NASHVILLE – He made a ridiculous one-handed catch.
His legs look like they belong to a lineman, but his feet don’t.
He recently worked out with Jerry Rice.
He was the last guy on the field after practice Saturday.
He is not confined to the slot, he’s learning everything, and of that process so far, Titans rookie receiver A.J. Brown said: “It’s a learning curve of course, it’s a different level, but it’s not too bad.”
If these days – this four months and change of NFL morsel scrounging between the draft and actual football – meant anything, we’d be looking at a perennial All-Pro receiver in Nashville. And by “mean anything,” I mean to all who follow Titans football. The three-day rookie mini-camp that concludes Sunday and offered a tiny glimpse to media Saturday means a ton to Mike Vrabel and his coaching staff.
It’s guys in the building, it’s guys on the practice field, it’s playbooks, it’s informal interactions and it’s deeper impressions than are possible during the draft process.
“You start to become comfortable with them and you start to see what their personality is,” Vrabel said, citing the “canned answers” from prospects that all teams try to shake like a receiver against a pressing corner (often by employing weird questions) as they plot their selections.
This is the time for some “true personality,” Vrabel said, and so much work. And they’ve been getting it in this weekend and Vrabel has a scratch on the nose to prove it. Good for them.
And for us? Aside from getting to ask Vrabel and various players more questions about Vrabel “mixing it up” with the players, even though we’ve seen it a thousand times by now and should be used to it?
Well, there isn’t much to go on yet. A few minutes of viewing Saturday, stretching and individual drills. No sign of No. 1 pick Jeffery Simmons, who’s in the middle of ACL rehab. Vrabel giving outside linebacker and fifth-round pick D’Andre Walker some hands-on guidance (don’t worry, every camera in the joint got that footage).
We did get to see new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith at work, and he was active and vocal – Brown pegged him as “really detailed,” and third-round offensive guard Nate Davis used the word “awesome.” It was fun to see legendary Middle Tennessee State quarterback Brent Stockstill throwing passes out there in a minicamp that also included Josh Smith and LaDarius Wiley of Vanderbilt and Quart’e Sapp of Tennessee.
But if I have to take anything out of this, it has to be Brown. Like Simmons, SEC football fans have seen plenty of him over the past couple of seasons, so it’s no surprise Brown would stand out on a field filled mostly with undrafted guys. He had 160 catches for 2,572 yards and 17 touchdowns in his last two seasons at Ole Miss. He’s a ripped 6-foot and 226 pounds.
Still, that body, those feet, those hands – watch him go and it’s easy to consider the possibilities in an offense that needs more of them. It’s also too easy to fall in love with the way players look against air, and to project the shiny new toy to replace the functional-yet-unspectacular holdovers (in this case, Taywan Taylor and Tajae Sharpe).
Corey Davis and free-agent slot man Adam Humphries are the surest things at wide receiver. It’s going to be interesting after that. And it’s a little bit interesting that Brown – a beastly slot receiver in college who can’t help but be compared with Jarvis Landry – is not carrying that label with the Titans.
“We want him to learn as much as possible,” Vrabel said, and as he talked about Brown and the other rookies, the sound of Brown fighting through pads in a press-coverage drill could be heard (credit WKRN-TV’s Emily Proud with noticing Brown was the last guy on the field and asking about it).
“Those are good problems to have,” Vrabel said.
And this is really as far as anyone can reasonably go on Brown in May: He looks and sounds the part. Have a clean fork ready for the next distribution of morsels – organized team activities – in a couple of weeks.
