NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans and rookie quarterback Marcus Mariota wrapped up minicamp and the offseason Thursday, and the No. 2 overall pick got unsurprisingly solid reviews for his work.
"I think he progressed every day," coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "It's a credit to him and the way he works and Coach [Mark] Helfrich at Oregon really did a nice job in preparing him.
"I thought he did a great job from where here started. He did a great job the first day he came out here. But I think he's more comfortable. It's obvious when he's comfortable, he plays a little faster."
Whisenhunt said the protection part of the offense was a big challenge and Mariota's come a long way in understanding it.
"He's probably further along at this point than we thought he would be, maybe," Whisenhunt said. "I don't know if I had expectations of what that was going to be. I think there is good reason to be really excited about him."
Tennessee's No. 3 quarterback, Charlie Whitehurst, has had a front seat for nine OTAs and three minicamp practices with Mariota working as the starter.
"It's kind of funny; the way I look at it is, the offseason is over and, I don't mean this in the wrong way, I didn't see tons of progress," Whitehurst said. "It's just like he came in here and he looked like he'd been doing it for a couple years already.
"There was never anything that I saw where it was like, 'Well that needs to be worked on.' He was pretty damn good at everything when he got here, and he's better now. I don't want to get ahead of it, who knows what's going to happen. I think he's going to be a heck of a player."
Whitehurst had no specific advice to offer Mariota as he heads into time off until the Titans report to camp on July 30.
"If I was going to say, 'Hey, here's one thing that you need to work on when you go home,' not that it's my job, I'm not sure that I could think of one thing. Just keep going, keep doing what you're doing. And I certainly like what I see."