The Install – Comparing Titans QB Will Levis’ career trajectory to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills
[Music] welcome into the install with Greg coell of NFL films we had a week off uh corporate holiday but it’s good to be back good to see Greg good to talk some ball we are right in the middle of the AFC East with Greg honestly is one of the most interesting divisions in football this year oh without question I mean you know the bills have won it for a number of years and uh you know they they obviously are still a very good team although they have some meaningful changes which we’ll discuss um obviously the Dolphins get people excited to uh led the NFL and in passing yards a year ago they certainly have an explosive offense uh they have some changes on defense including their coordinator um and the Jets I mean they’re probably one of the most intriguing teams we don’t really know what they are but they’re certainly intriguing uh and then there’s New England which it will be interesting to see I guess when they decide that they want to play Drake may I mean I’m pretty certain when you look at their schedule that they probably don’t want to put him out there at least a month or so but you know barring anything unforeseen they’re probably going to lose a few more than they win and normally that leads to the Young quarterback getting an opportunity particularly when he’s the third pick in the draft Yeah and jacobe brassett who’s played some good football in his career is a is a quality kind of Gap uh Gap year type of player uh in these situations and and is somebody who obviously they’re familiar with having drafted him out of NC State if I remember correctly who’ve always put out great quarterbacks I mean Philip Rivers gets all the headlines but they always have quality players out of there anyway we’re not here to do NC State quarterback talk we’re here to talk Buffalo Bills and certainly Josh Allen was not uh a player who played major college football that way but one of the highest level players in the NFL and continuing you know in the same way that we talk about Mahomes you’re always learning new things in any line of work quarterback broadcast analyst whatever the case may be but Josh Allen and continuing the development as the quarterback the most well-rounded version of him that he can be in the same way that we’ve talked about with Pat Mahomes over the past couple years Greg it’s been so fascinating to watch him try and put it all together and do so really really successfully at times you know um I wanted to start though with the with the coordinator change that they made in the middle of last season and just kind of get your get your perspective on how things changed or what things what they were doing with Ken dorsy and then how things changed when ultimately went to Joe Brady who returns as the OC this year yeah well let let’s focus on Brady since he’s the guy and now they have the whole off season sure you know I think one thing that a lot of people have to understand is even really good quarterbacks and and great quarterbacks who could probably put Allen in the in the in today’s NFL in the great category we know Mahomes is the best and uh but Allen is is certainly in most people’s minds would probably be two three you know on the list you know after that but EV every great player wants to continue to get better at what they feel they need to get better at and every coach wants to keep working with a quarterback I guarantee Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are working on things this offseason and and into training camp so I think one of the things that Joe Brady is going to try to do with Josh is yes he’s phenomenal making plays outside of the structure of the play call and the play design um the phrase a lot of people are now using is above the X’s and O’s but Josh still needs to be better and when I say better more consistent it’s not as if he can’t do it that’s not the point but more consistent playing within the structure and delivering the ball for those kinds of sustaining throws now he he’s had games where he’s been phenomenal at that but my guess is that Joe Brady is going to try to get Josh Allen to just be a little quicker with his processing and with his eyes so that the ball can come out and that they can stay within structure because I watched every Josh Allen dropback since he’s been in this league and he’s a fun watch no question Buck but there’s always a few plays where he prematurely leaves the pocket and leaves throws on the field that are there now because he’s so special on making plays outside the pocket we just assume that’s a wonderful thing when he gets outside the pocket but those plays don’t happen all the time Puck they’re plays that are never seen where he leaves the pocket prematurely and it ends up being a bad play and when I say bad play I don’t mean to turnover or fumble just just a maybe it’s an incompletion that he throws the ball away where he should have had a completion and I think not I think I know that Joe Brady and staff will be working on that just to get Josh playing with a little more refined sense of timing and Rhythm and by the way that will prolong his career as well because then he won’t be leaving the pocket as much and and you know you never want to take away his ability to make special plays so it is a balance it’s not an easy thing to do but it’s something they will be working on yeah it’s it’s just it’s so much fun to watch him make those plays that I think a lot of football fans just casually get caught up in the moment where he goes you know where I think bman Jones at ESPN or or formerly at ESPN has called him Dennis the Menace he just goes full Menace mode out there and he’s because he’s bigger faster stronger he can still have some of that you know bleep it Wyoming to to his game that allows him to be that physically overwhelming still in the NFL but you know trying to continue to refine those skill sets as as you’ve articulated there um is the thing that Joe Brady is going to have to uh work to accomplish Joe Brady’s career as a coordinator is interesting I know he would what a phenomenon he was as a college coach coming out of LSU and it didn’t quite go the way he probably anticipated in his first job if I remember the Carolina Panther in the NFL but uh getting the opportunity to work with a quarterback like Josh Allen is going to be uh great for both coaching quick point if I