In a world where every prospect draws up some far-fetched and insurmountable comparison to a superstar professional, Kentucky quarterback Will Levis may become one of the few to actually achieve what experts proclaim.

The former Wildcat finished a very up-and-down collegiate career that very well resembles Buffalo Bills superstar Josh Allen’s time at Wyoming before lighting up the NFL.

Levis shows much of the same arm talent, throwing velocity, toughness, athleticism and, more importantly, poor decision making. Allen’s one true weakness coming out of the NCAA was his frequency of throwing interceptions and Levis told much of the same story: he knew that he was a playmaker and tried forcing entirely too many passes into tight coverage that receivers at a fairly average collegiate team could not haul in. On top of that, Levis’ offensive line did not give him much assistance and far too often he scrambled for his life. 

With that being said, these excuses for Levis’ subpar play are now overused and inane. The 6’3” QB constantly forced passes into double coverage, missed easy throws and fumbled incredibly frequently. While Kentucky’s offense lacked many playmakers during Levis’ time as a cat (aside from breakout freshman Barion Brown and now-Giants wideout Wan’Dale Robinson), he rarely threw the ball deep and did not often display his arm strength that teams have raved about. In fact, Levis was at his best throwing short passes to players like Robinson and Brown and letting their elusiveness create more yardage. 

What made Allen standout as a prospect was his constant use of his supercharged right arm and that allowed for not only his success to increase, but his team’s success as a whole. Levis, on the other hand, completed his final year at Kentucky with just a 7-6 record. 

A lot of what Will Levis does as a quarterback is impressive, as he obtains all of the physical attributes to become elite in the NFL, but a lot of his traits are worrisome. He is bad with pressure, fails to put together complete drives and at times his head seems to be in a completely different place. There is no world in which I genuinely see Levis as worthy of a top 10 selection in this year’s draft. He possesses lots of upside and is yet to tap into his entire potential but, as of now, his mistakes were too common and too costworthy for him to be worth this high of a draft choice with Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud also on the draft board. 

Currently, Levis is too highly rated by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. and other analysts that see him as an early first rounder. As a late first round choice or mid-second rounder, I would be ecstatic to take Levis and attempt to develop him, but for a soon to be 24 year-old with mediocre decision-making ability, it makes zero sense for a team to take Levis as high as he is projected. A phenomenal athlete and prospect on paper does not always pan out, and the depths of film studies show that this could very well be the case for the former Kentucky Wildcat.