The Tennessee Titans have waived quarterback Will Levis, bringing an end to his disastrous three seasons with the National Football League franchise.
NFL insider Ian Rapoport first reported the news on Sunday that Levis had been cut from the roster. Rapoport revealed that the Titans had been trying to trade the 27-year-old for some time. With no apparent interest from other teams, the two sides decided to move on.
The quarterback is the most important position in American football, responsible for leading the offense and passing the ball. The Tennessee Titans, based in Nashville, compete in the American Football Conference South division. They drafted Levis expecting him to become a long term leader for the franchise.
Levis first hit the headlines at the 2023 NFL Draft, the annual event where professional teams select eligible college players. He was widely tipped to be the number one overall pick. However, he slipped down the draft boards and was eventually selected by the Titans at number 33.
Levis began the 2023 season as the third-string quarterback for the Titans. He was named the starter in November of that year following an injury to veteran Ryan Tannehill.
He was the starter again for the 2024 season, with Mason Rudolph backing him up. However, he struggled on the field and finished the season with a 2-10 record.
Following that record, the Titans selected Cam Ward first overall in the 2025 Draft. A few months later, it was announced that Levis would undergo surgery on his shoulder.
The serious shoulder injury ruled Levis out for the entirety of the 2025 campaign. He is now back healthy and was fighting for a roster spot in training camp.
With Ward firmly established as the starter in Tennessee, Levis was trying to prove himself worthy of the backup role. He was competing ahead of recently signed free agent Mitchell Trubisky, but was ultimately waived on Sunday.
Tumultuous time off the field
Off the field, it has been equally tumultuous for the 27-year-old quarterback. Back in May 2024, an intimate video of him and his then-girlfriend Gia Duddy was leaked online, in which she performed a sex act on him.
In a bizarre twist, it was his mother who later revealed more details about the circumstances surrounding the hack and the subsequent leak. Beth Levis spoke out about the situation during an interview on the Ross Tucker Football Podcast in May of this year.
Beth Levis detailed the phone call she received from the quarterback when he first realized what had happened. She explained how she immediately knew something was wrong.
"You just know your kids and you know the tenor of their voice and the feel, even though they're thousands of miles away," she said in the interview. "As soon as he started talking my heart immediately sank."
"I was in the car, I ended up pulling over," she continued. "I come to find out my son had found out there was a very intimate video of he and his ex-girlfriend that had gone viral all over the social media outlets."
"And the first words out of Will's mouth were 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so sorry Mom'. It just broke my heart."
Hacking investigation details
Beth Levis noted the severe emotional toll the leak took on her son. She emphasized that the footage was never intended for anyone else to see.
"It really hurt Will because he knew this was going to be something that probably a lot of people would see and it's not meant for anybody else's eyes, other than perhaps he and his girlfriend," she said.
Levis and Duddy split in September 2023. Following their split, she had noticed people questioning if one of them had leaked the footage to upset the other. Beth Levis also used the interview to shoot down those online rumors.
"There was conjecture that this video was leaked on purpose by my son or his girlfriend at the time which was not the case at all," she stated.
Instead, Beth Levis revealed that her son spent a huge sum of money trying to find out how the video ended up in the wrong hands back in May 2024.
"Will actually ended up engaging in hiring a cyber security specialist and private investigator, spent an exorbitant amount of money to try and get to the bottom of this," she said. "It's amazing you can even do this, it's crazy these people are even available."
Those investigators discovered that Levis had been hacked by criminals thousands of miles away. The private laptop he used during his college years had been compromised.
"Ultimately, a lot of the content was taken down but you know, you can never scrape anything entirely off the internet," Beth Levis added. "We did find out this content was stolen and his private laptop, or whatever, was actually breached and invaded a year or two earlier when he was in college."
The investigation concluded that an international group was responsible for stealing the intimate footage.
"We come to find out it was an eastern European hacking group who target an attractive couple and do what they do for attention," she said. "We came to terms with that, it wasn't something malicious from somebody else."
