It's On to the Next Phase of the Preseason

Friday marked the official end of training camp, but not the end of the training camp mindset.

Things have come this far.

Friday officially marked the final day of training camp and in just over two weeks, the Tennessee Titans open the regular season on the road against the Denver Broncos.

That, however, does not mean much to head coach Mike Vrabel right now. While the team will begin to run on a regular season schedule next week, it will not start preparing for the Broncos just yet. Instead, evaluation and improvement will remain central to the proceedings.

“We’ve got to focus on us and focus on the mistakes that are going to cost us critical yards or critical points in a game,” Vrabel said during a video press conference Friday. “My focus, and I hope that our team’s focus, is on improving our football team and not getting ready for Denver.”

The NFL Draft and free agency, for the most part, were virtual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. OTAs and minicamps were held via Zoom or other forms of technology. Players had to get creative to get workouts done. Some bought home gym equipment or had adequate setups already; others traveled to workout with personal trainers or teammates.

When training camp commenced in late July, players arrived at facilities that had been completely reconfigured to ensure social distancing. COVID-19 testing and other precautions were at first more important than anything football related. There were no preseason games this summer.

On top of it all, increasing racial tension has been front and center. It all started in May when George Floyd, an African American man, died while in police custody in Minnesota.

Conversations regarding change, equality and justice have become more intense recently following the shooting of Jacob Blake, who was parazlyzed after being shot in the back seven times by a Kenosha, Wisc. police officer.

The Titans -- and other professional teams -- took even more action this time. Tennessee canceled practice Thursday to hold discussions about current events. Later that day, safety Kevin Byard and quarterback Ryan Tannehill delivered a strong message on behalf of the team. Safety Kenny Vrabel followed that by expressing his own thoughts.

However, when the Titans do start to prepare for Denver at some point next week, they will have a lot to look at based off of last year’s 16-0 defeat in the Mile High City. In the shutout loss, the Titans posted a season-low 204 yards of total offense.

Vrabel acknowledged that much earlier this week.

“I would only imagine that the Broncos game plan would pick up where last year's ended and again, Vic (Fangio) [Broncos head coach] is a fantastic coach, fantastic defensive coach,” Vrabel said on Tuesday. “They got great players, great staff. We hadn't scored a point on them in four quarters. So, my best guess is that plan wouldn’t pick up until we were able to actually score.”

As dreadful of an offensive performance as it may have been, that Week 6 game proved to be a turning point for the Titans. Ryan Tannehill took over for Marcus Mariota at quarterback midway through the game and did not look back. From that week on, the Titans put up more than 300 yards of total offense eight times while winning seven of their final 10 regular season games en route to a deep playoff run, which ended in the AFC Championship game.

While Tannehill said that he has taken a few early peaks at the Broncos, his focus too is on improving the Titans and helping the offense evolve as a unit.

“We were able to I guess, (Monday). It gave us a little extra time to get in the film room and take some time to look at those guys,” Tannehill said on Tuesday. “But on a day-to-day basis right now we're just focused on ourselves, and how do we improve, how do we get better individually and as a group. When the time comes, we'll really buckle down and start to focus on the Broncos.

Beginning Sunday, daily schedules will be set the same as they will during the regular season. The Titans, though, still will have a training camp mindset.

“We’ve got a lot of things that we have to get corrected and fixed,” Vrabel said. “We can maybe hopefully have that conversation at some point next week.”