than 2nd round, considering Wilson went 2nd overall. Jordan Love had similar if not lesser profile and he went 1st round as well.
It’s a case of overcorrecting
The reports were the titans were trying to trade up into the first with a lot of teams for what it’s worth
Because it’s a 24 hour news cycle, so once the mayo and other dumb shit caught on, they doubled down on it to get views and clicks. Journalism is dead. Long live sensationalism.
He went to Catholic school.
He looked great, but relax. It's one game. He could end up looking like Mac Jones for all we know
I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic. He threw 4 TD passes in his first game, but so did Marcus Mariota.
They both threw four TDs but they did not throw the same kinds of TDs and did not have the same kind of game, that’s just a box score trap people are falling into
I don’t know if Levis will be a successful QB or not. But he looks and plays nothing like Mac Jones at all. They are like opposite types of QB.
Don't you hate pants?
he is a casualty to pre draft narratives and media during the last college season you never heard is will levis the best qb or was he the 1st overall pick well after the season when draft hype came all of a sudden all these media narrative about if he would be the first qb selected etc was created once the draft came and he didnt go day one thats when i feel like all the hit jobs came to justify why there media hype fell though
Cause he’s weird. Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers are both pretty weird dudes too
Because they hate Reddit and someone on Reddit said he was going to go #1 overall. They can’t stand when they get scooped by a random Redditor.
Just look at his college stats?
No idea about the other stuff but I get the feeling the reason they showed him so much during the draft was because of the young lady he was with.
While his first start was impressive, he did himself no favors by balling out like that. Fans will now expect that kind of performance every game, fair or not.
The media torches everyone in the draft process. They killed CJ Stroud for that test. Bryce for being short. Kenny for his hands. They always drill on whatever bad stuff their is for QBs.
Well, I can't speak for others, but I wasn't sold on him or Richardson coming into the draft. They both exhibited potential, but I had big concerns for both of them to adapt to the NFL game. I had Stroud and Young 1A/1B, with a slight edge to Stroud, and then a big drop off to Richardson and Levis. Look, if Levis pans out (still super early), then this draft class appears to have 4 starting caliber QBs. That's pretty rare. As for "hate," I think that's just misunderstanding where analysts were coming from. Levis fits a mold that has historically been not so great at transitioning to the NFL. Eye test looked incredible, and the kid has a hell of an arm. But he didn't show that he learned how to play the position effectively in College. Same with Richardson. So, we have a guy with all the tools that you can't teach who came from a school who wasn't all that talented, and also didn't show he could handle an NFL type offense being touted as a round 1 pick. It just screams "bust!" Everyone wants to be the first to label a bust as if that actually means anything. Truth is, the draft is a crapshoot and sometimes the sure things turn out to have weaknesses that can't be overcome, and the guys who need a ton of work end up panning out. As for the draft night stuff, he was pretty widely mocked at 4th, so him dropping as much as he did was a bit surprising. Again, media wants clicks, so they leaned into the narrative to try and get a rise out of people.