Tennessee’s primary goal heading into the 2024 season was to figure out if Will Levis could play. On that front, mission accomplished. After watching him go 2-10 as a starter, with 12 interceptions, 6 lost fumbles and 41 sacks, they can’t reasonably hope for him to be a viable starter in 2025.
The Titans will need something better. Whether that’s through the draft, free agency or trade, we’ll see. But at best for Levis, he’ll be competing against somebody the team will be expecting will beat him out.
For fantasy purposes, Levis got me wondering just how often (if ever) a quarterback goes from being about the worst in the league to something of value. While it doesn’t happen often, it’s happened with a few more quarterbacks than I was expecting.
Below see the list of the least productive quarterbacks from the last 25 years. On this one, I looked only at quarterbacks who started at least half the season, then calculated their per-game production using standard fantasy story.
Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield with the least productive per-game quarterbacks in the 2020 and 2022 seasons, but they combined for 76 touchdowns last year, leading other teams into the playoffs.
Nick Foles in the 2015 season threw only 7 TDs in 11 starts for the Rams. He bounced back to win a Super Bowl with the Eagles.
And while Kyle Orton averaged only 125 passing yards as a rookie starter with the Bears, he went on to be a primary starter with a winning record for three different teams. While he was never a fantasy player of note, that’s a credible enough NFL career.
Time will tell if Levis is able to turn things around. He same is true for Kenny Pickett and Zach Wilson (who averaged the worst overall numbers in 2021 and 2023). Probably not, but let’s not write them off entirely just yet.
| LEAST PRODUCTIVE QUARTERBACKS BY YEAR | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | St | Pass/G | TDP | Int | Run | TDR | Pts/G |
| 2000 | Doug Pederson, Cle. | 9 | 115.9 | 2 | 8 | 7.6 | 0 | 7.4 |
| 2001 | Jim Miller, Chi. | 13 | 161.2 | 11 | 9 | -1.3 | 0 | 11.3 |
| 2002 | Chad Hutchinson, Dall. | 9 | 172.8 | 7 | 8 | 8.2 | 0 | 12.6 |
| 2003 | Rick Mirer, Oak. | 8 | 142.8 | 3 | 3 | 10.4 | 1 | 10.4 |
| 2004 | Mark Brunell, Was. | 9 | 132.7 | 7 | 6 | 6.9 | 0 | 10.7 |
| 2005 | • Kyle Orton, Chi. | 15 | 124.6 | 9 | 13 | 2.9 | 0 | 8.9 |
| 2006 | Aaron Brooks, N.O. | 8 | 138.1 | 3 | 8 | 15.5 | 0 | 10.0 |
| 2007 | Trent Edwards, Buff. | 9 | 170.3 | 7 | 7 | 5.4 | 0 | 12.2 |
| 2008 | Marc Bulger, St.L. | 15 | 181.3 | 11 | 13 | 2.7 | 0 | 12.3 |
| 2009 | JaMarcus Russell, Oak. | 9 | 118.2 | 2 | 9 | 4.3 | 0 | 7.2 |
| 2010 | Jimmy Clausen, Car. | 10 | 149.9 | 3 | 8 | 5.7 | 0 | 9.3 |
| 2011 | Blaine Gabbert, Jac. | 14 | 154.4 | 12 | 11 | 6.9 | 0 | 11.8 |
| 2012 | Brady Quinn, K.C. | 8 | 126.8 | 2 | 8 | 7.4 | 0 | 8.1 |
| 2013 | Kellen Clemens, St.L. | 9 | 183.8 | 8 | 7 | 7.1 | 0 | 13.7 |
| 2014 | Drew Stanton, Ariz. | 8 | 203.3 | 6 | 5 | 7.5 | 0 | 14.2 |
| 2015 | • Nick Foles, St.L. | 11 | 186.5 | 7 | 10 | 1.8 | 1 | 12.8 |
| 2016 | Cody Kessler, Clev. | 8 | 171.1 | 6 | 2 | 2.3 | 0 | 12.0 |
| 2017 | Mitchell Trubisky, Chi. | 12 | 182.8 | 7 | 7 | 20.7 | 2 | 14.7 |
| 2018 | Josh Rosen, Ariz. | 13 | 172.5 | 11 | 13 | 9.7 | 0 | 13.1 |
| 2019 | Case Keenum, Was. | 8 | 193.6 | 10 | 5 | 1.5 | 0 | 14.8 |
| 2020 | • Sam Darnold, NYJ | 12 | 184.0 | 9 | 11 | 18.1 | 2 | 15.2 |
| 2021 | Zach Wilson, NYJ | 13 | 179.5 | 9 | 11 | 14.2 | 4 | 15.2 |
| 2022 | • Baker Mayfield, LAR | 10 | 177.8 | 7 | 8 | 7.9 | 1 | 13.1 |
| 2023 | Kenny Pickett, Pitt. | 12 | 172.5 | 6 | 4 | 4.5 | 1 | 11.6 |
| 2024 | Will Levis, Ten. | 12 | 174.3 | 13 | 12 | 15.3 | 0 | 14.7 |
—Ian Allan