could before he went to um LSU where obviously they had burrow they had Jefferson they had Chase um they had Edwards hair I mean they had a lot of talent obviously he was with the New Orleans Saints for I think two years prior to LSU so when I talk about the timing and Rhythm he was exposed obviously in a detailed way to the Shawn Payton offense which is solely based on timing and Rhythm so you know don’t forget you know what every coordinator wants to do when they call a a pass play they want the quarterback to be able to throw to the primary receiver now that doesn’t always happen obviously we know that but that’s what you’re trying to do because that then allows him to play with in timing and Rhythm now there are many things that go into the having that happen and we we’re not going to go into all those details now but that’s what you’re trying to do no one wants the quarterback to drop back and feel like okay what am I looking at now I got to go no no no they wanted to go to the primary now the really great quarterbacks and I was actually speaking today with a quarterback who played in the league who visited me we were watching tape today um who’s not in the league right now but played in the league and you know he was talking about the fact that the really great quarterbacks you want to get to the point where you pretty much know what you’re getting before the ball snaap now again doesn’t happen all the time but that’s what you’re trying to get your quarterback to well I to to that point will Evis was actually talking about that the other day I know I think you were on that same show on 3hl when they had him in studio for about an hour uh he had given an answer about how it’s it’s almost it’s almost not too easy but basically that the answers are so defined all you have to do is execute but you you almost overthink it sometimes because the answer is so clear to you right away in the scheme or what they’re trying to accomplish in the scheme you hear offensive coaches talk all the time about answers and one of the things I learned from from a coach who’ been in the league for years and years and years and has coached great quarterbacks is one thing you try to find out with a Young quarterback and Levis is clearly a Young quarterback you know maybe it seems in Tennessee like he’s been around forever now but he’s a Young quarterback with not even a full season of starts under his belt so you as a as a coach as a coordinator as a quarterback coach you want to find out out how he can get to the answers you can provide answers in the meeting room on the iPad but once the game starts you have to have a feeling of hey can he find the answers and not every quarterback can do that to the same level Buck to the same degree so you have to find out how comfortable you are with your quarterback finding the answers on his own uh it is inexperienced uh young still at 25 Greg but word because uh he is an older player I think he’s older than Trevor Lawrence honestly ironic enough after the the transfers from Penn State but either way with the bills in particular the skill positions uh have obviously changed there in uh in Buffalo with Stefan Diggs being traded to the Houston Texans he comes to the AFC South which is one of the more fascinating transactions we talked about earlier this off season Curtis Samuel uh who is a a proven wide receiver the former Washington Commander Keon Coleman who they draft in the second round this year who’s got a big personality we’ll find out what he is uh as a pro here in not too far uh in the not too distant future and then khil Shakur I believe is how I pronounced the last name the uh former fifth round pick at as their wide receiver court now obviously Dalton con Kate is very heavily involved in that offense Greg um but the the collection of of skill talent that they had versus what they’ll be working with now is one of the bigger questions I think anywhere in the NFL offseason yeah it’ll be different um and it’ll be an interesting mix between lining up in in 11 personnel with three wide and they’re obviously counting on Coleman to be a meaningful Factor you know we have no idea Target volume or number of catches but clearly be a meaningful factor in their past game Samuel you can move him around chakir you can move him around those are two guys that have uh location versatility within an offense um you know but I think that also on a lineup in 12 Personnel can Kade is obviously a really good receiver I would expect more from him again not speaking about Target share um but they still have Dawson Knox who’s a solid tight end as well so there’ll be an interesting mix between 11 personnel and 12 Personnel um James Cook is a perfect back for their offense because even though he’ll probably get around 200 carries give or take um They Don’t Really he’s not a primary back in in the sense that let’s say Derrick Henry was a feature Foundation so cook works really well there because clearly the foundation of the off is Jos Allen so cook fits that really really well um they did draft and I’m sure you’re familiar with Ray Davis who started at Vandy and ended up I believe at uh Florida was it uh no Kentucky no Kentucky excuse me he had the big game against Florida right he ended against Kentucky I was thinking about when I was watching his tape he had that 200 plus yard game against Florida and Davis is is he’s more of a grind than James Cook so he kind of fits the mold if you want have a back that can get those sustaining hard yards inside not that cook can’t run inside but that’s not really who he is um so it really depends a lot on the wide receivers um the old line um there’ll be one change because they lost MIT Mitch Morris uh but for the most part the o line is is together uh on the defensive side of things Bobby babit is the coordinator there over this particular defense and of course Shawn mcder is the I believe he’s still calling plays defensively I guess we’ll find out you know but clearly it’s Sean’s defense yeah and and that was the case uh last year as well where just injuries uh wrecked them at various points throughout the course of the Season Greg and they still managed to put together a cohesive unit which speaks to not just the the players but the uh the ability the job that the coaching staff did as well they also turn over a fair amount of parts and pieces on this defense though Von Miller is still there I I guess let’s talk about the defense that McDermot