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Will Levis, Josh Whyle end Titans' minicamp practice with pretty connection

Will Levis
  Will Levis

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The final play of the Titans' rookie minicamp practice perfectly encapsulated such a session.

To hear the players involved and Mike Vrabel tell it, Will Levis, the team’s new hope at quarterback, connected with the new 6-foot-7 tight end, Josh Whyle, who rose among a closing crowd to pluck it and pull it down.

“I’m just trying to do all the right things, be in the right spots at the right times and try to make the quarterback look good,” Whyle said. “That’s all I can ask for. Just show great effort. 

How was the ball placement? [Unlocked]

“It was pretty darn good, I’d say,” Whyle continued. “It was pretty cool, he came down and celebrated with me.”

Said Levis of the play: “Yeah it was good, anytime you can end practice on a completion, better yet on a well-placed ball with a guy like Josh who it’s been awesome to get to know, a fellow draft pick, to just go up there and grab it, it feels good. And I always want to end on a completion."

Now the defenders in coverage are all long shots to make this team or any team. There was not a draft pick among them. And that’s how rookie minicamps unfold, particularly one where a team fields a crew of new players with all the draft selections coming offense.

Levis was a second-round choice out of the SEC and Whyle is five inches taller than the tallest listed undrafted free agent defensive back the Titans brought in – Boise State safety Tyreque Jones. (Eight of the 21 tryout players are defensive backs; the Titans didn’t list heights and weights for them.)

Vrabel was pleased with the finish of the play, but not necessarily all of its components.

“The result was good,” he said. And there were a lot of great decisions. Which we ask our quarterback to be able to do. But that may not end as well with some other players when the veterans come in OTAs. Again, it was great by Josh to be able to go. I think we’ll just tell Will that We’ve got to be careful when we throw it into a team meeting. But it was a great job by Josh being able to track it and ultimately end up with the catch.”

And that’s just the kind of thing three days of rookie-only work produces.

Only the team’s stretch and position periods were filmable. The two players and the coach willingly discussed the play, however.

Levis certainly looks the part and showed nice footwork and field awareness in the open periods.

The guys he's working with are taking to him for sure.

"Will's been great, obviously we've connected so far," Peter Skoronski said. "Will works real hard and he's real prepared. So I'm really impressed with him."

Levis' grandfather was Skornski's dad's defensive line coach when he played at Yale, so the Titans' top two draft picks brought a cool family bond with them to Nashville.

Vrabel said his patience for how things unfold for this minicamp and with rookies has expanded in his time as the Titans coach.

"Maybe it's just having done it a few years," he said, laughing. "I explain to them, the lineman is going to go the wrong way and he's going to run into somebody and we're going to be running to the right and you're going to go to the left. We're going to fumble a snap. We're going to drop a pass. The coverage is going to be screwed up.

"Those are things that when I wake up in the morning for rookie minicamp, I know they are going to happen, just like they are happening at 31 other rookie minicamps."

Other things of note from Saturday afternoon:

 

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