Will Levis has a new NFL home. The Jets are signing the former Titans quarterback to their practice squad and releasing Bailey Zappe to make room, per multiple reports Tuesday.
Read that again, because the placement is the story. Not the 53-man roster. The practice squad.
How Far the Fall Has Been
Three and a half years ago, Tennessee traded up to take Levis with the 33rd pick in the 2023 draft, the first selection of the second round, and handed him the keys to the franchise’s future. He had the arm, the build, and the tape that made scouts talk themselves into a ceiling.
It never came together. Levis went 5-16 as Tennessee’s starter across 2023 and 2024, undone primarily by turnovers, then missed all of last season after shoulder surgery. The Titans moved on from the quarterback-of-the-future plan when they took Cam Ward first overall in 2025, and they waived Levis before this season started.
He worked out for the Jets before Week 1. New York passed then. It took a few more weeks and a rough stretch of football for the team to circle back.
Why the Jets, and Why Now
New York’s depth chart has Geno Smith starting and Cade Klubnik behind him on the active roster. Levis slots in as the emergency arm, the guy who runs scout team and stays ready in case something goes wrong.
That is not an insult. Practice squad quarterback is a real job, and two teams this week are starting backups after losing starters inside the same 48-hour window. Depth at the position stopped being a luxury a long time ago.
For the Jets specifically, the logic is straightforward. Smith is carrying the offense, Klubnik is young, and there was no experienced insurance behind them. Levis has 25 NFL starts. Whatever you think of how those starts went, he has stood in an NFL huddle and taken NFL snaps, which is more than most available options can say.
The Honest Assessment
This is a good landing spot for Levis and a low-risk move for New York, and neither side should pretend it is more than that.
Levis gets to rebuild in a quarterback room with no pressure on him, coming off a lost year and shoulder surgery. He is still only 27. Quarterbacks with his physical tools get more chances than quarterbacks without them, and a clean year of practice reps in a functional organization is exactly the reset his career needed.
But the path back to starting is narrow. He would need an injury to open the door, then would need to play markedly better than he ever did in Tennessee. The turnovers that sank him there were not a scheme problem or a supporting cast problem. They were a decision-making problem, and those do not fix themselves on a practice squad.
Still, he is employed, he is healthy, and he is in a building that just gave him a reason to show up. For a player whose career looked finished a month ago, that is a start.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.