Plenty of Will Levis praise in ESPN's 2023 NFL Draft Preview

College football is here and NFL is just around the corner. In turn, ESPN’s panel of football gurus just dropped a fresh wave of 2023 NFL Draft content. As you might expect given the offseason buzz, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis‘ name is mentioned early and often.

Levis made the top five of the quarterback prospect rankings, top three according to most writers. Mel Kiper had Levis fifth on his list of quarterbacks behind Bryce Young (Alabama), CJ Stroud (Ohio State), Tyler Van Dyke (Miami), and Anthony Richardson (Florida). Todd McShay, Jordan Reid, and Matt Miller all had Levis third behind Young and Stroud. Although Levis has become a trendy top ten pick in mock drafts, he did not crack the consensus top ten overall prospect rankings.

In a separate article, the group shared more thoughts on the 2023 NFL Draft quarterback class. McShay said that Young and Stroud are a step above the rest of the quarterback prospects, but Levis could reach that level if he develops more touch this season. Miller disagreed, putting Levis with the top three.

“I don’t think so,” Miller said of whether there’s a clear QB1 in the draft class. “You could argue Stroud has the best combination of size, arm strength and production based on last year’s tape, but Young is an amazing distributor of the ball, and Levis makes throws that drop your jaw. Stroud is my top-ranked quarterback today, but it’s a very close race, and no one is a clear-cut QB1 favorite.”

Miller kept beating the drum for Levis, naming him his guy to watch throughout the process.

“Taking a quarterback seems both risky and safe at the same time, but that perfectly summarizes Levis as a prospect. His arm strength is the best in the class, he has good pocket mobility, and he produced in the Kentucky scheme last year with arrows pointing up on his development. He just needs to cut down on the 13 interceptions from last year. Levis is an exciting prospect, and I’ve already heard Matthew Stafford comparisons for him.”

Stoops on how Levis has improved since last season

In his first season at Kentucky after transferring from Penn State, Levis threw for 2,826 yards and 24 touchdowns, while rushing for nine more. He completed 66.0% of his passes to finish with an overall passer rating of 148.3. What work has he done to take his game to the next level this season?

“I think just the little things,” Mark Stoops said on the SEC Teleconference this week. “His footwork, the timing, working with Coach Rich [Scangarello] and just his approach. A guy that’s coached quarterbacks at the highest level for a long time has quite a bit to add to help Will. And Will’s a sponge. Will’s very critical of himself, works extremely hard and wants to be better, wants to be perfect. He’s really just one of those guys that’s wired the right way. He’s constantly working at a high level and constantly trying to better and competing with himself, so every little thing he does on the practice field, he’s doing it with the purpose to get better so we’ll see how that translates to the field.”

Scangarello recently shared how much fun he’s had coaching Levis since taking the offensive coordinator position in February.

“We’ve had so many pro scouts come through and I know a lot of guys in the league, to talk to them, they all want to know about Will. I will say this again, I don’t know that I’ve had more fun coaching than I’ve had the last couple of months that I can remember being here. This environment, the players, the whole setup the coaches created and I’m really, really, really enjoying coaching Will. He’s going to have the chance to do something pretty cool this year.”

Only one day until we get to finally see him on the field again.