runs first and foremost before we talk about the the parts that they’ll try to operate it with yeah they play a lot out of two shell split safety coverage um you know that’s that’s kind of the way Shawn likes to play it whether it’s some form of quarters for across or some combination of quarters and cover two they do play a lot of cover two um they predominantly rely on a four-man pass rush you know uh it’s not as if they do not Blitz clearly they do but they’re more of a fourman pass rush team a lot of their pressures uh come from what we call Sim pressure meaning it’s still a fourman rush but they’ll drop a d lineman out and add in either a linebacker or a defensive back as they as the fourth rusher they’ll get Matt Milano back from the injury last year he’s one of the three or four most complete linebackers in the NFL so that’s a big return turn for them uh I think the question they have maybe it’s not a question but you know they still have rul Douglas who’s going to play one corner they have Bedford who’s probably going to play the other Corner um I’m really curious to see if Kier elim who did come from Florida and was their first round pick in 2022 who’s got traits out the window has never really become a player yet but this might be his last chance but he’s got traits um they’ll be a little different at safety um in fact they’ll have two new safeties a lot different at safety yeah um they signed Mike Edwards from Kansas City really solid safety been in the league a number of years another Kentucky player um and Cole Bishop one of my favorite players in the 2024 draft it would not surprise me if he ends up being one of the starting safeties he’s he fits what they want Buck what sea wants in that he can play in the Box he can line up as a kind of an overhang player outside the box he can play on the deep end he can kind of do it all as a safety in terms of his versatility uh the the safety uh discussion Greg just it makes me so interested that that it’s as flush still with free agents I know we didn’t plan to do any kind of free agent discussion today but there’s still a ton of Veteran safety help out there right now and obviously you know we’re in the we’re in the off period the six weeks off period um in the NFL season but I Justin Simmons is still out there I Titans fans are as thirsty for Justin Simmons because they got everything else they wanted on their Christmas but there’s got to be a reason for that which we obviously you know I mean we could name the three or four reasons why we don’t know the specific reason why right I it’s it’s uh it’s like I mean we we can assume and or rather you could assume that it’s got something to do with the financials but that’s not something we have the depending on what he’s asking and that number with each passing day is likely to start coming down you know although maybe he just decided you know what I’m waiting and that’s just the way it’s going to be you know you never know no truly and then a team like the Chargers signs Tony Jefferson to come and play in their defense after a couple years out of football and uh you know the thing just keeps on rolling it’s always interesting to see which is a really fascinating signing obviously they got him I’m sure for the minimum and Justin Simmons is not going to get the minimum but we’ll we’ll find out you know Titans fans I’m sure would love to see Justin Simmons in that uniform but uh maybe there’s something we don’t know uh well I just quickly on Justin Simmons as a player in this defense you know because God knows by the next time we meet there may be a transaction so i’ i’ rather do this preemptively than not Justin Simmons is a fit in a the style of defense that dard Wilson would want to run coming over from the Denver Broncos yeah uh at where he’s been so successful in his career where his ability to capitalize on turnovers is the thing that you hear cited the most but what is he as a player and and what what are his strengths and weaknesses yeah I mean Justin Simmons has been and I can’t sit here and say I studied him in detail the last half of the Season sure so I you know but what he’s been is an interchangeable safety who can play on the back end can play in the Box can match up to tight ends at times I mean he’s been kind of a full service Safety um like I said I don’t know whether teams in studying him in detail far more than I have so I’m just being honest feel that he’s declined um uh I don’t know the answer or or whether it’s a money issue but you know right now we know Amman hooker is a good football player Elijah molden as we speak today is probably the other safety and I think we’d have to say on on you know in late June before training camp starts that that is you know to be nice of work in progress we don’t know how that’s going to play out so you know you would think that if if um Justin Simmons still has in the minds of the people who really study him in Greater detail than I still can play at a reasonably high level that someone would want to sign him U and I’m sure he’ll end up playing somewhere and we have no idea what that’ll be you know again someone could get hurt too so but it’s a question I think for the Titans right now uh molden and safety I liked molden when he came out of school um he played Safety he played slot corner he won’t play slot corner here obviously that’ll be mccy but um it’s a question yeah absolutely absolutely well uh we’ll continue talking about AFC East teams when we meet next Wednesday Greg I think the since we’re doing the TMZ element of it let’s do a little New York Jets and talk about the uh the the system and the player and how much the player is the system based on how things went in New York last year it’s always kind of the way when you have veteran quarterbacks who are super I remember somebody a coach who know really well who’ been in the league forever telling me about Payton Manning when he was you know after he was pton Manning had been in the league you know 12 years he said if you go in as a new offensive coordinator you’re running pton Manning’s offense that’s absolute by the way as it should be in Cas of Manning and probably Aaron Rogers right right always good to catch up with you Greg and look forward uh to talking shop again next week thanks B appreciate it
Greg Cosell of NFL Films joined Buck Reising to talk about Will Levis, how his career is currently going, and how it compares to the career Josh Allen has had to this point
