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NASHVILLE, Tenn. –** The Titans kicked off their voluntary minicamp on Tuesday, and coach Mike Vrabel said he liked what he saw.
The team is scheduled to practice again on Wednesday.
"There were some things that could always be better," Vrabel said Wednesday morning. "There were too many balls on the ground, but I think for the most part it was good. They knew what to do, and they were excited. The guys I thought hustled. We're never going to be perfect – that's the thing I tried to explain to them. Football is not a perfect game – it is a game that is played by grown men, big men that move fast and things aren't going to look like the pictures a lot of time that we put on the board."
Vrabel, hired by the team in January to replace Mike Mularkey, said he watched all the team's OTAs and minicamp from last year. He didn't get into comparing what practices might look like under his regime compared to previously.
"We played music, and we tried to hustle," Vrabel said. "But I didn't try to compare to what they did last year.
"What we have to do is we just have to come out and get better. We have to focus on things to get better every day. We have to find ways to get our system in. I think the guys can learn it, but when they get out there and they are against another defense and moving bodies, this is the first time they have been able to practice the plays that they've been studying for two weeks.
"We are going to continue to do that, and practice is going to change every day based on what the team needs."
Vrabel said the team is working on a limited set of plays on both sides of the football during the first few days of the minicamp. Vrabel said he spent a lot of time with the team's linebackers on Tuesday, but he plans to spend time with all the position groups.
His plan is to keep the team improving throughout the offseason.
"Our job is to teach, develop and inspire," Vrabel said. "I told the coaches since I hired them. Our job is to teach the players so they know what to do. Be creative about it, have other ways to make sure they learn what they are supposed to do. Develop them, do drills with them, talk to them what the areas of focus are – make them better.
"And then inspire them enough that they have confidence and trust to do their job."
Later on Wednesday, Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota and a handful of other players are scheduled to talk to reporters at Saint Thomas Sports Park.
Vrabel said the quarterbacks – Mariota, Blaine Gabbert, Alex Tanney and Tyler Ferguson -- are "a good group, a tight group" and they've worked well together this offseason.
"I think just with Day One, I think he is trying to concentrate on getting the play call, the new verbiage," Vrabel said of Mariota. "I think that is what you deal with as it relates to a new system. We ran this play, but we called it this. That happens a lot... You have to train them to understand the new language, the new verbiage."
Titans players take the field for Wednesday's minicamp at Saint Thomas Sports Park. (Photos: Donn Jones, Gary Glenn)
